With manufactured spending becoming tougher these days, Plastiq offers a great way to generate miles and points on some of our biggest expenses: Rent, mortgage payments, and pretty much everything else. If you’re a business owner with large expenses that you can’t put on a credit card, you’ll like Plastiq’s latest promotion: Sign up for Plastiq as a business owner and earn 5,000 fee-free dollars after making your first payment of $15,000.
Once you’ve signed up, you can start referring other business owners and earn 20,000 Fee-Free Dollars when they make $15,000 worth of payments. There is one caveat: Business owners must add a business credit card to their Plastiq account. This can be any business card – Chase Ink Preferred, Amex Business Platinum, etc.
What are Fee-Free Dollars?
The one caveat to using Plastiq for payments is that they charge a 2.5% credit card processing fee. That adds up to $375 on a $15,000 payment. That’s where Fee-Free Dollars come in. They’re essentially referral credits you can apply towards payment fees.
For example, if you earn 20,000 FFD’s for referring a business owner, it means you can make $20,000 worth of payments completely fee-free. For a lot of you, that translates to a year of free rent or mortgage payments.
IMPORTANT: When you’re finalizing your payment, make sure you click on the “Apply FFD’s” link or the Fee-Free Dollars will not be applied.
Meeting Credit Card Spending Requirements With Plastiq
Earlier this year I picked up an American Express Business Platinum Card for my dad. The spending requirement? $25,000. Normally, I would take care of this easily with a couple of trips to my local mall. However, American Express has been known to claw back sign-up bonuses achieved via manufactured spending.
If I was going to earn that sign-up bonus, I would have to do it completely legitimately. The first $10,000 weren’t that challenging since I contributed to several Kickfurther co-ops and had some expenses related to our trip to Turkey (i.e. shopping, travel, daily living expenses, etc.).
Luckily, I was working on a mobile app project at work and our vendor needed to be paid. When I saw that $14,000 invoice, the lightbulb went off immediately. I asked my boss if I could pay it through Plastiq and she was fine with it as long as our Finance department approved it.
I ran it past them and they signed off after making it clear I would be responsible for any fees. After checking my dad’s spending power to ensure the $14,000 charge would go through, I completed the payment with Plastiq. The reimbursement check came in about a week later and an otherwise daunting spending requirement was easily completed.
Which Credit Card Should You Charge Plastiq Payments to?
When you’re making payments with Plastiq, it’s important to keep some restrictions in mind. For starters, mortgage and rent payments can only be made with a Discover or MasterCard. Most of the time, I use my Citi Prestige or AAdvantage cards for these payments.
I’ve gotten tons of value transferring my ThankYou points to Lifemiles, though there are several other great options. As for American miles, I can always put those points to good use.
If you’re a business owner looking to earn miles on expenses you can’t directly charge to a credit card, Plastiq is worth looking into. Sign-up with my referral link and you’ll get 5,000 FFD’s, while I’ll earn 20,000 if you make a payment of $15,000 or more.
Have you used Plastiq for business before? What kind of expenses are you paying that you wouldn’t normally earn miles on?
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I have not. Thanks for the info.
Amex can’t be used for business invoices on Plastiq. So, huh?
Also, the title is a little misleading in that the 20k ffds are for you, not the reader.
you can get them too
Ariana is known for her click-bait titles to increase readership. Yes, agree that 20k FFD is misleading and clearly just another way to get more Plastiq referrals.
Glad to hear you’re a loyal reader despite the click-bait titles. 😉 And those 20k FFD’s are for anyone who refers a business owner. Since most of my readers are existing account holders, they can benefit from this – not just me.
It can, if you classify it right. The 20k offer is for any existing account holder who refers a business owner. I think that applies to most of my readers.
You have to sign up with a business card, but does your first payment need to be sent with a business card? Can I use a personal card once I sign up?
No, you don’t have to pay with the business card. Just make sure you have one saved to your profile before you make a payment with the personal card.
This is just your typical Plastiq “spam” post anytime you run out of FFDs so you can shill your referral link. There is absolutely no valuable content and many of us have already received these promos.
Can payments on Plastiq be made with Visa or Mastercard Gift cards? Or do they have to be bank-issued credit cards?
Used your link, ran into a problem. E-mailed you about it.
Hi Ariana-
Is great to see you blogging again, I agree that while there’s new nuisances with Walmart now requiring id for MO over 1000 and restricting the max purchase per day to 8000, there’s still other alternatives out there.
I wonder if you might be able to convince your go to Walmart to sell you 8K in 4 transactions since they are already collecting your information anyway, if I have some time this weekend I will explore that possibility with my local walmarts in the midwest.
Regards
Joe
My store is still capping purchases to $10k, which is nice. They’re also good with multiple transactions, as long as we don’t skip the SSN/ID part. HUGE hassle, but I don’t mind doing it once a week.
Bunch of unimaginative people. It’s a wonder any of you have figured out even the basics of ms.
1) Jane Doe opens a Plastiq account
2) Jane Doe is so thrilled with Plastiq, she refers Jane Doe, Inc to do the same
3) Jane Doe, Inc. does 10k of spend at the 2.5% CC fee + 5k of spend at 0% fee using the 5k FFD SUB
4) Jane Doe now has 20k FFD credit and pays $20k of RS with 0% CC fee
Net result – Jane Doe and her friend Jane Doe, Inc do a combined 35k of spend for $250 in fees, or $7.15/k. Not a fantastic deal – but it’s 35k of RS at about the typical cost of MS – and no slumming required
From a newbie, JeffeVerde, your self refer explanation is brilliant! Thank you. I need to channel or develop your type of imagination, lol
Ariana – what are the time limits for –
— the referal to do their initial 15k of spend (to trigger the referer’s bonus)
— the referer to use their 20k FFD’s
Try asking people who aren’t “unimaginative.”
Yes, I was being lazy and asking what I could have looked up myself. But my “unimaginative” comment wasn’t a knock against you. It was for the people who seem to think that this plastiq referral would only benefit you. Thus the explanation of how someone can “self-refer”
Lol! Fair enough.
Thanks for sharing. My referral link for earning fee-free dollars.
https://try.plastiq.com/1133005
Referral code: 1133005
To earn your FFD bonus apply my referral code inside your Plastiq account.
Referral Code: 1305701
Enjoy!