Plastiq Fees Increasing July 1st – Should You Schedule Payments Now?
Some bad news is coming out of Plastiq today, we were informed that Plastiq is increasing their 2.5% fee July 1st. In response to credit card issuers raising their interchange fees Plastiq needs to raise their rates to cover the increase.
What Is Plastiq?
Many of our readers use Plastiq to pay bills with their credit cards that they normally can’t. People use Plastiq to pay their rent, car payments, their mortgage and plenty of other bills. They do it because it makes payments hassle free but more importantly it collects those all important miles & points!
If you have never tried Plastiq you can sign up via our referral link and you get $500 in fee free payments after making your first $500 in payments. Thank you in advance if you decide to use it.
Plastiq Fees Increasing
Here is what Plastiq said in their email (bolding is mine):
I wanted to personally reach out and explain a new price change coming to Plastiq that may affect your customers.
Recently, several major credit card companies announced an upcoming interchange price increase (the cost of processing a credit card), which directly impacts our costs at Plastiq. This third party increase means the fees your customers pay when using Plastiq will move to 2.85%, effective July 1, 2020 for most transactions.
Plastiq has historically absorbed the cost of all interchange increases, and we have kept our fees flat. However, at this time, an increase is necessary. We’re still priced lower than our competitors and your customers will still enjoy the benefits they get from using their credit card to pay you.
We continue to improve Plastiq both for you and your customers. Keep an eye out for new Plastiq features and products that are on the way. I know you have choices when it comes to who you do business with. Thanks for choosing Plastiq. If you have more questions, please feel free to reach out.
Should You Schedule Payments Now?
If you had any plans for using Plastiq to reach some welcome offers or to hit some spending bonuses, like I did, then you may wanna push the payments through now. The cost will be increased $3.50 per thousand dollars in payments. That adds up for people doing $10,000+ payments or making mortgage payments etc. If you can afford to accelerate some of your planned payments then you could save some money.
Final Thoughts
I think 2.5% was kind of my threshold of acceptable cost. Usually the points were worth about that much to me and the spending bonuses or welcome offers would be the gravy on top. But at these prices it is less tempting. I may only use Plastiq when there are promos going forward, but those have been few and far between lately.
Does this increase change your plans with Plastiq? Do you plan on pushing some payments through before the increase? Let me know in the comments.
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Not buying plastiq’s explanation for their raise…. Can this be confirmed? (or refuted)
In any case, plastiq is now dead metal to me. No longer compelling or worth the hassle.
Mark, thanks for sounding the warning. As others have suggested, would be great to see comparative details on alternatives.
I’ll see if we can come up with any cheaper alternatives.
Sadly done with Plastiq.
[…] HT: MtM […]
[…] h/t Miles To Memories […]
2.5% was already pushing the limit…2.85% means Plastiq is out. It’s really hard (outside of a sub) to exceed 2.85 in point values so there is no win here…again, unless you’re trying to meet minimum spend for a bonus.
[…] hasn’t yet been sent out widely to Plastiq users, it was first reported by Milestomemories, and I confirmed it with Plastiq chat. They confirmed that the change will take place across all […]
I’m trying to remember the last time Plastiq offered a nice bonus but it’s been too long to recall. Now this? I can’t answer to their internal financials but this seems harsh.
I think it was Jan or Feb since the last decent offer. Not looking good for sure.
A suggestion for a future article would be a comparison of other reputable ‘competitors’. I’ve been using Plastiq for a few years, and will likely continue with the fee increase because it is convenient and I’m willing to pay the fee for the spend I wouldn’t otherwise be able to complete, but it would be nice to know who else is out there in the space!
been using it for mortgage payment @5k, will probably suck it up.
what other ‘competitors’ are there for mortgage payments.
I’ll put it on the list and see if we can come up with anything that is cheaper.
I wonder if pay1040.com will raise their 1.87% fee for paying taxes. This was the best bang for the buck as far as fees go.
Good point Eric – that would be a hit for sure.