Requiring online payments with a debit card - and it made the news

[Ben Daniel]

Just saw this story pop up on my local news site:

http://kxan.com/2014/07/28/east-austin-tenants-for...

Is this a national trend, requiring online payments in lieu of any other payment method? If so, is it being met with as much resistance as the comments that this news story is generating? What kind of payments do you accept?

[Dean Letfus]

It's an American problem @Ben Daniel . You are the only country I have ever been in with such backward banking. Electronic online banking is the norm in almost every other developed country I know of. It was like going back 30 years when we started in the USA. 

In New Zealand and OZ you can't do anything hardly without a bank account. Can;t even get government assistance.  It is more secure, instant and easier to pay everythign online but the USA doesn't seem keen.  No idea why. You can only rent a house in most countries if you have either a direct debit or automatic payment for rent. Except in some very poor areas if you told your property manager you wanted to pay your rent in cash they would assume you were joking or trying to launder drug money!