Insurance Won't Let Me Pay With Credit Card.

[beastykato]

My car insurance company (Erie), while always being great in every aspect, especially price, for some reason has stopped letting people pay in full with credit cards.  You can still pay quarterly/monthly/etc. with a CC, but for whatever reason they are shafting me.  

It's always been a great expense to use for apping for a new rewards card with spend requirements, not to mention receiving the general rewards points on the purchase. 

Is there a way I can skirt around this?  I've read before about manufactured spending by using bill pay services that allow CC funding, but I don't have any personal experience ever doing this.   Is there anyone here than can recommend one (hopefully with a low fee) and give a little rundown of what's involved? 

[Anonymous]

You might find this article at Doctor of Credit helpful:

http://www.doctorofcredit.com/reach-minimum-monthly-spending-requirements/

Strategy #4 is especially powerful.  When you combine it with opening bank accounts that are offering large promotions (simply for opening the deposit account) it is exceptionally lucrative. 

If you google Ways To Meet Minimum Spending Requirements you will find other articles.  I did that just now and found many that looked promising.

[SouthJamaica]

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@beastykato wrote:

My car insurance company (Erie), while always being great in every aspect, especially price, for some reason has stopped letting people pay in full with credit cards.  You can still pay quarterly/monthly/etc. with a CC, but for whatever reason they are shafting me.  

It's always been a great expense to use for apping for a new rewards card with spend requirements, not to mention receiving the general rewards points on the purchase. 

Is there a way I can skirt around this?  I've read before about manufactured spending by using bill pay services that allow CC funding, but I don't have any personal experience ever doing this.   Is there anyone here than can recommend one (hopefully with a low fee) and give a little rundown of what's involved? 

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When you say "for whatever reason" they have a good reason... they don't feel like giving away around 2.5% of their revenue.

It you send checks through a credit card payment service like Plastiq you'll wind up paying a fee of around 2.5%.

I think the only practical way to pay those bills using credit is to do it with a personal line of credit.

[Anonymous]

Hi SouthJ!  A few comments below.

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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When you say "for whatever reason" they have a good reason... they don't feel like giving away around 2.5% of their revenue.

I think the thing that is puzzling the OP is that his insurance company has no problem paying 12 swipe fees (monthly CC payments) or 4 swipe fees (quarterly CC payments) but they are implementing a new policy where they won't let him pay for six months or a year at a time.  So they have no problem losing the 2.5%... it's an issue of how much at a time he can pay.

And that is affecting his real concern, which is not (as I read it) "how do I pay my insurance bill?" but rather "what are some cool ways to meet the minimum spend on a new credit card, without actually buying stuff I don't want."  That's why I pointed him toward that DoC article.

It you send checks through a credit card payment service like Plastiq you'll wind up paying a fee of around 2.5%.

I think the only practical way to pay those bills using credit is to do it with a personal line of credit.

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[Anonymous]

I always pay in full, but if I were to pay monthly there is a $10 fee per payment. Maybe that covers swipe fees?

[beastykato]

It's definitely more to pay on smaller increments, which I'm sure does help cover the fees involved.   It's still a bummer that they decided to get rid of it.  Although, for a card bonus it is still worth it to pay one of these fee based bill-pay outfits. 

One last route I'll check is with my local insurance agent and see if maybe he can take credit card payments in the local office.