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Federal tax payments: Ink cards not working (fixed)

Update 1/23/24: I recently paid my estimated taxes with an Ink card and found that this is working again.

Some of the best credit card welcome bonuses require a large amount of spending. But if you’re not naturally spending thousands of dollars a month on credit cards, the best bonuses can seem out of reach. However, many people have periodic large payments such as homeowners insurance, car insurance and tax payments. If you plan ahead, many of these large purchases can be put on a credit card, putting these large sign-up bonuses in reach.

Federal tax payments by credit card usually incur a fee around 2% of your payment. But if you are trying to meet a minimum spending threshold for a welcome bonus, it can make sense to pay the fee. Or if your card offers greater than 2% rewards, you can also come out ahead.

Error message from the PayUSA Tax website. The error reads, "This type of card is not currently accepted. To attempt your payment with an alternative method, please use a different card type or select another payment option under the Payment Information section below."

When I tried to pay my estimated taxes using PayUSATax with my Ink Business Unlimited card today, I received an error message. “This type of card is not currently accepted. To attempt your payment with an alternative method, please use a different card type or select another payment option under the Payment Information section below.”

Apparently I’m not the only one to have this problem. Paying with a different card worked fine.

If you’re planning on using your tax payment to meet a welcome bonus threshold on an Ink card, be aware that this might not work.

About the author

  • Aaron Hurd

    Aaron Hurd is a credit card, travel rewards, and loyalty program expert. Over the past 15 years, he has authored over a thousand expert contributions published by leading outlets including WSJ, TIME, Newsweek, Forbes, NerdWallet, The Points Guy, Bankrate, CNET, and many others. He has also served in consulting roles for many of these same outlets, designing content strategy, hiring teams of teams of editors and contributors, developing thought-leadership pieces, and ghost-editing for senior editors. Aaron is well-known in the miles and points community and regularly presents about travel rewards at conferences like the Chicago Seminars and Minnebar. Aaron has enjoyed the game of optimizing credit card rewards since getting his first credit card shortly after he turned 18. He started learning about credit cards and travel rewards from the (now defunct) FatWallet Finance forums and FlyerTalk. He holds more than 40 open credit cards and has first-hand experience with almost every major credit card product.

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