I was so very excited to see that my apartment complex was offering rent payments online. I can already pay my rent with my Chase Freedom Visa card and earn points for cash back.
Unlike some other places, my apartment complex does not charge extra for paying via credit card so I was very happy about that.
Then I noticed that they were offering an online payment option. Oh yeah!
This would make it even easier for me because now I could pay my rent from the comfort of my own room.
I registered for the site and was ready to pay the water bill today when I noticed this little statement on the bottom of the page.
A $9.95 convenience fee will be added to this transaction.
Stop!
I am not going to pay $9.95 to pay the bill online when I can pay it without additional charges by stopping at the office on my way home.
I guess I will just have to use the Chase card in the office and get the points that way instead of trying to do it online.
This is a trend a lot of national property management companies are moving towards because they are discovering their cash flow improves more quickly this way.
Is your apartment owned by a national or local company?
Just be sure to pay your credit card off every month. 😉
Mark it does not matter to me who owns the company. They do not charge if you walk into the office and pay with your credit card, which is what I do.
I just thought it was strange that you can walk in and hand them your card and not get a fee but if you pay on the internet you get charged.
I will keep walking in and paying with my card in person since this is cheaper. I wonder how many people have noticed this and if anyone is actually going to use the online payment system.
Man, I wish my apartment complex let me pay by credit card. I just applied for a chase freedom card too… it would be nice to get money back on my rent payments!
Have you tried asking them? I had one friend ask and they apartment complex started to do it about one month later.
What about your online banking bill payment setup?
I pay my condo fee and water bill online even though both are simply PO Boxes. In the event the bank cannot do an electronic funds transfer, they will mail a paper check to your payee. When setting up the payee, you are prompted for your name, account number, etc.
This is how I get around those inconvenience fees.
@ Elliot:
The fee does not bother me since I can walk into the office and pay using my credit card to get points. I was just mentioning it because it would be nice to pay without having to go into the office.
I am just happy to get the points for cash back. 🙂
Interesting enough. I just wrote an article about this on my blog.
In response to LuluGal, the points that you from your credit card are not likely to be enough to offset a $10 convenience fee. If a credit card point is worth 1 cent (somewhat standard), and your rent is $700, you’re earning only $7 in rewards, but are paying $10 upfront.
My girlfriend found this site – williampaid.com – that lets anyone pay their rent using a debit/credit card and/or bank account. What’s great is that you don’t need to have your landlord sign-up, so anyone can use it.
It does have fees, but they are a lot less than all the other sites I’ve seen – it’s even cheaper than PayPal (I had used that once).
I’ve only used them for one month – so far, so good.
That happened with my electricity bill I couldn’t call in my credit card number without paying 10 dollars, the other option, not so nice, is to go to an office and pay by check or cash. The office is way out of the way and I was stuck with a 10 dollar overage every month. It was horrible.
VirtualPay allows you to pay rent online with a credit card when the property manager does not accept credit card payments (you have to pay an administrative fee for the service).