As a follow up to my post, Plastiq and the Manufactured Spend Nightmare Scenario, I reached out to Plastiq to find out if the issue was resolved. As we are about to take off on our round-the-world trip in about a month, making sure the mortgage was taken care of was high up on my list of things to do.
For those that aren’t in the loop, American Express has stopped allowing new mortgage payments to be paid through Plastiq. In an effort to stop any new mortgage payments, AMEX used a broad brush and accidentally stopped all payments from being processed by Plastiq, regardless of the category.
This issue has now been resolved (as of an hour ago actually) between Plastiq and American Express so payments will go through as long as they don’t fall into the following categories:
- Commercial Rent
- Auto Loans
- Payroll
- Business Services
- Mortgage Payments
What About Previously Scheduled Mortgage Payments?
If you had previously schedule mortgage payments and didn’t make any changes to the schedule, your future payments will go through. However, if you try to schedule a new mortgage payment, it will be declined.
What Are Business Services?
Everything in the list above makes sense, however, there’s a big question mark around what Business Services are. When I asked Plastiq for clarification, they told me that any bill that is being paid on behalf of a business is NOT eligible to be paid by Plastiq if you want to use American Express.
This could be paying the cable bill, the electric bill or anything else associated with business services.
Apparently, this “change was necessary with AMEX. American Express requested an enhanced review of the way that Plastiq ensures its payments adhere to their network guidelines.”
This obviously isn’t the greatest news for companies that use Plastiq for bill payments.
As a point of clarification, this is American Express issue only. If you want to use your Visa or MasterCard for Business Services, you should not have any issues.
Conclusion
If you had previously scheduled payments for your mortgage with AMEX, your charges will now continue to go through without issue, which is great news. If you have a business and are running expenses through your AMEX credit card … you may want to contact Plastiq to see what your options are.