PayPal is free, unless your tenant can’t follow instructions

[Anthony Wick]

I know there’s a ton of posts and questions about how people collect rents. I’ve been using PayPal for quite a while. It’s free to landlords and tenants, and I get my money within 24 hours (the first time rent payment does take 3-4 business days).

However, twice now tenants have selected the “pay for item or service” button instead of “sending to a friend”. That option would charge me 3%. So I refund their entire rent, which refunds the fee, and then they need to send rent again. It’s a pain and delays me getting rents.

My point here? I may need to switch how I collect rents. I just don’t like the other free services that take 3-5 business days to send me the payment. And I sure don’t like any service that I have to pay for to get my rents.

[Mindy Jensen]

Please note that Paypal has a dispute option. This means that your tenant can dispute the payment after their lease is up. Paypal FREQUENTLY sides with the person who did the paying.

Other apps like Venmo simply tell the person doing the paying that they should request a refund directly from the person they paid.