Electronic payments for the unbanked

[Matthew Insley]

I currently have about 80% of my tenants mail me a money order and do not have bank accounts.  I would love to try and get some or most of them to pay me electronically using paypal or venmo.  Does anybody have experience doing this? I have read that paypal might have an option to deposit cash into a paypal account at CVS/Walgreens.  I do think that all of my unbanked tenants have smartphones that would be capable of having paypal on them.  My initial thought was to give a one time rent discount for the tenants who tried this payment method out.

[Nathan Gesner]

Electronic payments tend to have fees attached so I would be careful about what you choose.

Personally, I am not picky about payment methods. I want to remove any hurdles to them paying. About 60% of my tenants pay with direct deposit and the rest are money orders or personal checks.

[Andrew S.]

@Matthew Insley Hi Matt, Our tenants have the option of depositing rent directly into my account. They get a receipt for their deposit and can take care of it at any branch. So far it has worked very well and with online banking, it is easy to ensure everyone made their payment on time. More connected or tech savvy tenants pay by Google Pay (no fees) or EFT.

[Melinda Miller]

We also have a building full of nonbankers. We have had good luck with Cash App. Its free, up to a point. What that that point is I'm not sure, but I doubt we will ever reach it. It works well. 

I have a question to who give the tenants deposit slips. How do you handle it when they deposit the incorrect or partial amount? 

[Ariana Winder]

We use Cash app but I'm reviewing cozy.co and Zillow rental manager payments right now since Cash app business has a percent based fee. I have also looked into Google Pay but its limited to Android or a website embed and still requires a processor with their own fees from what I can tell.

Curious if others have had experiences with any of these and your experience is?
CASH APP...

"Cash App will automatically deduct a 2.75% processing fee on each payment you receive to your Cash for Business account."

https://cash.app/help/US/EN-US/6521-cash-for-business-fees

APARTMENTS.COM...

https://www.apartments.com/rental-manager/online-rent-collec...

"Renters can pay for free with their checking account (ACH transfer) when paying rent. Alternatively, renters can pay with a credit card, debit card, or Google Pay for a 2.75% fee."

ZILLOW...

https://www.zillow.com/z/rental-manager/collect-rent-online/...

"Online rent collection is free for landlords, and free for renters if they pay with ACH (bank transfer). Tenants will pay a 2.95% fee when using a credit card and a $9.95 convenience fee for debit payments."

RENTSPREE...

https://www.rentspree.com/rent-payment

"Landlords are not charged to collect rent payments with RentSpree. For renters, a $3 ACH fee applies for recurring payments and a 3% card fee when using a credit or debit card."