Payments Company Plastiq Files For Bankruptcy

by Gary Leff

Many frequent flyers use Plastiq to pay bills with a credit card, they charge the card (and you earn miles) and they pay electronically or via check. Their fees have increased in recent years and are now up to 2.9%, but some find it worthwhile for paying things like mortgages and car payments that can’t otherwise be charged – especially when earning an initial bonus for a new credit card, or earning high spend bonuses and credit towards elite status.

I first covered them in 2015. They’ve been around for about 8 years. The company announced plans to go public via SPAC last year, but the deal terminated in March. They faced a brief interruption in service when Silicon Valley Bank failed. Now they’ve filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.

  • They expect to run a sale process and have a stalking horse bidder in Nasdaq-listed commercial payments company Priority Technoogy Holdings.

  • Current secured lenders are reportedly prepared to put up $7.1 million in debtor-in-possession financing.

This is not a liquidation, and if all goes according to filings in day one proceedings there shouldn’t be an interruption in service. However their business model hasn’t worked, it seems, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see changes.

If you’re a Plastiq user it would be a good idea to monitor this, and be aware of outstanding payments in your queue. If they do make changes to the service you’ll need to adjust – at a minimum to ensure bills are paid properly on time.

(HT: Paul H)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Pingbacks

  1. […] Plastiq has filed for bankruptcy and already has a vulture company that’s agreed to scoop up its assets, pending court approval. The payment processor was once a great arrow in the manufactured spender’s quiver, but the company’s unstated mission was to perfect the art of a slow death spiral and they succeeded spectacularly. Their bankruptcy shouldn’t be surprising ay after they failed their merger with the Colonnade SPAC which caused the SPAC to die too.Plastiq wasn’t without utility even as recently as this week, but maybe that’s changed. Personally I’m not going to send any further payments through the platform, but you’re all adults; do what’s best for you. (Thanks to VFTW) […]

Comments

  1. Who could’ve predicted that focusing on large on profitable payments without the small side payments(where the profits are) and the user base that will likely not will be unprofitable?! Hope the founders had a nice ride with all that Vc money

  2. Not looking good.
    So how do we meet spending bonus numbers now ?
    Those have gotten larger as well.

  4. They can be used for mortgage payments with the 2.9% fee. I used them for a few mortgage payments at the end of the year and it helped me get Platinum Pro.

  7. I figured something was up when they stopped taking Amex payments after promoting it so strongly. We have been paying the company health benefits through the card, made a payment about a week ago.

  9. Check out Melio – They do the same thing, but better, and aren’t going anywhere.

  10. Not being able to use Amex was bad enough but I stopped using them when I had a legit problem with a transaction and their customer service was the worse I had seen in a long time.

  11. Plastiq was annoying & confusing as they kept changing their rules on what constituted proper tender & what they charged for fees. Done with them 3 yrs ago!

Comments are closed.