Plastiq Mastercard Mortgage Promotion
Payment service Plastiq is holding a new promotion that may be of interest to some. While it isn’t as good as RadPad’s free rent scheme, perhaps it is a bit more sustainable.
The Offer
Schedule at least 6 rent or mortgage payments with your MasterCard, by September 30, and lock in a 1.75% rate on those payments.
How It Works
1. Schedule 6 or more payments, as far into the future as you’d like.
2. Make sure those payments are for rent or mortgage.
3. Use your MasterCard.
4. Do it before September 30, 2016, 11:59 p.m. PT.
Analysis
The normal fee is 2%, so this isn’t a huge discount, but it might be just enough incentive to get me to switch my mortgage payments over. According to a few sources, the average mortgage in the U.S. is anywhere from $900-$1500 per month. Using a number in the middle, we can look at the profit over a year with a card like the Barclaycard Arrival Plus which earns an effective cashback rate of about 2.10%.
- $1,200 X 12 months = $14,400
- Total fees @ 1.75% = $252
- Total cashback @~2.10% = $302.40
- Total profit = $50.40
As you can see this isn’t going to change your life, but if you already have a Mastercard like the Arrival Plus, then spending a couple of minutes to setup the payments will probably make sense.
Update:Â I’m not sure how I forgot this, but the AT&T Access More card is also known to code as 3X with Plastiq. That would be an even better deal than the Arrival Plus. Thanks to Aaron for reminding me in the comments.
Get $200 Fee Free Dollars
Plastiq has a referral program for all members. If you sign-up with someone’s referral link you get $200 fee-free dollars for payments. Here is my referral link if you are new to Plastiq.
Conclusion
For me, this promotion will make it worth moving over my mortgage payments to Plastiq considering I already have the Arrival Plus card and can earn a few extra bucks towards free travel. No, this isn’t free rent, but then again there is no such thing anymore.
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[…] Make A Few Bucks By Paying Your Mortgage with Plastiq’s New Promo! […]
Factoring in the AF and breakage and I wouldn’t recommend the Arrival+ over the Citi DC card. Obviously can be YMMV depending on your circumstances. The ATT card could change things especially if you need 10k spend.
All in all though, this is the exact type of deal I DON’T go after. There’s just too much room for error and potential time vacuum for the profit gained just isn’t there. I’ve read enough to know that people have had issues with payments being processed on time. Even if it’s a low chance it’s still too big a risk for $50ish. Unless you can swap out the payment method throughout the next year (to meet minimum spend on various cc) then this is a strong pass for me.
I’d advise anyone with a mortgage with PMI/Impound account to be aware that most lenders require 24+ months of flawless payment history to be considered for removal. When I had a payment sent to Wells Fargo from an “unknown source” it ended up going towards principal. I had to go back-and-forth via email to get it applied to the next months payment and not principal.
Good points. This isn’t for everyone, but it is a deal that some will do well with. The Arrival Plus is an interesting card given its sign-up bonus and that it is generally churnable. Certainly as an everyday card, paying the annual fee doesn’t make sense.
Ah, good point on the min spend with the Arrival+… come to think of it, I’ll be 6 months come September 3rd. Might be time for me to try again. 🙂
Would this work for a home equity line of credit?
I think it would considering you would classify the payment as mortgage, but I would check with Plastiq.
I used your referral link but it shows $0 for fee-free dollars
Sorry J. It requires you to make at least a $20 payment before you receive the fee-free dollars.
Don’t forget about the Citi Double Cash card.
So you’re essentially getting a 0.25% return plus 30 day float on capital. Hmm, not sure I’m ready to bite – would consider if rate drops closer to 1.5%, but I’m guessing that won’t happen any time soon.
I got in on the 1.5% for my prestige last year but its coming to an end with my fee coming due.
Hi Shawn – I think the normal fee is 2.5% not 2.0%.
Officially it is 2.5% across the board but they have only been charging 2% on Mastercard payments I believe.
How many future mortgage payments can we schedule with this 1.75% fee?
It says as far out as you want. I haven’t had a chance to see how far out I can go, but you can do quite a few.
It can only be as far out as your card is good for. Plastiq won’t let you schedule a payment for after your card’s expiry date. And when you change your card, the fee reverts to the normal fee.
Thanks!
Using the Access More card gets you 3X TYPs on Plastiq/Radpad, so I’ve been making a handy return with these promotions!
Good point. I knew that but it slipped my mind when writing this post. Even better than the Arrival for sure!
I was just looking at this but was going to use my Prestige card but i dont think the value adds outweighs the fees at 1.75%. I forgot about my Arrival+, time to separate it from the argyle socks.
Plus you get 1 month+ of float. Any good mastercard signup bonuses out there? I already have the Prestige.