abhilife2001

Hello,

I stay in a apartment complex where I can pay the rent by credit / debit card or cheque to the management company.. For credit cards, they charge about 2.5% extra.

I was checking these forums and seems plastiq was another way to send a cheque, but they also charge about 2.5% on credit cards, so I can directly pay thru the management company website online using my credit card as they charge the same fee.

Question is are there alternate (cheaper) ways to pay rent to companies thru credit card without incurring 2.5% or higher as fees.

I am new to this MS stuff and want to get some minimum spends target's reached, so any guidance would be appreciated.
(I am already looking at the MS routing for GC's but need to read more of that for now; ) )

Thanks, A

elegua

I believe Plastiq is running a promotion that if you use MC the fees are 1.5% but you have to schedule your rent payment, chat with them tomorrow and go from there.

Hope this help.

sethweinstein

Does your management company charge the same fee for debit cards? If it's lower, you could buy gift cards and see if the management company will process them as debit cards. Try a small amount first, just to make sure it works.

You could also buy gift cards and use them to buy money orders to send your management company -- read the relevant threads for suggestions of where to do that (such as Wal-Mart and supermarkets).

If you're meeting spend on Chase Ink cards, then it's good to buy your gift cards at Staples or other office-supply stores, obviously, to get quintuple points. Look for special offers -- this week, for instance, Staples has a rebate ($15 Staples gift card) for buying $300 in MasterCard gift cards. The FrequentMiler blog always announces these rebate offers from Staples.

Be wary of buying gift cards to meet spending on American Express cards. However, Plastiq should be fine.

Sometimes Plastiq has a promotion for a fee-free month if you schedule 6 payments, making the effective rate less than 2.5% overall.

Read the relevant threads on these subjects and tread slowly before diving in, just to make sure your plan works. Any MS method can get shut down without warning. Good luck!

Seth

abhilife2001

I just became a member of Plastiq today post reading some threads here.
Want to check out this MS options, since interested to apply for few CC's to get sign on bonus's and for hitting the minimum spending limits exploring possibilities.

Just applied for the IHG Chase card today for 100k points for 2k spends in 3 months and doing my homework on best ways to achieve that asap so can apply for possibly other cards too for this..
If rent is an option, then can easily meet $2k spends every month on living expenses without the GC option (which I surely want to try out too).

Thanks for your note on their promo's and will surely check.

abhilife2001

IIRC Debit cards is about 1%, surely want to check GC's too..
I read that Chase accounts don't like MO;s being deposited.. is this the case even if the amount is only about $500-1000 a month ?
What about US Bank or Keybank ?

sethweinstein

They probably won't specifically allow or disallow gift cards (and I'm not sure it's wise to ask), but if they have a Web site that allows debit cards, very possibly it will allow gift cards as well. It isn't guaranteed that it will, though, or that it won't run them as credit cards (with the higher fee). So try a small amount first.

I'm sure nearly all banks are OK with some MO deposits (I legitimately get paid with them occasionally, and I do deposit them). My suggestion was to use the gift cards at a supermarket (or Wal-Mart) to get money orders for the amount of your rent and send them to your management company. If you're just going to deposit the MOs...then that's not paying your rent with them, and that is covered in other threads.

Seth

BuBu4

One of my tenants that i watch over pays me in MO. They deposit just fine at BOA.

Probably your best and cheapest way pay via credit card although you would need to calculate your time and effort into it. You may need to go multiple times to get the MOs out, you would need to test your location. its super YMMV. I done a few runs and they are all different results.

i havent tried PO MO though. I heard its easier to get MO out of PO than walmart. GOOD LUCK! may the MS gods bless you with their kind hearts!

abhilife2001

Thanks

abhilife2001

I checked with the site management office and they do accept MO's ^
So, now the only question is to get Walmart or Winco or the PO to issue the same by using a gift card.

I have Walmart, Fred Meyer, Safeway, Winco, Staples etc etc all within 2-3 miles of my place so will check this out soon..

sdsearch

Well, most people consider using this kind of stuff just for minimum spends (to satisy credit card signup offers) to not exactly be MS.

And a lot of people find the 2.5% fee much easier to swallow on signup bonus minimum spend than on "true" MS.

Here's the reason: On true MS, it's tricky to get much more than 2.5% in value form your spend. If you're earning cashback at 2%, you're losing money if you have a 2.5% fee. If you're earning cashback at 3%, you're barely just earned net 0.5% with a 2.5% fee.

But if you're spending, for example, $1000 to get a $300 signup bonus, that's the equivalent of 30% cashback. A 2.5% fee on 30% cashback still leaves you with net 27.5% cashback.

And while cashback earning is the easiest to show the math for, earning, say, 60000 airline miles for $3000 in spend is similarly "astronomical" (though temporary) earning ratio, compared to everyday spend which is probably only 3000 miles for $3000 spend. So the same concept holds true, 2.5% of $3000 is $82.50, and if spending an extra $82.50 isn't worth getting 60000 bonus miles (if you couldn't get the bonus miles without that), isn't it worth it? Surely you must be able to get way more than $82.50 value from 60000 airline miles, even at the worst miles redemption rates possible.

There's no "true MS" (ie, day to day MS not involving minimum spend for signup bonuses) that can get anywhere close to the rate of return that minimum spend for signup bonuses does. So that's why wth "true MS" a 2.5% fee can be marginal. But for the minimum spend for a good signup bonus, it should be comparatively negligible, when compared to the value of what you're getting (especially if you couldn't get that signup bonus without doing this).

So do you own math on your own minimum spend and what you get for it, and see whether 2.5% really matters in that case.

And then balance that by the convenience of being able to do it with one of those 2.5% fee solutions, compared to the many steps involved in trying to do it at a lower rate.

abhilife2001

Thanks for the detailed reply sdsearch..
I completely age that the 2.5 % is much easier to digest when its for achieving minimum spends and if push comes to shove, I will do that..
Presently, looking at alternate options as am also new to this..
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Mamibear

OP, since you're new to this it is best for you to be careful about Am3x CCs if you'll apply for them. Suffice it to say, DO NOT buy GCs with those cards to meet your msr if you don't want to get denied the rewards later. They have added it on T&C on some of their cards like SPG that bonus rewards can take up to 12 weeks to post; I will not be surprised if these terms are added on all their cards to give them time to review all purchases made prior to posting bonus rewards. If you know you didn't purchase GCs and followed their terms and they do not give your bonus, you can fight for it via CPFB and likely win.