Pay your New York City rent with your credit card (even if your landlord doesn't accept cards)

It's safe to assume that most New Yorkers' largest monthly expense is rent (and if it's not the largest it's pretty close). But since very few NYC landlords accept credit cards, most renters fork over all that money each month without receiving any sort of rewards, like airline miles or cash back. Enter Plastiq, a San Francisco-based company established in 2012. Plastiq allows any and all renters—whether they're renting from a small, mom-and-pop landlord or a large multi-building management company—to pay rent via American Express, Visa, Mastercard or Discover, and subsequently reap rewards. Plus, there's no landlord approval necessary. You will never have to order bank checks again.

How it works

Plastiq is a payment service that allows customers to pay any bill or invoice with a credit card, even if the business they're paying doesn't accept credit or debit cards. When they say any bill, they really mean it: Rent, broker fees, mortgage, even auto payments, utility bills, and tuition.

"Over the past few years, Plastiq has empowered New Yorkers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars on their cards for life's most important payments. As a 'pay anyone' option, Plastiq customers are able to manage and pay all bills of all types, whether it be rent, taxes, even childcare," says CEO Eliot Buchanan.

If Plastiq has a pre-existing relationship with the business you're paying, which it has with thousands of companies (and 300 private clubs), an electronic payment transfer between you and the company takes within 2-3 business days. If the company doesn't have a relationship with Plastiq (as many landlords won't), the company will simply mail a check instead. Once a payment is submitted, it will be processed and sent to your recipient. Standard delivery timing for checks and electronic transfers apply. Added perk: You can view status updates at any time in your account dashboard and will be notified once the payment is accounted for.

So how much does all this cost? You pay only a 2.5% Plastiq fee for credit cards, and 1% for debit cards.

Note: If you're paying your rent, you don't need to check whether your landlord will accept it, because it's just like receiving a check directly from you, it just happens to come from Plastiq. 

You can also enter multiple credit cards into the "card drawer" in Plastiq and choose to pay different bills with different cards.

Why you'll like it

Aside from allowing you to rack up credit card rewards on all your payments (including the beast of a payment—rent), Plastiq makes the whole process of paying bills convenient. It's all done automatically and electronically without your having to order or write any checks at all. 

You can also set up recurring payments for bills you pay every month (and avoid forgetting to pay them, too!) and, as mentioned, track when the check or payment will arrive. You can manage your transactions through Plastiq.com or use the Plastiq app, which has a cool feature: You can simply take a photo of the bill, and Plastiq handles the rest. There's no maximum payment amount you can make through Plastiq, either, which is good when you're paying sky-high NYC rents.

Also, here's something you'll really appreciate: Plastiq is currently running a limited-time promotion for New Yorkers. If you schedule six months of rent, they'll pay the Plastiq fee for one month's rent.

Plastiq is a payments service that gives you the freedom to pay any bill or invoice (including rent) with a credit card--even bills from businesses that don't accept credit cards. You simply pay Plastiq via credit card, and Plastiq issues a check or a bank transfer to the business you owe. It's that simple.