Rent payment methods Zelle or Venmo
20 Replies
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Mark Forest Real Estate Investor from Fenton, Michigan
posted 3 months agoA tenant has suggested we use the services ZELLE or Venmo to collect rents. Currently we use snail mail to our P.O. box to collect rent checks. Is anyone familiar with these services, and can you tell me how they work? If these two services are not recommended what do you prefer? I don't want to pay a fee, and I don't want my tenant to know my account numbers. Thank you for all help offered.
Matt K. from Walnut Creek, California
replied 3 months agoZelle, it's built in to a lot of banking apps and is basically isntant. Venmo is fast too, but zelle is deposited direct to bank account.
Jonathan Orana from Santa Clara, California
replied 3 months agoI believe that Venmo can close your account if they find out that you are using it for business. You may want to read the terms and conditions again. I use venmo a lot and have heard of these things happening..
Good Luck !
Kimberly Yang Investor from Orlando, Florida
replied 3 months agoIf a tenant wants to use Venmo, is the payment going to the landlord´s account directly? Do I as the landlord also have to install something? Or simply wait till the money shows up in my account like with Quick Pay that some banks offer.
One tenant told me that Zelle not only allows payments of up to $ 500.00 and her rent is higher than that. Therefore she wants to submit partial payments, which of course, I do not allow.
Alpesh Parmar Investor from San Ramon, California
replied 3 months agoZella would allow more than $500 but you can only deposit up to $500 when using it first time.
Venmo or even PayPal can be used as all these are free.
Mike McCarthy Investor from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
replied 3 months agoI would never use PayPal. Too many horror stories (including 2 or three of mine personally)
Venmo seems to be popular here. Both you and your tenant need to sign up for Venmo and link your checking/savings account. They (or anyone) can pay you and you can request money. It’s pretty much instant. @Jonathan Orana has an interesting point - I’ve never read or checked.
I use Cozy. Easy and free. And focused towards tenant/landlord. The only downside is a 5-6 day delay from tenant deposit to deposit into your account.
Kevin Stalbaum Investor from Libertyville, Illinois
replied 3 months agoI use Zelle through Chase (used to be called Chase Quickpay) for both of my rentals. Love it!!! No fees and instant. To answer your question they don’t know your account numbers so I don’t really see any downside. Welcome to modern technology!!!!
Matt K. from Walnut Creek, California
replied 3 months agoZelle max depends on person sending it account, but I can tell you it goes over 500.
PayPal, gift that way no recourse also no fee, but that likely is against their terms of service (for sure if you ask, not sure if Tennant's chose so)
Venmo I think is owned by PayPal. It's faster for sure but zelle is faster and easier. I wouldn't worry about getting rent through it if you have a few units.
Kyle J. Real Estate Investor from Northern, California
replied 3 months agoI also use Zelle and can confirm it’s quick, free, and easy to use. I use Cozy too, which has some advantages (automated payment each month) and disadvantages (slower to transfer the money than Zelle or Venmo).
I haven’t used Venmo but it’s very popular with all the millennials. My daughter and all her friends use it to pay each other money. From what I know about it, it’s similar to Zelle (i.e. quick, free, easy to use).
Michaela G. Investor from Atlanta, Georgia
replied 3 months agoI have Wells Fargo and many of my tenants use Zelle from their bank account. Instantaneously. Works well.
I don't see a problem with giving my bank account number to someone. Heck, everyone that get a check from me gets my account number. I don't see that they can create a problem with just the name and number - otherwise nobody would pay anything with checks.
Madeline P. from Tampa, Florida
replied 3 months agoZelle is very quick. The tenant does not need your account number. All they need is your cell phone number or your email account. Once they have that, they transfer it and within a couple of minutes, at most, you have your rent money. More and more banks have started using Zelle.
Abigail Lipson Real Estate Agent from Austin, Texas
replied 3 months agoI don't use Zelle for rent payments (I use property management software for that) but I do use Zelle for other payments and it's crazy easy and quick. In this day and age I do feel it's time to use an online service vs snail mail, otherwise you run the risk of not having happy clients or being competitive.
Pam J. from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
replied 3 months agowe use cozy or cash (our tenants are close by and a few of them prefer cash). The wait time on cozy deposits is a bit annoying but the website is easy and set up for landlords. When I did taxes I just exported all of our rent history from there.
Dave Meyer Bagel Evangelist from Denver, Colorado
replied 3 months agoDwolla is a good option too! They charge $5, but it's worth it. They have much better reporting for bookkeeping purposes than the aforementioned options.
Andrey Y. from Honolulu, HI, Fairbanks, AK
replied 3 months agoOriginally posted by @Jonathan Orana :
I believe that Venmo can close your account if they find out that you are using it for business. You may want to read the terms and conditions again. I use venmo a lot and have heard of these things happening..
Good Luck !
Thats correct. One of my tenant's payment bounced. Then venmo caught on that it was being used to pay rent. Boom, account closed.
Mark Forest Real Estate Investor from Fenton, Michigan
replied 2 months agoThanks for all the input guys. You all always come through. I am wondering how Zelle makes money on this service. Is it free for now, but in a year they make an announcement that there will be $x charge per transaction.
Mark Forest Real Estate Investor from Fenton, Michigan
replied 2 months agoHow does the name on the deposit appear on Zelle? Does it say the tenant name?
Matt K. from Walnut Creek, California
replied 2 months agoZelle is basically the banks going after paypal/venmo (same owners). I'd assume it's going to be free in some way for a while and they aren't worried about making money on it per transaction but rather other services a bank would use. I'd guess they'll set it up where you get x amount of transactions free per month then charge a fee after (like they do savings accounts).
Mark Forest Real Estate Investor from Fenton, Michigan
replied 2 months agoOk, I went to the Zelle sight. It says I will have to enroll my cell phone number and a debit card. I have no problem with the cell number, but i don't have a debit card through my credit union. Do I have to get that first so I can use their app? Thanks for more help with this issue.
Doug Garrison Investor from Pleasant Garden, North Carolina
replied 2 months agoI just started using Zelle this month. It’s working great for me. I had 4 tenants use it the first month. I signed up through my Capital One account.
I just saw this article https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/16/zelle-users-are-finding-out-the-hard-way-theres-no-fraud-protection/. This make me like it even better. Once the payment goes through the money is mine. Just like it should be.
Ron Jurgeson Investor from Lees Summit, Missouri
replied 17 days agoFor those using Zelle, I have a question. I collect for several property owners. Can you only have ONE bank account set up per phone number (on the landlord side).
I would like to have Tenant A $$ go into account A and Tenant B $$ go into account B, etc - is that going to be possible with just one phone number? Is there a way I can get "extra" gmail addresses and associate a different email with each bank account? Just trying to figure out if this will work.
Thanks for any feedback.
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