The Secrets to Getting On-Time Rent Payments

As homeownership becomes more and more unattainable for many, rent (like taxes) seems inevitable. However, just because rent is a consistent necessity doesn’t mean that all of your tenants will pay their rent on time. If you’re looking for new ways to get your tenants to pay their rent promptly, consider the benefits of an online rent payment platform. These platforms encourage on-time rent payments via incentive programs and ease of use.

The Importance of On-Time Rent Payments

When you invest in a rental property, you may have to take on a hefty mortgage. Each tenant’s rent helps you attend to that mortgage, not to mention your personal needs. If tenants are late when paying their rent, you may miss a mortgage payment or have to delay a trip out to the grocery store.

What’s more, tenants who fail to pay their rent on time may find themselves surprised by expensive late fees. Even if you advertise these fees in your lease, the expenses can leave your tenants scrambling and upset. An upset tenant is terrible for business.

If you can encourage on-time rent payments, you can avoid both the financial hassles that both you and your tenants have to contend with.

Encouraging On-Time Rent Payments

Nothing gets your tenants to pay their rent on time quite like effective incentives. There are a few different ways to encourage on-time rent payments. These can include:

Early Pay Incentives

Most people will go to a whole lot of trouble to secure discounts on their necessities. You can use that drive to your advantage. When you work with an online, on-time rent payment program, consider offering rent discounts to those residents who submit their payments early. 

While this discount doesn’t have to be particularly steep, even $20 discounts on a person’s monthly expenses can encourage them to submit their rent payments in a more timely manner.

Late Fees

If positive incentives don’t work, you can always use negative ones to your advantage. Let your tenants know that if they’re late on their rent (either by a day or within your grace period) that they’ll face late fees. 

You can set these fees within the boundaries established by your specific state, but you must mention them ahead of time. While they can surprise tenants, you should be able to point back to a part of your initial contract and outline where tenants first agreed to pay said fees. When you have that kind of protection in place, late fees become a significant deterrent against late payments.

Credit Benefits

Not every credit card company lets renters improve their credit by paying their rent. That said, there are ways to report your tenant’s on-time rent payments to raise their credit scores. When you use PayRent, you can reward tenants who pay their rent on time with a positive reflection on their credit.

Do Online Platforms Make It Easier to Collect Rent?

In this increasingly digital age, online rent payment platforms are rapidly becoming the norm. But is it better to work with an online platform than with a traditional one?

Online rent platforms come with a myriad of benefits. Some of the most common include:

Rent Protection

Online rent exchanges aren’t made without protection. Rent payment platforms encrypt personal user information as well as their exchanges. That way, both your tenants and you can rest easy knowing that your banking information is well protected.

Faster Payment

When you cash a traditional check, it can take a few days for that money to make its way into your account. That’s not the case with online rent payments. Most rent payment platforms can help you secure a tenant’s rent check within a day of its submission. As a result, you can use that money for your mortgage, maintenance fees, or even employee wages all the faster.

Automatic Incentive Programs

As mentioned above, incentives do a lot of work to eliminate late tenant payments. When you work with the right rent payment platform, you can automatically integrate these incentives into your payment plan.

Improve Your Rent Turnaround Today

Rent helps you keep your business afloat. If you want to encourage your tenants to pay their rent on time and consistently, you’ll need to use the digital tools you have at your disposal.