On-line rent payment rec's?

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Chicken lady
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Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2013 11:46 am

On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by Chicken lady »

I've been looking at the on-line rent payment sites recommended on BiggerPockets and wondered what you landlords who use this type of product to collect rent have to say. What do you use, can you recommend it, and are there any issues that are not evident from the company web site?

Thanks,
Linda
LeftCoast
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Joined: Mon Jan 01, 2018 11:19 am

Re: On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by LeftCoast »

Hi, small landlord here. I have two tenants who are using Zelle to pay me. Most major banks are part of the Zelle system. There is no charge to the tenant and no charge to the landlord.

I have an email address that I use for my rental business only. Using my bank's online banking application, I associated that email address with my bank account. Then I gave the email address to my tenants. They use Zelle to send money from their bank account to my email address. The tenants don't have my bank information, or even the name of my bank. When they send their rent, I get an instant email, and the funds are available in my bank account the next day. The transfer can't be reversed. So far it has worked great. However, if I was ever involved in an eviction, I would need to shut off the service, as otherwise the tenant could send partial payments that would mess up my eviction filing. So far, this hasn't been an issue.
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Smorgasbord
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Re: On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by Smorgasbord »

I use Cozy.co and have been pleased with it. It's free so long you give them a few days float on the rent payment. I believe my tenants bank accounts are debited on the first of the month, and I receive payment on the 7th.
mervinj7
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Re: On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by mervinj7 »

I use Zelle as well. No fees, the money is instantly deposited, and it works directly with most banks. That means there is no third party app between you and your tenant. Best of all, neither of you needs to share bank information, just an email address. No more bounced checks!
togb
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Re: On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by togb »

I only have one rental property, and right now it's rented to a little old lady who still likes to do paper checks by US mail. But before she moved in, my tenants used ERentPayment.com. I was happy with it. You can set up each property, and have rules like no partial payments, load late fees in to the property profile etc.

It was good for the tenants since it helped build their credit score (they have the option to have it reported). There was a modest fee, and I think I split it with them. It worked well. They also offer tenant screening, including credit and criminal check, and the make a recommendation as to whether you take the applicant or not.
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knpstr
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Re: On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by knpstr »

I have been looking into this as well. I have not found a good solution.

Actually "cryptocurrencies" are appealing to me since you can have instant transfers with minimal fees. For example with Litecoin, the sender of the payment incurs about a $0.20 fee, transactions are instant and in about 15 minutes you'll have fully verified funds (multiple independent confirmations) and the payment network is always up to accept transactions: weekends, holidays, all hours and no chargebacks are possible.
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Sandtrap
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Re: On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by Sandtrap »

I have a business account set up that allows an unlimited number of sub accounts for each of my rental units. Each is assigned an account number and with that, an address of the unit. Tenants can walk into any branch of the bank and make a payment to their account using their account number or physical address, or do it online, or with their cell phone, and so forth.

Of course, tenants can still mail in a check, cashier's check, or money order. But, more and more are paying to their accounts digitally.

This is a huge convenience compared to the old days of depositing mailed in rent checks and collecting cash in person for many many units in different locations. At one time I was doing this with over 100 rental units and it was exhausting.

I do not take payments like Zelle or other similar types like that. Also definitely do not use a third party payment system.

aloha,
j :D
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Wealth_Builder
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Re: On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by Wealth_Builder »

I highly recommend Cozy.co. It's great for collecting/tracking rent, but I'd say it's best feature is Tenant Screening. The landlord can request some, or all, applicants to complete an application and undergo a background/credit check. This costs the applicant $39.99, but in my experience, if someone isn't willing to pay 39.99 for this, they are likely to flake on signing the lease anyways. It sort of weeds out the less than desirable tenants pretty quickly.

Happy Landlording!
Cycle
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Location: Minneapolis

Re: On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by Cycle »

I used cozy. I now use rentalutions because their leases are built in and awesome, especially if they are moving from another city... All online. Their software rocks. We are small time, so just have them pay the $2 fee for each payment. I refund the fee at the end of the year and give a gift card as a retention incentive. We have a $125 late fee that auto assesses if late.
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way
SRenaeP
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Re: On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by SRenaeP »

I use Cozy as well. I like the fact that tenants have the option to pay via bank account or CC. IMO, allowing CC payment means I'm more likely to get paid even if they run into cash flow issues for some reason.

-Steph
clutchied
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Re: On-line rent payment rec's?

Post by clutchied »

my monthly is 6 payments.

All are on some form of bank transfer. I haven't used software at this point in time due to the low volume being simple to manage.


I do use zillow rental manager when I do any listings.
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