Tenant Payment via Phone App vs Check

[Anna Fuchs]

Hi, I'm a new landlord and working through my processes on payment, etc with 2 new tenants in a duplex. We had anticipated having payments made via check to our PO Box. One tenant brought up that in the past she had used an app called Square Cash to make payments to a prior landlord and also to family members etc and was extremely happy with the app. Has anyone used Square Cash or Vimeo (or a similar process) with their tenants? The upside I see is more timely payments and no checks "lost in the mail". The downside I fear is that if there are any issues with getting the cash/remediation, there is going to be little customer support that we'd normally get from a traditional bank, etc. If anyone has experiences - good or bad! - I'd love to hear your input. Thanks!

[JD Martin]

There are plenty of electronic/online options. We use Cozy and erentpayment. We don't accept checks personally any more, though we do provide deposit slips and a local business account for those tenants that want to deposit their rent directly into our account. The acceptable methods of payment are declared in the lease. Virtually all of our tenants pay electronically these days.