UPDATE: Online Rent Payment

[Chris T.]

It has now been about two months since both SparkRent and WiliamPaid both shutdown their online rent payment services.  There was a lot of discussion about the alternatives at the time and I was curious as to what decisions others made.

I personally decided to go with Venmo and have been extremely happy so far.  It has been completely free (for both myself and my tenants), very easy to use, and the money transfers have only been taking 1-2 days from when I am notified the tenants have made a payment.  The only drawback is it is not as automated as SparkRent (what I was using before), with auto billing or late fees, but it hasn't bothered me as their mobile app makes sending payment reminders (bills) and additional bills (late fees) take only seconds and I can do it from anywhere.  

That is what I ended up doing, what route did others end up going?

[Jason K.]

Here's what I've found out from my research

Cozy: I've been using them for a few months, but I have one tenants that frequently has non sufficient funds. The problem with Cozy is that I don't find out until the 4th or 5th! By the time the tenant can get around to paying me in cash/check/money order/etc. I'm deep into the month. Cash flow isn't so much the issue, but knowledge - I want to know on the 1st if my tenants have enough to pay or not. So I'm looking for a new solution.

Giving tenants bank acct and routing: According to Bank of America it's not a big deal. They can deposit into your account, but there are enough security measures to not worry about them being able to take money out. 

Intuit: At 50 cents a transaction for ACH that's a pretty good deal. And according to the rep I spoke with, if the tenant doesn't have enough money in their account they can't process the payment - unlike Cozy. 

Venmo: I've been doing some transactions with them recently and have not had any complaints! I'd like to be able to set up recurring payments, which is not a feature they currently have.

Other solutions like Erentpayment, etc: Most other solutions I've found so far seem to be more spendy. For example if I switch all my residents to $2-$3 per transaction, that's about $800 per year out of my pocket. Could I pass the cost on to the tenant? Sure. But if I can find a free solution that's even better.