Paying tax bill with Credit Card for rewards

[TotallyBroke]

I know WCI has written on this topic in the past.  However, I'm not sure how it happens during tax season.  I just got everything finished in Turbo Tax and am about hit submit.  However, when I go to put in my credit card information, I see this disclaimer:

"A convenience fee of 2.49% of total amount you owe will be charged by our credit card service provider. There is a minimum convenience fee of $3.95 regardless of your IRS payment obligation."

That's not so cool when my Fidelity Rewards Credit Card only gives me 2% cash back.

Do I request an installment plan then use Pay1040.com to pay with a credit card so it only charges me a 1.87% fee?  Or is there some other secret that I haven't discovered yet?  I'm paying just over $7K (from side gig 1099 income).

Thanks in advance!

[TotallyBroke]

And don't worry, I'm not paying any penalty.  I did pay enough already to avoid the penalty.

[The White Coat Investor]

I've never actually paid my final tax bill with it, I've just made estimated payments. But on pay1040.com it looks like you can just pick "form 1040 current tax year" and make a payment.

I don't see why you have to do it through turbotax.

[Kamban]

The credit card companies have started charging merchants more and more commission as they dole out more rewards. Companies like Walmart can absorb it by raising prices for all. Unfortunately governments including state and county governments, and even local utilities cannot pass on the commissions to all. So they have started tacking a 2.5-3.5% surcharge for credit card payments.

My office does the same thing. Pay with cash or check and there is no surcharge. Pay with credit card and there is a 3% surcharge. Some people balk at it but most understand that we cannot afford to write off these commissions when the payments from insurances are declining.

[StarTrekDoc]

Best time to do a credit card apporama. Get Bunches of cards, use them to reach the spend bonus and then cancel them once the points post. Easy to recover the 3 percent charge.

In the past before doddfrank debit cards offered points and didn't surcharge. That was a boondoggle. The last to fall was our SunTrust Delta card ????