Just as a test run, I went all the way to the final "process payment" screen on payusatax.com with a debit card. On the second to the last screen, I got a message that said: "Your card is eligible for processing as an ATM/debit transaction. If you would like to process your payment as a ATM/debit transaction, press the continue button. If you would like to process your payment as a debit card, press the process as debit card button."

I tried both, and there was no apparent difference in how it handled the transaction -- although I didn't do the final step. In neither case was I asked for a PIN.

The transaction posted to my SunTrust checking account as follows:

CHECK CARD PURCHASE US TREASURY TAX PA 615-730-6367 MD

Therefore, it should definitely qualify to earn Delta miles. I will know for sure in early May, when my April mileage posts to my SkyMiles account.

Thanks for the follow up. Please keep us posted.

It Worked!
 

As I expected, the SunTrust SkyMiles debit card counted as a purchase and I have an additional 41K miles in my account for the low, low price of just $3.89:

04 May 2010 Non Air Activity SunTrust SkyMiles Platinum Card - Purchases (posted on 04May2010) 41018 0 41018

Why anyone would use a credit card to pay taxes and earn miles when a debit card is so much cheaper is beyond me.

Any monkey business and you will make yourself look suspect.

Your Suntrust Delta debit card allows you to pay $41K tax in one single transaction? Don't most debit cards have a maximum daily purchase limit like a few K?

DCBob & PatMike, perhaps we should lock / close this thread or make it more inscrutable, lest it go the way of Mint coins, Amex Tc and Citi Savings Accounts.

Yes, indeed.

Lastly Suntrust is a Visa Card. PayUSAtax has had problems using my BA visa. How did you get it to work, did you try online? or did you use officialpayments.com?

The SunTrust SkyMiles Platinum Visa debit card has a daily limit of $35K. I went through the supervisory chain at the bank to get a temporary increase to $42K to allow me to pay my taxes on April 15.

PayUSAtax won't accept Visa credit cards online, but it DOES accept Visa debit cards online.

Although PayUSAtax online does not accept Visa credit card, it works over the phone. Someone posted the phone number in this thread. I paid with my Schwab CC and it worked.

I paid with the schwab CC as well by phone and it worked. Now just waiting on the 2% to post to my investor balance.

Has anyone with a Citibank debit card figured out a way to pay taxes to get TYP? Seems that Citis cards are MasterCard only - and these sites require a Visa branded card for debit at the flat fee. They accept the number but then ask you to confirm it's credit. No way round it. Unless someone here has found a way?

Chase CO MasterCard debit worked with payusatax, but no miles
 

Today, I paid $400 of US federal estimated income tax with my Chase Continental non-preferred personal debit MasterCard via payusatax for just the $3.89 flat fee, but the transaction posted to my account without the "CA*" code that indicates earnings of Continetnal Airline OnePass miles. So, I probably won't get any miles for it. [Edit 8/24/2010: A ray of hope! A test retail transaction also did not show "CA*" while "Pending." Maybe "CA*" is only added after the transaction is no longer pending. Stay tuned.] [Edit 8/26/2010: It again looks like I will not get the miles. The transactions are no longer "pending" and the tax payment is not maked "CA*" while the test retail transaction after it is.]

The other debit payment processors mentioned in http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=101316,00.html apparently do not support debit MasterCard except as a credit card for the credit card fee. I suspect that payusatax's support is related to their announcement in April 2010 of some degree of MasterCard support (see http://pul.se/payUSAtax-Now-Accepts-...u,bxY1fELlJ18E ).

The rest of this message is probably only of interest to people who want to test other debit cards or attempt to duplicate DCBob's success with SunTrust/Delta (messages 51 and 64).

For anyone who wants to test other debit cards, when you fill out the "Payment Information" screen with your debit card number and click "Continue, you will be prompted with three buttons, "Back", "Process as Debit Card" and "Continue". Do not click "Process as Debit Card" (although your browser back button will bring you back here if you make this mistake), but instead click "Continue" again, and it will show you the $3.89 price.

When I did that, the next screen only showed the Star, NYCE and Pulse logos. I would be interested in hearing from anyone attepmting to reproduce DCBob's success in getting Delta miles this way with his SunTrust debit card what logos they see on this page, just on the off chance that the choice of debit network is related to why DCBob scored miles from this technique. By the way, for anyone considering trying to duplicate DCBob's success, it looks like Suntrust is having some kind of double miles promotion for their Delta debit cards (new customers only?) until the end of the month (see https://www.suntrust.com/portal/serv...heck_card/1905 ).

For anyone considering contributing to this research by trying other debit cards, here are a few notes. BofA explicitly disqualifies tax payments from earning rewards in the descriptions of their USAir and Alaska debit cards. Before getting involced with perkstreet.com for their claimed 2% cash back visa debit card please read the warnings by user AV at http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com...-2-cash-offer/ . Finally, be aware that the Chase RealCash debit card does not award any cash back for purcahses outside of their selected categories. I believe I have also read at least one report of Citi denying points for some cash-like but non-PIN debit card purchase on the grounds that it was not "signature-based." Other debit rewards cards I know of are: Wells Fargo (have to pay $12/year, for which you earn 0.25%), Chase Ultimate Rewards (0.8% cash capped at $300 a year, but remaining points can be used for other rewards), and Chase Debit United Mileage Plus debit card.

I don't know if any other cards are worth testing at this point, but if you're planning to pay your taxes by debit card using one of the flat fee services for whatever reason, I am sure it would be useful to hear about your results, if for no other reason that to scratch other cards off of the list.

Bummer. Thanks for posting. I did a test run last quarter of $500 on my CO preferred chase debit and I got miles. I was planning to do a big payment on the card for Q3, but it sounds from your experience that they have closed the loophole. I still might try it -- I have to pay my taxes anyway and $4 is worth a shot.

Apparently no miles for Chase CO debit tax payment
 

My $400 payusatax federal estimated income tax payment from my Chase Continental non-preferred personal debit MasterCard, for which payusatax charged me the $3.89 debit/ATM card fee, is no longer listed as "pending" in my Chase online banking activity report. The transaction description lacks the the "CA*" prefix that normally indicates a transaction will earn Continental Airlines miles, even though a retail purchase that I made after that got the "CA*" prefix. So, it again looks like my tax payment will not earn miles.

To avoid giving false hope to anyone who only reads this thread partially, I have also edited the above information into my original message #75.