Hi @Sara Taslitt, I currently collect rent via personal check, money order or cashier's check. My tenants leave their payments in a Rent Box located on the property which I pick up every month. It has worked pretty well so far.

Online rent collections are also a good route, my major issue with them is you cannot block partial payments which could cause a problem down the road.

I used Cozy, it's simple to use, and it offers pretty good expense report at the end of the year as long as your entries are accurate. It's also convenient to issue a credit to the tenant for small repairs. For instance, the toilet handle broke, and my tenant bought a new one and installed it. I just credited their Cozy account for the handle.

Hi @Sara Taslitt , I wrote this on your other post but it applies.

There are two trains of thought when it comes to tenant payments:

• My Way:  You have a defined method and that is all you will accept.  Important to tell them during the application process.
• Doesn't Matter:  You only care about collecting money!  As long as they pay you on-time and you don't have to hassle them, any method the tenant prefers.

My personal preference is it doesn't matter, I give them 2-3 options that works best for them.  I want to make their life easier so I get paid!

Here are several methods to get paid, you'll have to judge based on the class of tenants you work with:

• Bank deposit:  Provide them the slips and forms so there are no excuses.  Instant
• Cozy:  Website based and specifically for tenant payments.  There is a charge per transaction. I believe a 7-10 day wait period to transfer to bank
• Zelle:  This works with large banks (Chase, BofA, Wells Fargo).  I believe instant or 1-2 days
• Venmo:  Phone app that is popular with younger crowds.  Most of my tenants prefer this.  2-3 day period.
• PayPal:  Website and phone app.  There is a charge per transaction.  2-3 day period.

There is also a Walmart option, however I don't know too much about that.

I would say 70% of our tenants here in Connecticut pay through our website and the other 30% either mail payment to our office or drop it off at our office in the rent slot. 

@Kenny Dahill Can you elaborate on the bank method? What slips and forms are needed?

 It depends on the bank. I use a local credit union that only requires someone to have your account number in order to deposit money into your account. The tenant can also set up an e-check payment through their bank once they have your account number and the routing number for your bank. 

I use carrier pigeons to collect rent

@Dennis M. So old school.... you know, theres a thing called the pony Express now???

Everything gets paid to a predesignated bank account, no exceptions:

A. You agree to pay the monthly rent indicated above via deposit to the following checking account at XYZ Credit Union: account # 123; routing # 456  (nearest branch is ADDRESS).Rent is due in advance and in full on or before the 1st day of each month without deduction or set off. Time is of the essence. Payment may not be made by third party checks. If rent is not paid physically at a branch (i.e. it is paid online or via bank transfer), the date of payment will be considered the date when funds reach our account. 

I use Cozy.co for my tenants with US bank accounts and Transferwise for my international tenants who do not have US bank accounts. Neither of these platforms charge a service fee as long as the tenant chooses to pay via ACH. Cozy.co allows tenants to pay using a credit card and they are then charged a credit card fee which, of course, is steep.

My only complaint with Cozy.co is that their user interface for tenants is designed such that my highly intelligent visiting scholar tenants make tons of mistakes when attempting to set up their first payments. I'm renting on the extended stay market which means I can have 3 or more turnovers in a single year for a single unit and I have 3 units. So set up SNAFUs are a huge headache for me. 

But Cozy.co is free to both landlord and tenant paying via ACH and it is reliable once the SNAFUs are sorted out. Since the majority of my tenants are renting from afar, the only other option I would have to electronic payments are checks via snail mail. Cozy is faster even with the SNAFUs. 

By the way, it is my understanding that Cozy won't accept partial payments. There are dollar amount limits on Venmo. PayPal charges a very large service fee. Both Venmo and PayPal will accept partial payments.

@Alex Jones isn’t it really bad if they have my account number and routing number that’s why other apps use email or phone # to deposit the money in that account. I just want to be safe and make sure nothing happens.

@Sergio Aguinaga anytime you write a check to someone they have your bank account and routing number.  They are right along the bottom of each check.

In most cases, people can't do anything untoward with that information without the bank's cooperation.  Most banks require you to show ID  to verify you are the owner to withdraw money from an account.

We use Cozy and like all aspects except that there is no way to decline partial payments. We had an issue recently in which we started eviction process and contacted Cozy customer service and were our best option would be to stop all payments and notify the tenants they would have to pay a different way during the eviction process, which was frustrating.

Thanks for all the responses. In regards to using Cozy, does it show when the tenant made the payment? I believe that I read it takes a few days for the transaction to process. What day do you require your tenants to make the payments?

@Sara Taslitt The landlord does see when the tenant makes a payment. If a tenant chooses to make their initial payment via ACH, I can see that the payment has been initiated and Cozy.co is verifying the tenant's bank account. That can take awhile but once the bank account has been verified, I see how much time Cozy takes to process the payment and when it is due to hit our account. Credit card payments are quicker for the landlord but expensive for the tenant.

I just tell the tenant that the rent is due on the first of the month. Some of my tenants interpret that to mean they should schedule the payments in Cozy in advance so that it hits our account on the first. Some interpret it to mean they should start the payment on the first of the month. To be honest, it does not matter to us which the tenant does, since they are scheduled payments and we know exactly when to expect the money in our account. 

I do warn my tenants not to schedule the payments more than 10 days before the due date because, otherwise, Cozy will not recognize it as paid - one of the interface design flaws. 

@Sara Taslitt one tenant mails a check, one uses zelle and one uses Facebook messenger to pay. I used cozy for a while but got sick of waiting up to a week at times.

How do you all accept applications? Do you do it online? What is the process you use? I saw that you can do it using cozy. I’ve also heard that is best to collect an application fee.

@Sara Taslitt we use Zelle on one single family and we have another one that has our bank account # and he goes to his bank and tells them to deposit the money into our account. Both have worked well so far.

Our multifamilies are collected by the online portal through our property manager.

I am of the mindset that it doesn't matter how I get my money....to a point.  My preferred methods are ACH, money order, check in that order.  After that I'll take cash.  I'd do Venmo as well from what I've read and it seems a lot of people use it.  My only concern is that accepting payments for good and/or services is against Venmo's terms of service.  It seems hard for Venmo to reverse a transaction but I worry that they could if someone claimed I was doing business and asked the tenant to pay that way.  I don't accept paypal or credit card because it is way too easy to reverse a transaction.  Paypal and credit card companies are there to protect their customer, who is the consumer.  The onus falls to much on me to prove that I should have gotten the payment.

I've never signed up for Cozy simply because what I have works and I don't see a value add in it for me.  In the all my payment methods I get the funds immediately and they are easy to use.  I'm not seeing the value add for Cozy bringing in a wait period to that.  

@Kenny Dahill. No charge for Cozy but correct on the wait

@Sara Taslitt cozy is the best invention for small landlords!

Definitely use this software if you self manage. They have everything you need to get started :)

@Sara Taslitt I do use Cozy.co but mostly for having documents on file for renters and me to have at hand. I have collected rent via Cozy, and will the first couple of months, however I don't like to do so because it takes a week for Cozy to post to my account! I usually move to Zelle, check or PayPal.

@Sara Taslitt This topic comes from newbies every other month. I personally answered three or four. Do a search on it in BP, there is tons of information on it that is still relevant and also other people’s experience. Good luck.

You people. Just...you people. Do you have actual blood in your veins?

I like cash. Hell, I LOVE CASH. I have just one tenant who pays in cash now (used twenties from a cash job) and I get all the logistical difficulties, but really...it's CASH.

In the brief interim of time between receiving my wad of greasy, stinking twenties in my hot little hand and the moment I stuff those bills into the slot of the ATM, I feel alive. That fat little envelope in my pocket brings me joy and warms the cockles of my aging heart.

Now granted, I'm clearly a lot more steeped in sin than a lot of users of this website. I've done plenty of things I'm not proud of. I found other ways than the strait and narrow.

That cash brings me back to days that might make a lot of you prim pearl-clutchers tongue-cluck in horror, but it was my youth and they were my mistakes and I own them all.

You  deposit your cash???

Spend it, Jim, spend it!  :-D