Specialist · Dallas, TX · Member since 2010 · 511 posts · 252 votes
Hi,
I was using SparkRent and i was very happy with their service. They are closing their service and i am looking for alternative. I see Cozy.co and they provide FREE service..!! Anyone use their service? Do you suggest any other good alternative with reasonable commission.
Investor · Middletown, NJ · Member since 2008 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
11y
I've been using www.erentpayment.com for years and have had only good experiences. Customer service is excellent, it's only $3 per transaction, no monthly fees, no contracts, no start up costs. You can send and receive reminders to tenants about payments in advance, late payments, partial payments, you get email confirmation when a payment is made, you can set up auto-debit, send Thank You notes, etc.
It's not free. It's not the cheapest. Free and cheap is not a sustainable business model, and very likely why so many of these services are going out of business. $3 per transaction is my cost of doing business, although I can pass it on to my tenants if I wanted to.
Investor · Lehi, UT · Member since 2015 · 65 posts · 25 votes
11y
I am facing same dilemma. I love sparkrent and used them for over one year. I am disappointed they are going out of business. Let me if you find something good
Investor · Pflugerville, TX · Member since 2014 · 114 posts · 19 votes
11y
I haven't tried it but someone was recommending PayPal. Said your tenants could pay debit, credit, or with paypal and it could be set up to go right in your account. I don't know if anyone else has tried it. I'll be interested to see what others have to say.
I haven't tried it but someone was recommending PayPal. Said your tenants could pay debit, credit, or with paypal and it could be set up to go right in your account. I don't know if anyone else has tried it. I'll be interested to see what others have to say.
I would not recommend using paypal, not only for rent but for anything else. I have literally DOZENS of colleagues that at one point or another have had accounts emptied. It always led back to a paypal transaction. I would say find a more secure ACH that specializes in rent payment collections. I would take an old fashioned check in the mail before I took paypal.
Lender · Prairieville, LA · Member since 2014 · 146 posts · 114 votes
11y
Hmmm. Try this again. @Shital Thakkar , I just read through the post @Alexander Merritt suggested. I'm always open to suggestions for rent collection.
My typical tenant does not have a computer at home & they don't have a bank account.
I have less than 10 doors paying rent each month & so far, like @Pete T. noted in the other post, I've yet to find a better, more stress free option than the going to my bank & depositing the money themselves.
My bank provides online copies of the deposit slip, allowing me to confirm which unit & when it was deposited. My tenants know to write their name & unit somewhere on the deposit slip.
I know other people who make all the rents different (ie. $631 for unit A, $632 for unit B. . .) Not for me, but a nice idea.
The 'training' begins when they are chosen as the lucky new tenant provided their deposit is in the bank by X. I text them the banking information & tell them to save the text for future reference.
When we do the lease, I give them a print out of instructions for doing night deposits & assure them, I have dropped cash many times (most of my tenants are cash payers.)
When I started doing this over a year ago, it saved me volumes of time & headaches. The rent is either in my account or not.
When 'not', I send a simple text, "What's the scoop?" They know what that means. They know I love late fees & those who tend to be late all have a picture on their phone of the late fee schedule.
Investor · SE, MI · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 461 votes
11y
I use Intuit's Payment Network, you can send invoices via e mail automatically each month, costs $.50 per transaction. You can accept a credit card (3.25%) but I don't at this time- I have had tenants ask but when I tell them the additional fee with be XX they decide to use the CC elsewhere.
BP also wrote an article about a pay service for tenant's with cash. It sounds pretty good, but there is a $4 fee paid by the tenant to use the service.
Investor · Middletown, NJ · Member since 2008 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
11y
I've been using www.erentpayment.com for years and have had only good experiences. Customer service is excellent, it's only $3 per transaction, no monthly fees, no contracts, no start up costs. You can send and receive reminders to tenants about payments in advance, late payments, partial payments, you get email confirmation when a payment is made, you can set up auto-debit, send Thank You notes, etc.
It's not free. It's not the cheapest. Free and cheap is not a sustainable business model, and very likely why so many of these services are going out of business. $3 per transaction is my cost of doing business, although I can pass it on to my tenants if I wanted to.
Specialist · Dallas, TX · Member since 2010 · 511 posts · 252 votes
11y
After researching, I am thinking to go with Chase QuickPay. I just need to open bank account with Chase. Tenant do not required Chase bank account. There is no transaction charge and you don't need to provide your bank/routing information to tenant. They can pay you with your email ID and there is mobile applications also.
Looks like Secure, zero cost option to collect rent.
Real Estate Investor / Syndicator · Austin, TX · Member since 2013 · 210 posts · 135 votes
11y
@Shital Thakkar I use to use Rentmonitor.com and switch to erentpayment.com for past 3 months. erentpayment.com has good customer service but the user interface is horrible. I have to look double hard to ensure that all tenants paid. The reports are more like text based interface and reporting systems. The payment per transaction is the same $3 and the time to deposit payment to account is the same. I am planning to switch back to rentmonitor.com. The customer service is not the best but the user interface works shows the entire rentals transactions easily. They have a dashboard showing past, current and future months in a pie chart. From that page itself, you will know exact status of each payments.
After researching, I am thinking to go with Chase QuickPay. I just need to open bank account with Chase. Tenant do not required Chase bank account. There is no transaction charge and you don't need to provide your bank/routing information to tenant. They can pay you with your email ID and there is mobile applications also.
Looks like Secure, zero cost option to collect rent.
I love Chase QuickPay. The only thing is that there are limits on how much you can receive over a certain period of time. It's okay if you have only a couple rentals but if you have more you will hit the limit. Here is what Chase says about the limit:
Are there limits to the amount I can send or receive? Yes. There are different limits depending on the type of account you're using to send and receive money.
Payments from Chase and verified non-Chase accounts
Maximum of $2,000 per transaction, with a maximum of $2,000 total per day
Maximum of $8,000 in any seven-day period
Maximum of $16,000 in any 30-day period
Payments from Private Banking clients
Maximum of $5,000 per transaction, with a maximum of $5,000 total per day
Maximum of $8,000 in any seven-day period
Maximum of $16,000 in any 30-day period
Payments from Chase business accounts
Maximum of $5,000 per transaction, with a maximum of $5,000 total per day
Maximum of $20,000 in any seven-day period
Maximum of $40,000 in any 30-day period
Invoice payments made using Chase QuickPay
Maximum of $10,000 per transaction, with a maximum of $10,000 total per day
Investor · Wethersfield, CT · Member since 2013 · 371 posts · 191 votes
11y
You might try Rentalutions, they handle rental processing and (if memory serves) repair orders as well. They're not free, but they're reasonably priced.
Renters with bank accounts simply pair their bank account to the service and set an authorization date between the 1st and the 5th of the month.
Renters without bank accounts can pay with Bitcoin, and you receive their payment in dollars unless you elect otherwise.
Decatur, GA · Member since 2015 · 419 posts · 52 votes
10y
@Aly W. Thank you for your contribution to this thread and recommending erentpayment.com. I have just registered with them and agree there customer service is great.
I like how they provide and option for automatic recurring rent payments. I'm wondering if I should required tenants to authorize automatic monthly rent payments or leave it as optional. What do you do? What kind of resistance have you had from tenants with requiring or encouraging automatic monthly withdrawals of rent?
Property Manager · Chapin, SC · Member since 2014 · 71 posts · 43 votes
10y
Have you considered using property management software that includes rent payment processing like buildium? It automatically bills your tenants and charges late fees and notifications to you when they pay and keeps all your ledgers etc.
@Aly W. Thank you for your contribution to this thread and recommending erentpayment.com. I have just registered with them and agree there customer service is great.
I like how they provide and option for automatic recurring rent payments. I'm wondering if I should required tenants to authorize automatic monthly rent payments or leave it as optional. What do you do? What kind of resistance have you had from tenants with requiring or encouraging automatic monthly withdrawals of rent?
Hi Nick,
Glad you're a happy customer! I do require tenants to have the automatic monthly payments. That way, no one has to worry about it again. I haven't had pushback because it's not an option. I go over the lease with them prior to any money changing hands, and they are told the methods of payment. Set it and forget it :)
Decatur, GA · Member since 2015 · 419 posts · 52 votes
10y
Thank you @Aly W. Can I ask, do you also have the tenant pay the initial move-in costs (first month's rent, security deposit, etc.) through erentpayment.com? I talked to someone at eRentpayment today and apparently it's and option to have this first payment made with the submission of the automatic payment form. I would just need to make sure the keys aren't handed over until the payment is in my account. The appeal of this for me is I'm considering having my leases signed electronically as well, through DocuSign.
Investor · Middletown, NJ · Member since 2008 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y
Hi Nick, I get all the move in costs by money order only; no exceptions. It's much easier.
eRentpayment starts with the next month's rent.
I also use Docusign for all leases, for my signature anyway. Some tenants will Docusign, others will physically sign it. I go over the leases by phone or in person before they sign it, so they understand everything, and each page is signed. Hope this helps :)
Property Manager · Miami, FL · Member since 2016 · 62 posts · 15 votes
10y
I recently started using Rentigo and I'm really happy with them. My tenants pay through their app and they stopped calling me for small issues since they can open tickets from the app too. It's a free software which is always a mega perk!
Investor · Youngstown, OH · Member since 2014 · 27 posts · 7 votes
10y
I am a satisfied cozy customer! Its totally free, which is great for starting out investors, and allows you to add various charges as needed. It does take about 5 days for payments to go through but I just made sure to tell my tenants to plan accordingly. They are rumored to be coming out with an app this year but haven't heard much beyond that. After going through these forum posts I will definitely be looking into Rentigo!
San Jose, CA · Member since 2016 · 22 posts · 5 votes
10y
I use Cozy and I absolutely love it. They've made a lot of great updates in the past few months which just makes the platform that much better.
The fact that I can create a lease in there AND my tenants are set up for automatic monthly payments makes it a breeze. I don't have to think about reminding them to pay their rent, and they don't have to remember to send a payment to me every month.
The only issue I have is that the rent payment doesn't hit my bank account until the 8th of the month. I'd have to pay extra for the ACH feature to have the payments deposited into my account immediately. At this point, it's not worth the monthly payments, but it may be something I look into in the future as I rack up more rental properties!
Rental Property Investor · Portland, OR · Member since 2015 · 338 posts · 332 votes
10y
Has anyone tried SquareCash for rent payments? One of my tenants wants to use it for rent. I've used it before for small personal transactions and it worked literally instantly, with automatic transfer to my bank the moment the sender clicked "send" in the app.
Normally I use PayPal and Venmo or the tenants depositing directly to my bank, but after reading what someone said about PayPal above, I'm worried. I've given them the option to use Cozy, but no one has availed themselves of that option.
One tenant uses eRentPayment because I made an exception for him with his low credit score, and eRentPayment reports [on-time or late] payments to Transunion. He's on a weekly rental agreement and we've got the payments set up to automatically deduct weekly. It costs $2 per transaction, which I split with the tenant. They spent A LOT of time with me over the phone in the beginning, helping me to set up the weekly payment correctly as that's not as straightforward on the website. I was impressed with their level of service.
Fort Collins, CO · Member since 2014 · 397 posts · 161 votes
10y
Thank you @Account Closed as it is great to hear the weekly option is working well for you after we made sure the schedule and amounts were correct! We are working to add the other two bureaus soon so our credit reporting option will include all three bureaus in the near future for your tenant. Thanks.