Best ways to collect rent (electronically)

[Marcus Auerbach]

We have been using ACH though our bank for many years and it works great for the most part. It's also free. The downside is that is a very rigid system. Some tenants also don't like the fact that they can't initiate a payment. If a payment is NSF our backup is to either run it again once the account is funded or have the tenants drop of a check at our PO box, which is inconvenient for everyone. So maybe time to evaluate what's out there and can be used to transfer money to a business account (not to my personal phone) and what are the pros and cons. Maybe it would be good to offer a couple different options? 

[Spencer Keebler]

I've been using the Apartments.com manager tool for rent collections on my duplex. I marketed the units via that site and the tenants can pay electronically as well. While its user friendly, one downside is that it takes about 5 business days for the payments to hit my bank account (no fees). I can't comment on whether this is a scalable solution for a larger portfolio, but it works well for me.