Paying rent by debit or credit card online

[OldShooter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harllee As a landlord I quit allowing tenants to pay by check because I had checks bounce too many times.

+1 I don't know which was worse, bouncing checks or the caretakers getting paid cash and keeping it in their apartment. Fortunately none was ever stolen.

I am amazed by all the angst over this 2% rent increase. If I was still a landlord I would probably do it too. (The fee 100% goes to the processor.) But legally I would have to do the rent increase according to the lease terms and that's what I would do. You can't just announce a randomly-timed increase to tenants.

[Winemaker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldShooter But legally I would have to do the rent increase according to the lease terms and that's what I would do. You can't just announce a randomly-timed increase to tenants.

Exactly. My lease requires me to give a written 60 day notice and the tenant has a 30 day period to accept, and another 30 days to move out. And if they move out, the next renter will most likely be paying much more than the old rent and % increase.

[Maidensong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldShooter +1 I don't know which was worse, bouncing checks or the caretakers getting paid cash and keeping it in their apartment. Fortunately none was ever stolen. I am amazed by all the angst over this 2% rent increase. If I was still a landlord I would probably do it too. (The fee 100% goes to the processor.) But legally I would have to do the rent increase according to the lease terms and that's what I would do. You can't just announce a randomly-timed increase to tenants.

According to the standard lease (which we pull off our state's website) after the lease term is up (we usually require one year) the tenant can stay on a month-to-month basis at the same rate. If we determine that an increase in rent is required at that time, we have to give our tenants 30 days notice of the change, just as they must give us 30 days notice of their intent to move.

There's nothing random about real estate. It all has to be done in a scrupulously legal way as described in the lease agreement.

I get that leasing from a megacorp may feel impersonal and they aren't considering the wishes of their tenants, but the problems they face (constant increases in taxes and insurance, repairs and maintenance costs, tenants who are habitually late or delinquent) are the same problems we Mom & Pop landlords deal with. It just hits us harder because we have fewer tenants to spread the risk across.

Your landlord isn't out to discriminate against you, OP. (You have to be in one of the protected classes in order to be discriminated against--race, color,
religion, national origin, sex, which includes orientation and gender identification, disability, and familial status.) He's just trying to make the payment and recording of the rent easier for both of you. If you give this method a chance, I think you'll discover that you have a great deal of control over the process.

You can't imagine how dispiriting it is to have to wonder if your tenant is going to pay what they owe. The online payment process takes away the anxiety by showing us that the payments have been set up. We don't have to call with "reminders." We don't have to show up on their doorstep mid-month trying to collect.

Oh! and it is possible to have credit so poor no bank will give you a checking account. During a 4 year stint as a personal banker, I had to tell lots of people with scores under 500 that we were sorry, but we couldn't offer them an account. Then I'd counsel them on how to repair their credit.

But I wouldn't rent to them. There's no need to take that sort of risk with an asset in which we have invested--and continue to invest--a great deal of money.