Plastiq Lowers Limit on Fee-Free Masterpass Transactions

Sign up for a free Plastiq account here

The bill-paying service Plastiq has cut the limit on its fee-free transactions using Masterpass, citing "high demand for our latest promotion."

Late last week, the company began sending out emails to some users announcing the change, which will lower the transaction threshold at which Plastiq will waive its 2.5% fee — from $500 to $250, according to Miles to Memories. A company spokesman confirmed the change on Tuesday.

Here's the full text of the email:

"Due to the high demand for our latest promotion, conducted in partnership with Mastercard, we wanted to give you advance notice of an upcoming update. Starting June 1, 2018, the promotion will apply to any bill or invoice, up to a maximum of $250 each, instead of $500.*

"If you’ve already scheduled payments with this promotion, we will still honor the promotional fee applied to those payments. But please note that editing these scheduled payments will result in a loss of the promotional fee.

"If you haven’t taken advantage of this promotion yet, this is your time to do so! Don’t forget to make sure the payment is delivered by September 30, 2018 to qualify."

The change means a $500 payment made with your travel rewards credit card will incur a $6.25 fee or 2.5% of $250.

On its website, Plastiq said the current promotion would end May 31, 2018. The new promotion is not live, so if you try to schedule a payment after June 1, you may see no discount — as I did. The company said payments scheduled on or after June 1, when the new promotion goes into effect, should see the fee waived on transactions up to $250.

If you signed up via a referral code, you'll see the same fee I was asked to pay. You'll have to make $500 in payments before you're eligible for the fee-free promotion. Plastiq will waive that requirement if you sign up here.

How to Sign Up

If you don't have Masterpass, signing up for the digital wallet is easy. Just visit Masterpass.com and create an account for free, then add your credit cards to the Masterpass account. Finally, log in to your Plastiq account, click on your default card at the top left corner of the page, then click “Add New Card.” Above the card icon, select “More Ways to Add,” which will prompt you to add a card from Masterpass.

Plastiq says the new promotion will be good on payments submitted or scheduled on or after June 1, 2018, and the payment delivery date must be on or before September 30, 2018. Cards must be successfully billed by Plastiq and remain in good standing to qualify for a promotional credit. You can’t transfer the credit, nor may you sell it or barter it.

Photo by Farrel Nobel on Unsplash