82% of US citizens used some form of online payment in 2021. Part of this was because of the pandemic. Many people felt online shopping was safer and were weary of public spaces.
Online payments are also generally more convenient. Digital payments are faster and take less time out of your day. You and your tenants can avoid plenty of hassle by allowing them to pay rent online.
There are many good reasons why you should allow digital payments - we provide five below. Keep reading if you want to know why paying rent online is a great choice for your rental business.
1. Online Payments Save Time
Collecting rent can be tedious for everyone involved. Your tenant has to find time out of their day to deliver the payment to you. But rental payments are arguably slower for the landlord.
Here's what collecting rent looks like without digital payments:
- Collecting rent from each tenant
- Preparing deposit slips
- Making deposits at the bank
- Preparing receipts
- Ensuring checks clear
- Keeping bookkeeping records up to date
Allowing tenants to pay rent online eliminates a lot of administrative tedium. The online service handles most of the work for you and you and your tenants have more time for other things.
2. More Flexibility for Tenants
No one is saying you have to get rid of in-person payments. However, it is helpful if you offer more payment methods to tenants. Paying rent online also provides plenty of payment methods.
For example, your tenants can pay their rent with:
- Credit cards
- Debit cards
- Bank drafts
- Electronic transfers
- Money orders
- eChecks
Online portals give you and tenants a lot more leeway in accepting and making payments. Some payment portals even allow some tenants to split rental payments into installments.
3. Easier to Enforce Late Fees
Sometimes tenants can't (or don't) pay rent on time. Sometimes they may honestly forget when the rent is due. Regardless, online payments come with automatic warnings and may draft the late fee from your tenant's account.
The obvious advantage to letting tenants pay rent online is you collect extra money from late fees. But, the online portal does also help renters by reminding them of rental due dates.
4. Helps Build Payment History
Having a trackable payment history is helpful when you're buying a car or house. Strong payment history doesn't guarantee a great credit score, but it is helpful toward building one.
Your renters get a lot of mileage out of a transparent payment portal. They can access their payment records whenever they need to for loans or other future rentals.
5. Online Payments Are Transparent
It's much easier to check an online payment portal than to go through paperwork. We're not saying you shouldn't keep paper records. But going through digital records is more streamlined than rifling through papers.
Both you and the tenants can find out when they made payments and how the money was issued. This makes financial disputes and record-keeping a simpler process.
Let Your Tenants Pay Rent Online
The main reason for letting your tenants pay rent online is it's easier for everyone. You can keep better records and it takes less time to collect your money. Online payments also allow for various payment methods.
Of course, hiring a property manager can make owning a rental property even easier. If you're interested in what a property manager can do for you, speak with our people today!
