Frugal newbie here who struggles to meet some of the minimum spend requirements for some of the signup bonuses. I know using services such as Plastiq used to be popular to pay mortgages or other high ticket items but with the changes to their program it is largely unusable.

Has anyone ever tried using a Square chip reader and simply becoming the merchant? Swipe your own card for whatever amount you want, pay the 2.75% fee, and have the funds deposited into your own bank account? In theory this seems so much more practical than Plastiq, as you were always wondering if your mortgage company ever actually got their check or not, or got it on time. This would allow you complete control over the process for a nominal processing fee.