Venmo/Zelle?

[pepperdawg]

One of my tenants wants to pay me their rent via Zelle (or Venmo)? My bank doesn't yet do Zelle (coming soon I guess).

Any pros/cons/things to look out for with either/both? One more-betterer then the other?

Or should I tell him to just write paper check and drop it the locked box in the basement like other tenants.....

[Danno]

All the kids these days do Venmo. It's a legit service, as is Zelle, but I'm not aware of the potential pitfalls. Assuming it's like paypal, you need to make sure they send it as a gift to a friend, rather than payment, or if sent as payment that they add money for fees.

Seeing as how it's a tenant and this is something that will happen monthly, seems like the only time you need to be worried is when they make their last payment (ie, they're not going to try and screw you now).

[bagtagley]

Not all banks allow sending money via Zelle, but I believe any transactional account can accept it. The first time somebody sends you money, you create a Zelle account and link it to a bank account. From then on, when somebody sends you money you just get a text/email and it goes to that bank account automatically. I'm not aware of any fees on either end, though I've only done personal transactions. From my perspective, it's far easier than checks for both parties.

[mall walker]

I paid my rent via Zelle (built into the Chase app fwiw) a few years ago. It's a lot more convenient for both parties and I don't recall paying any fees (or at least not more than a dollar or so).

[DBdude]

venmo works

[adrenalated]

Assuming it's like paypal, you need to make sure they send it as a gift to a friend, rather than payment, or if sent as payment that they add money for fees.

Venmo is designed a little differently than Paypal, in that it's primary purpose is to pay friends for things. So its default is to always charge fees to the sender, not the receiver. It charges fees for sending $$ with credit cards. No fees for using bank accounts or debit cards.

Venmo does have the ability to pay online retailers where the receiver pays fees but it's connected with Paypal for that and so doesn't really happen in this scenario.

I don't know specifically what you'd need to watch for in a tenant/landlord scenario. Venmo works great between friends though, I use it all the time. Can't remember the last time I wrote a check. Probably when I needed to pay some old fuck that refused to use Venmo.