I’ve written several times before about how I use Plastiq to generate “free” money by paying my mortgage, along with several different promotions that they have periodically run. Â When I write these types of posts, I often will get comments from people sharing some of their negative experiences and horror stories. Â I was fine with people sharing their experiences but (to that date) had nothing but positive experiences over several months of billpays.
But since I was happy to share the good side of Plastiq, I thought I’d also share some of the challenges I’ve had this month trying to pay one of my mortgages.
Paying my mortgage(s) with Plastiq
I have a couple of rental properties, and I have been using Plastiq to pay the mortgages on a couple of those properties for several months now with no problem. Â I have been using my AT&T Access More card on Plastiq because it gets 3x ThankYou points at many online merchants, including Plastiq.
[How you can still get the AT&T Access More card]
My first AT&T Access More card only had a credit limit of $1000 (sad), so I was not able to (very easily) pay my personal mortgage with it. Â Cincinnati is a cheap place to live, but not THAT cheap! :-). Â I recently product changed one of my other Citi cards to an Access More card so recently started paying one of the other mortgages, which is held by 5/3 bank.
Things have been going just fine for a few months with this payment, until this month, when I got a message saying:
I called Plastiq – they said it was Fifth Third’s fault, and I called Fifth Third and (you’ll never believe this!), they said they had never gotten any such payment. Â They suggested I try it one more time and I did, with the same result. Â What’s strange is that I’ve made this same payment several months previously with the same information without problems. Â So it seems that either Plastiq or 5/3 have changed their systems in some way, with me caught in the middle….
In any case, it’s now March 8th and my March mortgage payment is late.  Thankfully I have a grace period so I won’t get any late fees, but since I’ll have to pay my mortgage from my bank directly, I’ll also be out several thousand ThankYou points! Oh the humanity!  Won’t somebody think of the children!!?!?! 😀
I’ve reached out to Plastiq for a comment and will update if I receive one.
Anyone else experiencing problems with Plastiq payments?
NOTE: All links to Plastiq in this post are referral links.  If you sign up for Plastiq through my link, you will get 200 fee-free dollars to pay and I will get 400.  If you do sign up through my link, I of course appreciate it.  You’re also welcome to sign up through any other user’s link, or just go to Plastiq.com and sign up yourself with no bonus.
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I had a similar problem in December last year. I paid my rent w/ AT&T Access More. It was sent almost 3 weeks before it was due. Plastiq swore they sent it. My building never received. I didn’t think much about it, until it happened the next month in January with my car payment.
It took about two weeks to get a refund check from Citi for the Plastiq charges.
I’m no longer using Plastiq…
“Cincinnati is a cheap place to leave”? That’s not good PR.
LOL! That is supposed to be LIVE (post updated)
Omg…. i started paying my fifththird mortgage in october with plastiq and my att access and more card. October 27 November 27 posted correctly, and I got 3x ty points. December 27th posted as utilities instead of rent and posted, but only got 1x ty point. Jan 27th after plastiq assured me they had fixed the issue, my mortgage posted as utilities again…. not fixed. I emailed Miguel the customer service manager and received another email it was fixed in early February. They suggested a test payment. I made a $10 extra payment with the citi card. It posted as real estate, all looked good, but it got refunded. Then my feb 27th payment posted as real estate and got refunded…. so yes SAME exact thing happened to me. They blamed each other as well. Now i have trace data from plastiq to give to fifth third.
According to Plastiq they have the problem with 5/3 worked out so we’ll see if I bother giving them a try again next month
This is very likely 5th third’s fault. I had set up my rent payment to go from my account at Bank of America to my landlord’s account at the same branch of Bank of America (using their AFT system, not using Plastiq) and the same thing happened. It worked fine for two months, then one went missing. Several days later, they advised me that the account that they had been depositing to could not be found. I couldn’t convince them that it was still there, so I now go in every month to deposit the rent. I sometimes use Plastiq if there is a promotion with either them or on a card, but I have them send the check to my house and I take it into the bank still, so there is no way it can get lost.
Received the same note with regards to a mortgage payment to 5/3 in addition to a late delivery of a check for another property. They returned the money for the first payment automatically however customer service was unhelpful and did nothing to try to remediate the problem. I will not be using the service again.
Three different times I made a payment using Plastiq and all three times the check never arrived. They blamed Canada Post. Very unlikely. Useless company. Very cavalier when I said I wanted to cancel membership as well. “Go ahead, then.” Fine, just did. And shared the story.
The EXACT same thing has happened to me…THREE TIMES… with Plastiq and Bank of America. SO frustrating! And of course Plastiq KEEPS the fee they charged for the payment – yet despite repeated requests for ANY kind of proof that BofA rejected the payment, they cannot or will not send me ANYTHING… I am so far beyond annoyed with them it’s not funny! The second I find an alternative, I will dump Plastiq like yesterday’s news.
They kept your fee? That doesn’t seem right. I used some of my fee-free dollars and they said that they refunded those
Yep…I looked at my credit card statement once the refund finally posted, and the bill pay amount was credited back but NOT the Plastiq fee. So frustrating!
I’ve been interested in using Plastiq to make our mortgage payment also, since it is our largest monthly expenses that could potentially earn a lot of CC points/miles. But these stories incline me to believe Plastiq (and perhaps some financial institutions) is still learning the ropes and a not-ready-for-prime-time player.
Same with 53rd MTG. Posted ok for last couple of months, February was returned. All fees refunded.
I’m new to plastiq…I’m trying to pay my mortgage but it’s been a week and my mortgage company still hasn’t seen the payment. Is there a customer service number to talk to someone that you know of…the number on their sight does not work.
I’ve had good luck using their online chat support