Here you will find a list of commonly asked questions about accepting online payments.
| What does it cost? |
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Renter ACH Payments COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY FREE* as they are included with your Rentec Pro or PM subscription. Credit card payments are billed at 2.95% of the transaction which is typically paid by the tenant.
What about interchange rates, gateway fees, monthly fees and all the other misc fees that merchant accounts normally charge? We've arranged a unique partnership with merchant services to completely eliminate all those fees. You won't find a simpler or more inexpensive way to accept ACH (eCheck) and credit card transactions than through Rentec Direct. * We are able to offer the service completely free for one deposit account and up to 100% of your units to pay rent electronically once each month. |
| How does it work? |
Rentec Direct has already done the hard work integrating with all US banks via the ACH system. All that is required is the following:
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| Can I also pay owners via ACH? |
| Yes you can. Rentec Direct makes this a simple 2 click process where you enter the property owner's bank account information and enter a dollar amount and the funds will automatically transfer from your account to theirs. A payment to an owner would be an outgoing ACH transaction, which has a cost of 50c. |
| How soon are the funds available? |
| Credit card funds are transmitted to your bank account the day following the transaction. ACH funds are transmitted the day following the transaction. You can also get same day funding of ACH transactions for a small extra fee. Depending on your bank, the funds might be available the same day they are transmitted or any day following. Larger national banks typically show the funds the same day as they are transmitted as "pending", and fully cleared the following day. Smaller banks do not have the same connections to the federal reserve and therefore can take anywhere from 1-3 days to post the transaction to your account. |
| Can I set up multiple bank accounts to deposit rent payments into? |
| Yes, we can help with that. To accomplish this, it will require multiple merchant accounts. Rentec Direct provides the first merchant account is free for all PRO & PM clients. If you manage 200 or more rentals, we throw in an additional four free merchant accounts. If you need more merchant accounts, the monthly fee is $15/each. |
| When a paper check is deposited it increases my account balance immediately, right? How is ACH faster than that? |
| Yes, most banks will show an increased balance in your account right away or within 24 hours of depositing a paper check. However, this is the bank artificially increasing your account balance simply to reflect that deposit, and a paper check can still bounce any time within the next few weeks. If that happens, the bank will pull those funds out and charge you a fee. This can be a surprise to many landlords, especially if those funds have already been used to pay, say a mortgage. For this reason, when depositing a paper check, you cannot count on those funds for a full three weeks, whereas with ACH the funds are much more secure because you know if the check funded much sooner. |
| Can I have my tenant pay a transaction fee? |
| Yes. If you choose to have tenant pay the fee the cost will simply be added to their withdrawl. |
| What happens if the tenant has insufficient funds or closes an account? |
| With a paper check you sometimes will not be notified of a NSF check until 1-2 weeks later, sometimes even longer and most banks charge a fee of $7 to $25 to the recipient of a bounced check. With Rentec EasyPay you typically get notified within 48 hours of submitting a payment we will be notified from the tenant's bank if there is a problem with the transfer. In the event of trouble, we will send you an email notifying you that the payment has failed. The EasyPay reports from your management interface will also show that the payment failed. |
| Do you have an automatic monthly or weekly payment option available? |
| Yes we do. We offer both the option of scheduling a future one-time transaction as well as the ability to setup automated weekly or monthly transactions. This can be setup by the property manager when logged into Rentec or via the tenant via the Tenant Portal. |
| Can my tenant pay with a credit card? |
| Yes, you can accept credit card rent payments and if you use Rentec Direct for online applications you can also collect any application fees by credit card. |
| Is it safe to process these transactions online? |
| Yes. Rentec Direct takes extensive precautions to encrypt and secure all data used. We utilize policies and encryption techniques that meet or exceed banking systems. Please see our general FAQ for more details on how we protect your information. |
| How much does expedited ACH funding cost? |
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Normal 1 day funding is included with your Rentec Direct merchant services. You can upgrade to same day funding for $0.50 per transaction.
The merchant provider charges an expedited funding fee because a) it increases their risk in the transaction, and b) they are fronting the money to you before the electronic check clears. |
| What does it take to qualify for a merchant account? |
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All landlords and property managers with a business banking account are eligible. The business must be listed in your state's business registry and be in current good standing.
Unregistered sole proprietors qualify as well. You just need to have a business checking account for the funds to deposit into as the banks will not transmit rental payments to personal bank accounts. If you don't have a business checking account, they are easy to setup at most banks for both registered businesses and sole-proprietors. |
If you have a question that is not answered here, please call us at (800) 881-5139 or email [email protected] with your question and we will get back to you promptly.