Before going any further, we can confirm that this is a legitimate service recognized by the government. We’ve used it several times, and the Canada Revenue Agency lists this service on its website as a service provider that offers credit card payment for taxes.
As an individual, you can pay many suppliers by credit card, via Plastiq.com:
However, you cannot pay your credit card balances via Plastiq or send cheques to yourself or relatives (except in exchange for services).
As a business or professional, you can pay vendors or suppliers, even your contractors!
On Plastiq, you’ll find an English-language table summarizing the credit and charge cards that can be used with different suppliers, in both Canada and the U.S.!
At the end of this article, you’ll find the list of experienced suppliers validated by the members of the milesopedia Facebook group on this dedicated topic!
Of course, it’s not a miraculous service: there are fees for every transaction made on Plastiq.com. However, it is the Canada Revenue Agency’s lowest-cost credit card payment provider.
These fees are:
Let us remind you that the objective here is to keep you out of debt!
Don’t pay taxes with your credit card if you can’t pay off the balance. The interest accrued on your credit card will be far greater than the interest you could earn by making a payment arrangement with the Canada Revenue Agency or any other beneficiary!
Here’s a step-by-step guide to paying the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) via Plastiq. You’ll see that Plastiq is accepted as a payment method by the CRA.
First of all, you’ll need to add the CRA as a beneficiary, if you use your profile. It is also possible to pay without creating a file with Plastiq and pay ARC.
Then check the information carefully. You can see that payments to the CRA are made by EFT (electronic funds transfer). Your CRA file will be updated within 2-3 business days of receiving payment from Plastiq.
You are now ready to make your payment to the CRA. As the ARC is already registered with Plastiq, you will be asked to fill in a number of fields (including the type of taxes you will be paying). You indicate on the calendar the date you want the payment to arrive at the CRA. Plastiq then automatically calculates the payment date for you.
You’ll be asked for other details, such as your SIN (which allows us to issue your payment to your CRA account) and your tax date.
Finally Plastiq will show you a summary before payment.
There you go! By clicking on the confirmation, your payment to the CRA is gone. We’ll keep you informed by e-mail of our progress. You will also be able to view it in the Plastiq management interface.
In our opinion, it is advantageous to use the Plastiq.com service under 3 conditions.
However, few cards offer more than a 2% return on your spend. Here, the charge is 2.49%.
That’s why you’ll need to have in your wallet one of the cards offering a 2% discount on all your expenses, or even more. Or a card whose points provide a sufficient return like the one shown below.
Many cards offer generous welcome bonuses (notably the National Bank World Elite Mastercard and Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite), provided you have made a minimum expenditure over a period of several months.
In some cases, the amount to spend can be several thousand dollars!
In this case, it may be worthwhile to use the Plastiq.com service. In this case, it’s worth the cost to avoid losing the opportunity to earn thousands of points!
Are you a few hundred or thousands of points short for your next trip or on your Aeroplan account? Plastiq.com could be the solution to your problem.
Instead of buying gift cards for different businesses, you could, for example, pay your electricity, municipal taxes or income taxes in advance.
The milesopedia community, on the facebook group “milesopedia – Credit Cards and Rewards”, has validated the use of these suppliers via Plastiq(discussion topic here).
Please note that Plastiq purchases charged to a BMO card do not earn rewards points.
For example, the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard allows you to charge a single card. However, this expense will not count as an eligible expense for a welcome offer or earn BMO Rewards points.
Plastiq is a handy service that allows you to unlock welcome bonuses and earn points for payments you’ve made by cheque or via your bank account!
Just a reminder: don’t use this service if you can’t pay off your credit card balance! The interest charged (16 to 30%) far outweighs any rewards you might have earned!
The first thing to do is to check if your city accepts credit card payments. Some do. Alternatively, you can use a third party such as PLASTIQ or PAYSIMPLY, who will accept your credit card payment and forward the amount to the recipient by cheque or electronic transfer.
However, since there is a fee for this service, Milesopedia recommends using this strategy to unlock the bonus on a new credit card.
Savings are here (if you don’t see the sign-up form, please click here):
