Just When Does the Plastiq Masterpass Promo End?

This should probably be a #veryshortblogpost. Posting here pushes it directly to anyone who subscribes by email but doesn’t check twitter 24/7. The time sensitive nature of this post is mainly why I’m breaking with Milenomics’ #veryshortblogpost tradition. 

Update  9/21: They fixed this, and stuck to the deadline of 9/30.  Was fun while it lasted wasn’t it?


Arguably the deal of the summer, the Plastiq/Masterpass fee free liquidation method is drawing near to a close.  We’ve batted the 9/30 end date around here on this blog, and I’ve seen it elsewhere.  Today’s quick post is to analyze just when the promo actually ends.

Plastiq’s Words and Actions Don’t Align

This page has the most recent terms and conditions I can find for this promo, they are as follows:

Emphasis mine.

This seems clear cut enough–Schedule the payment between June 1 and September 30th, and make sure it is delivered by September 30th.  The delivery of a check payment takes 9 days on Plastiq.  Nine, excruciatingly long, and nowhere near necessary days.  What this means is that if the terms and Conditions above are to be believed the last day to schedule a payment and make sure it lands by 9/30 would be 9/21.   This would mean the promo actually ‘ends’ for check payments in a week and a half, and electronic payments would be the only way to pay past 9/21. (H/T Joe)

I’ve read the above 9/21 date from some blogs recently, stating the 9/30 delivery date which the Terms and Conditions above seem to say. I tested this out and found this deadline not to be true. (at least for now)

Testing This Out

To test this out I made some scheduled payments, first on 10/1, which showed no fee. I then jumped around a bit, finally landing on 10/9 as the last zero fee day:

 

This would correspond with the earliest date a payment processed on 9/30 could be delivered. This also is not what the T&C say.

Just to be sure here’s a payment landing 10/10, and the fee being added:

So it seems like the promo has been coded to end on 9/30 with the buffer of 9 days for payments sent 9/30 for delivery on 10/9.  That’s good news if true.

Who Cares?

Probably not many people, but I know I do. Because of the lead time in buying MCGC from giftcards.com if the last day really was 9/23 I’d be coming close to the end of this promo in the next few days. Adding an extra 9 days means I can get a few more orders in right under the wire.  I can also schedule some CC payments up to the last day of the month (Helpful, as Robert says for hitting Minimum spend on new Mastercard credit cards).

I can’t say for sure that Plastiq won’t fix this in the next few weeks and stick to the deadline of delivery by 9/30. But given the above, for now at least, I’m confident enough to continue purchasing cards through the end of the month.

Update  9/21: They fixed this, and stuck to the deadline of 9/30. Electronic payments should still work at this point.

 

 

About the author

- Written by Sam Simon. All ideas are my own, but I encourage you to see my point of view and I promise I'll try to do the same. Connect with me on Twitter @Milenomics.

Comments

  1. But how do you liquidate these MCs? One only has so many mortgage/rent/utilities bills. I heard that Plastiq really scrutinize checks sent to individuals or small companies that are not in their database.

    1. I can’t give you a blanket answer…but that scrutiny seems to be relaxed during this promo.(or overstated in general). I’ve had very good results with creative billers.

      It’s a little close to the deadline to be trying creative billers without a backup liquidation method though.

  2. This has been a great promotion. I wish I would have realized a few things early on and I would have taken even more advantage of it. I paid my property taxes, 7 payments and when I checked today, all of them went through. I’ve been primarily using this promo to pay my mortgage. What I didn’t realize was the money was just being deposited into my bank account and not going directly to my mortgage. I had to manually transfer the money. Very helpful for liquidating MC gift cards from the last OM depot.

    1. Ding Ding ding! I love it. This is the kind of trial and error that you cannot read about–you have to get out there and do it, and sometimes you stumble on the next golden goose. I’m going to take a wild guess that your Mortgage is from a Credit Union? I too am working a CU, and I believe many others are as well.

      There is a LOT of FUD (Fear, uncertainty and Doubt) out there about many, many successful strategies. When you hear someone claim something is impossible–there’s just as good a chance they’re telling you the truth as they’re lying to cover up their precious strategy. This FUD is nothing more than the digital version of hiding gift cards around the store.

      The bonus of this plastiq promo is they are paying for us to test their service for holes. That’s rare, and when it happens we can use this for all sorts of testing; portal payouts, stores who are CC friendly, backup liquidation methods…they’re all fair game when your cost to liquidate is $0.

    2. This is the holy grail! Max out every mastercard and pay it off with the money in your account if it doesn’t have to go to the mortgage.

      1. I tried to schedule with the next regular day (for Sep 20 on Sep 17 for example) but fee showed up. Now I can not even login (with 2-step auth). Guess just me then.

  3. Still working for electronic payments that arrive before 10/1.

    Plastiq: “Don’t bury me while I’m still [barely] alive!”

  4. So now it won’t even allow non-electronic payments that arrive before 9/30? When I try to send a check to IRS to arrive 9/25 it still shows a fee. Hoping they fix this and at least honor it until the stated end date.

    1. Electronic payments should work Elliott. but their terms and conditions seemed to support shutting it off for paper checks today they just seemed to have coded it very sloppily. There’s some chatter that it might come back up so keep an eye on it over the next day or so.

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