Collecting rent with a credit card

[Herman Maston]

I read a post earlier about landlords wanting to collect rents using credit cards. Here is my experience with using credit cards to collect rents. We are a Merchant Service Provider. Many of my landlord customers use credit cards as a method of collecting rents. Of course, there are fees involved.   Many add that additional cost onto their rent as additional rent and collect their rent on time. Some break their payment down to bi-weekly and I have a couple who charge their tenants weekly. The basic idea here is that they collect their rent in a timely fashion. After all, landlords have bill payments also. Here in New York where the rents are far higher than most of America, the landlords that use our processing systems as a method of rent collections are not complaining. Most ask at the time of the lease signing if the tenant would like them to debit their account instead of them mailing the payment in. I have seen a growing market in that area. Plus another advantage to using credit cards is if an emergency occurs and you need quick financing, you can use your credit card business receivables to get a fast loan, usually within 3 days. Maybe because our rates are lower makes that possible. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them here. Herman