Plastiq, CRO, and Cash Back Mortgage Payments

• John Vandivier

I have decided to retain my CRO for a bit longer and this article describes the reasons for that.

Pros:

  1. I can get 8% interest staking a stablecoin
  2. I can get 3% cash back with a debit card
  3. Using multiple crypto platforms is beneficial for reasons of security, access, and more
  4. The next best alternative imo (Coinbase cashback + staking) is substantially less lucrative
    1. 1% cash back debit
    2. Stablecoin staking is under 1% interest
  5. *I can pay my mortgage and potentially get cash back

Cons:

  1. CRO's parent company keeps increasing the requirements for better cards, so I doubt I will be able to get the 5% card or the 8% card
  2. Many of CRO's ecosystem features are inaccessible in the USA
  3. The coin value has basically moved sideways over the last 6-12+ months, creating an opportunity cost relative to crypto index and some other investments
  4. Holding a large amount of cash in one coin is always risky
  5. *I can't use CRO + Plastiq

*These are the key pros and cons. Further details:

  1. On balance, I previously believed CRO would be a net win if I can get cashback each month paying mortgage and other recurring expenses.
  2. In the past, I was able to use ACH to pay mortgage, and Plastiq advertises that they support ACH. After using it, I realized the ACH they allow isn't compatible.
    1. Specifically, Plastiq expects you to provide an ACH deposit location, but my mortgage company expects you to provide an ACH pull location. Plastiq doesn't provide a virtual account such that I could send my bank the Plastiq routing information for a pull-style transfer.
  3. I now notice that my current mortgage provider, PennyMac, accepts an ordinary debit card payment. So I can completely ignore using Plastiq and in fact get a higher total cash back because I don't have to pay the Plastiq fee!

So this new strategy seems more limited but also more lucrative. You need to make sure your mortgage provider takes a debit card - but maybe that's a new thing that is catching on?