I charged a substantial amount to my Platinum Visa Monday (4/17) to get the double mile deal. (I did it online through "official payment" with this card, and by phone with the other intermediary company with an SPG AmEx for miles into that account.) To my surprise, when I spoke with Visa this AM, the amount charged on Monday did not reflect in my balance. Isn't it surprising that two days later a charge like this one, which I presume must be past along quickly by the intermediary to IRS, shouldn't reflect the same day or the next one? I did get email confirmation of the transaction and today checked with the automated system to reconfirm that everything went through, which seems to have happened.

Any insights? Have others followed up to see about their credit card balances following substantial tax payments using their cards? If so, do their accounts reflect the charges? How long could it take for them to show up? I am in no hurry to get the bill, just a bit concerned that all is in order.

So we chose wisely, at least on this score, when we chose to live where we do (DC, MD, MA, etc.), with our returns going to an MA IRS office. And on average, we should get some benefit 2 out of every 7 years. When 4/15 falls on a Sunday, taxes will be due on or before 4/16, and we will get the same benefit of an extra day along with the rest of the nation; when 4/15 falls on a Saturday, the rest of the nation will get an extra 2 days, but we get an extra 3 days.

The MP (UA) Visa takes at least a couple of days. The available credit sinks right away, but the charge takes 2 to 3 days.

Wow!!!

I needed AA miles for a trip I have booked to Australia. I figured I may as well pay my taxes with my Citibank AA card, even with the 2% fee it was cheaper than buying the miles I needed.

I was shocked to see my miles posted today - and they were DOUBLED! And there must have been no limit, because I charged over just $17k, and got over 34k miles total!!


From my AA account:

Date Transaction Description* Mileage Bonus Total
04/19/06 CITI BONUS MILES 0 17,082 17,082
04/19/06 CBAA WORLD MASTERCARD PURCH 17,717 0 17,717

I was after UA miles, but still curious to know the details of your deal with Citibank AA card - you paid 2 (or 1.99?)% fee and got double miles for a net cost of less than 1 cpm? That would be a "Wow!!," and make paying ones taxes a more pleasurable experience.

Yup, I paid the 1.99% by following the link that was posted earlier in this thread. And to think that I was this close to straight-out buying those miles from AA! (I have an F ticket to Australia on two-week hold!)

And now my curiosity about the AA leads me to ask...is it good for the entire year so that one can make quarterly tax payments using it, like with UA's Visa, or is like the SPG AmEx, which was only good through 4/17?

No, you are correct. My 5,125 already posted - I'm still waiting on the 5,000 bonus.

i paid 5K thru SPG amex... nothing yet posted...

I have no idea; I don't recall signing up for any promos, and I don't remember ever reading anything about double-miles when paying the taxes. It came as a complete shock, and I have no idea whether it's going to be repeated for others, or even happen to me again....

I think the offer mentioned that the additional points would post about 6 to 8 weeks after the promotion ended (i.e., after 17 April).

Sometimes they post earlier, but so far they're not tardy.

if the above is true, i would reccomend being discrete with your info... as "mysteriously" they posted they can "mysteriously" vanish...

It should be kept in mind that while we are talking about getting miles for paying our taxes with credit cards, there are 3 or more different credit card promos involved - UA Visa, SPG AmEx, and CitiBankAA. So what is in one particular post may have general or limited applicability where costs, expiration dates, caps, time to post, etc. are concerned. I know that the UA Visa offer is an ongoing one, so still out there for payment of quarterly taxes, while SPG AmEx was supposed to end after 4/17, but don't know about CitiBank deal.

And in a previous post, something was said about the possibility of saving $30 off the "convenience fee." I couldn't find that, only the offer of a discount for electronic filing with TurboTax. Does anyone know the details of discounts on the "convenience fees," since I expect to return this again?

So I used my Starwood AmEx to pay for my taxes, paid them on April 15th. Got the $1,112 base dollars as part of my monthly statement. However, I have not seen the additional 1112 points post to my Starwood account yet. Does this typically take a few weeks to post?

Yes, base points with the next monthly bill; bonus points 1-2 months later.