Plastiq has been one of the most valuable tools for people trying to maximize their credit card rewards. But some people don’t even realize that there are additional ways to maximize their rewards by avoiding transaction fees. This article will show you how to make Plastiq payments for free and discuss some prior offers that have allowed for reduced fees using things like Masterpass.

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What is Plastiq?

At its core, Plastiq is a website that allows you to pay bills with your credit card that you normally would not be able to pay with a credit card. It works by charging your credit card and then issuing checks to recipients that you need to make payments to.

This allows you to use your credit card to make payments to all sort of different recipients for bills which include:

• Auto Leases
• Auto Purchase
• Business Services
• Club Fees
• Mortgage
• Contractors
• Employees
• Freelancers
• Insurance
• Legal Services
• Rent/ Lease
• Tuition
• Taxes
• Utilities

As you can imagine, this opens up all sorts of opportunities to earn more rewards via sign-up bonuses and credit card spend. It’s definitely a life-saver when you have to hit high minimum spend requirements. However, for each payment, you’ll have to pay a 2.5% transaction fee. That is unless you can utilize referral credits.

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How do you make Plastiq payments for free?

You can make Plastiq payments for free by utilizing referral credits and you can reduce the fees by taking advantage of special offers.

Referral credits

If you refer others to Plastiq, they will reward you and the person you referred with Fee-Free Dollars (FFD). FFDs are what allow you to make payments without paying any kind of transaction fee.

For every FFD that you have, that means that you can make a payment for that amount without incurring a transaction fee. So, for example, if you have $1,000 FFDs, that means that you can make a payment for $1,000 without paying a transaction fee but as soon as you make a payment above $1,000, you’ll have to a fee on that payment.

If you sign-up using a referral link, you’ll start off with $500 FFD after you make $500 in payments. And when someone uses your referral code at signup, you earn $1,000 FFDs when they make payments totaling $500. 

So for each successful referral that you get that makes a $500 payment, it’s like getting $25 worth of free payment fees which can start to add up quickly, especially when you factor in the credit card points you’re earning as a result of those payments.

Hot to earn the referral credits

To start earning referral credits, you’ll first need to register for an account which you can do at my referral link here. 

After signing in, click the person icon in the top right-hand corner of the page and then click Rewards & Referrals.

When you click Refer Friends, Pay Less Fees you will be able to copy your personal referral code or share with via email or social media. Your referral code will be a six digit number and then you’ll just add that code to the end of the universal referral domain for Plastiq.

For example, if your code is 316753, then your referral link is try.plastiq.com/316753

Special Plastiq offers

Every now and again, Plastiq offers special opportunities to make payments without any transaction fees. For example, in May of 2018, Plastiq allowed its users to make payments with no transaction fees by using Masterpass, a digital wallet offered by Mastercard. They ended up lowering the waived transaction limits from $500 to $250, so it wasn’t the most lucrative opportunity but still a say to save a few bucks with very little effort.

They’ve also offered lower transaction fees from 2.5% to 2% for certain payments, like new members making mortgage/rent payments. And another promotion during 2017 offered came with a a 1.75% promotional fee on “business services payments” made with a MasterCard.

So as you can tell, these aren’t extremely lucrative offers but are like more offers to entice people to give Plastiq a try. Still, it’s always nice to save a few bucks with minimal effort and it’s a good idea to keep an eye out for these special offers.

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Final word

If you have a few family members or friends who you think could use Plastiq, it’s a good idea to pass on your referral links to them so that everyone can benefit. Being able to wipe out that transaction fee makes it very easy to earn more rewards and meet minimum spend requirements, especially for large purchases.

You can drop your referral links in the comments below if you’d like.