Rent payment methods Zelle or Venmo

Real Estate Investor · Fenton, MI · Member since 2008 · 946 posts · 153 votes

A 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.

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Mike McCarthy

Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes

I 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.

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Matt K.
Walnut Creek, CA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
8y
Zelle, 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.
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Jonathan Orana
Santa Clara, CA · Member since 2014 · 7 posts · 2 votes
8y
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 !
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Kimberly Yang
Investor · Orlando, FL · Member since 2017 · 6 posts · 1 vote
8y
If 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.
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Alpesh Parmar
Investor · Dublin, CA · Member since 2016 · 344 posts · 228 votes
8y
Zella 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.
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Mike McCarthy
Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
8y
I 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.
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Kevin Stalbaum
Investor · Libertyville, IL · Member since 2015 · 11 posts · 10 votes
8y
I 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!!!!
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Matt K.
Walnut Creek, CA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
8y
Zelle 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.
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Kyle J.
Rental Property Investor · Northern, CA · Member since 2012 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes
8y
I 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).
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Michaela G.
Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
8y
I 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.
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Madeline P.
Tampa, FL · Member since 2016 · 44 posts · 10 votes
8y
Zelle 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.
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Abigail Lipson
Real Estate Agent · Austin, TX · Member since 2014 · 11 posts · 6 votes
8y
I 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.
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Pam J.
Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 15 posts · 1 vote
8y
we 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.
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Dave MeyerPro Member
Head of Real Estate Investing at BiggerPockets · Seattle, WA · Member since 2015 · 224 posts · 826 votes
8y
Dwolla 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.
Podcast Guest on Show #186
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Andrey Y.
Specialist · Honolulu, HI · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
8y
Originally 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.
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Mark Forest
OP
Real Estate Investor · Fenton, MI · Member since 2008 · 946 posts · 153 votes
8y
Thanks 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.
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Mark Forest
OP
Real Estate Investor · Fenton, MI · Member since 2008 · 946 posts · 153 votes
8y
How does the name on the deposit appear on Zelle? Does it say the tenant name?
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Matt K.
Walnut Creek, CA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
8y
Zelle 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).

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Mark Forest
OP
Real Estate Investor · Fenton, MI · Member since 2008 · 946 posts · 153 votes
8y
Ok, 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.
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Doug Garrison
Rental Property Investor · Pleasant Garden, NC · Member since 2016 · 6 posts · 6 votes
8y
I 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.
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Ron Jurgeson
Investor · Lees Summit, MO · Member since 2017 · 12 posts · 8 votes
8y
For 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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Michele G.
Ann Arbor, MI · Member since 2017 · 109 posts · 52 votes
8y
Ron Jurgeson In case you haven’t gotten your answer yet... you have to set up a different email for each account. My first Zelle payment was for rent. My tenant used my email and it went directly into my rental account. Apparently my cell number was linked to the account as well. Then a friend sent me money via Zelle using my cell number and it got automatically deposited into my rental account. Oops! I emailed Zelle and this is what they told me... “You can assign one mobile phone number or email to a single bank account and/or debit card. For example, you can connect your mobile phone number to your account at Bank A and your email address to your account at Bank B. If you are using the Zelle® App, you may only have one debit card active at any given time. If you have multiple accounts at one participating financial institution, please contact your financial institution for assistance in assigning an email or phone number to each account.”
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Jeff Gates
Investor · Cathedral City, CA · Member since 2014 · 481 posts · 170 votes
8y
These services are dangerous!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/22/business/zelle-banks-fraud.html
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Patrick M.
Rental Property Investor · Red Bank, NJ · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
8y
nothing presented in the article makes me uneasy except perhaps the “same phone #” but I use email.
The rest are just variations of the same old frauds.
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Jonathan Dickerson
Rental Property Investor · Aurora, CO · Member since 2014 · 22 posts · 23 votes
8y
@Andrey Y.
I just called and spoke with Venmo. Their customer service rep (Cat) spoke to me for 7 minutes and said using Venmo to pay rent is fine, doesn't break their rules and that she and her roommates use it themselves to pay their own rent to their landlord. Not sure what happened with your transaction, but Cat clarified that I, as the landlord, can receive rent payments via Venmo for free. Sorry your account got closed. Haven't used Zelle, but Venmo is fast, free and so convenient... it's tough to imagine a better setup for a landlord. :)
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Zach CumminsPro Member
Real Estate Agent · Carlsbad, CA · Member since 2017 · 53 posts · 68 votes
8y
We recently experienced a few late/bounced checks from a renter. We believe they are good for the money but by the time we would deposit the snail mail check it would bounce. Another check would then be sent in the mail causing rent to be late. We had our renters download the Zelle app and test it. We will try this going forward for rent, see if it solves our issue. For the late checks, late fees were applied.
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