Paying for Tesla with credit cards to earn cash back

[trisk]

Between points and cash back, my net earnings were $1599.15, after $663.40 in Plastiq fees. Yeah, I know some guy beat me to it in 2018 with a Chase business card and made like $5000. I'm still salty about that. I also applied for the same card that year, but didn't get approved in time to for the previous Model 3 purchase.

Our old Model 3 was totaled in November, and I'm picking up a new LR AWD this Saturday. The bill payment service Plastiq has a targeted offer of a 1% fee for payments by credit card until the end of the month. That makes me a profit with any credit card that has over 1% in rewards.

I signed up for a business card with Capital One, hoping to earn a sweet $2000 bonus on the purchase, but the credit limit was only enough for a $500 bonus. I put the rest on a Chase Freedom card with the equivalent of 3% back in points (transferred to Chase Sapphire). I know some people have had bad experiences with Plastiq, so I confirmed that Tesla has been receiving the wire transfers.

Pro tip: Plastiq limits the %1 offer to 3 payments of $20k, but I was able to make 4 payments with a 1% fee by submitting two of them in separate browser windows.

 

[trisk]

Other tips for using Plastiq with Tesla:

• Definitely don't send checks through Plastiq, many people had their checks lost
• The bank account number for wire transfers in your purchase agreement is specific to the order, so add a new wire transfer recipient in Plastiq
• I used "Tesla Motors Inc." as the recipient name from the wire instructions
• For the contact, I entered my SA's name and email, and for the physical address and phone number I used Tesla's HQ: 3500 Deer Creek Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94304 and (888) 518-3752 or (650) 681-5000.
• In the first wire memo line I put the order number, a comma, and my name as directed by the purchase agreement. I left the second line blank. Plastiq remembers the memo line for future payments.