Can Venmo be used to pay rent? Yes, you can pay rent through Venmo. Is paying rent with Venmo recommended? It depends because If you decide to pay rent using Venmo, mind you that if anything goes wrong, such as sending money to the wrong recipient, Venmo won’t cover you.
Can you use Venmo to pay rent? If you can, how does it work? And why should you or shouldn’t you use it to pay rent? Continue reading to find out.
Digital payment solutions like Venmo are wildly popular nowadays because they’re convenient in terms of transfer speed and ease of use.
On top of that, digital payment solutions are so versatile that you can use them for many applications, such as online purchases and splitting bills. But what about paying rent?
If you’re a landlord, you aren’t allowed to use Venmo to collect rent unless you’re using a business account.
Collecting rent through a personal Venmo account is a direct violation of the platform’s user agreement.
So, read on to learn more about using Venmo to pay rent.
Advantages of Collecting/Paying Rent With Venmo
It isn’t surprising that many tenants are looking to pay rent through Venmo; the platform offers quite a few notable perks, after all. Here are the advantages of paying rent by Venmo:
1. Ease of Use
Why waste time meeting up with your landlord to hand them the month’s rent in cash when you can send them the money through Venmo using your smartphone? It’s also much more straightforward than writing checks or sending EFTs.
From the landlord’s point of view, they won’t have to worry about depositing checks or waiting until their bank deposit arrives. There’s absolutely no effort involved.
2. Fast Transfers
Venmo transfers take little to no time. They arrive instantly in most cases, but they might take up to 30 minutes on rare occasions, assuming the transfer is from one Venmo account to another Venmo account. That’s because it’s a different story if you’re transferring funds from Venmo to a bank account.
All you have to do is enter your landlord’s Venmo account information and the amount of money you want to transfer, and voila, you’ve paid your rent!
3. Payment Requests
One of the features that set Venmo apart is the ability to request payments, which comes in handy if you’re a landlord who’s using Venmo to collect rent.
As a landlord, you’ve probably dealt with tenants who’ve forgotten to pay their rent on time. Using Venmo’s payment request feature, you can send your tenants payment requests so that they have no excuses for late payments.
Read: Does Venmo Notify if You Add a Friend?
Disadvantages of Collecting/Paying Rent Through Venmo
Clearly, paying your rent with Venmo is much more convenient than in-person payments, checks, and EFTs.
Unfortunately, there are a few concerns that you must be mindful of, which are:
1. Misdirected Payments
If you’re going to use Venmo to pay rent, you must consider that there’s no way to reverse a misdirected payment. So, you must carefully enter the recipient’s contact information.
And if you miss a single letter or number in your landlord’s account, the funds you’re trying to transfer will be sent to a different account, and it’ll be almost impossible to get them back, seeing as Venmo offers no protection.
2. Transaction Fees
Venmo’s business transactions come with a 3% processing fee, which is one of the reasons landlords avoid collecting rent using a business account.
However, you must keep in mind that not declaring a rent payment as a business transaction may result in your account getting closed. Also, note that instant transfers come with a small fee. If you choose to go for a standard bank account transfer, the payment may take a few business days to be processed.
3. Partial Payments
As a landlord, relying on Venmo to collect rent can be inconvenient, seeing as tenants can use the platform to send you partial payments and you won’t have any option to reject these payments.
Not to mention, this can prevent you from evicting a tenant who’s always late on their payments.
Is Venmo Free for Landlords?
No, Venmo isn’t free for landlords. Some tenants and landlords may agree to use Venmo’s “Send Money to Friends” option, which is free of charge, but that’s a direct violation of Venmo’s user agreements.
And if the people at Venmo detect that you’re using the platform to pay/collect rent using the free “Send Money to Friends” option, your account may get suspended.
That’s because Venmo rent payments are considered business transactions, so they should be marked as business transactions when processed through Venmo. And all Venmo business transactions are subject to a fee.
What Is the Best Way to Pay Rent?
It’s tempting to pay/collect rent using a digital payment platform like Venmo, but we wouldn’t recommend it at all. From the lack of protection to problems with partial payments, Venmo isn’t the most reliable way to pay/collect rent.
Bank-to-bank transfers are much more reliable and effective than digital payment solutions. Yes, they’re slower and less convenient, but you won’t have to worry about fees or sending money to the wrong recipient.
And it would be best if you viewed digital payment solutions like Venmo as a backup plan. For example, if you find yourself in a pinch or if you’re unable to make a bank transfer for whatever reason, you can use Venmo to pay your landlord, provided you’re aware of its disadvantages.
In Summary
Can you use Venmo to pay rent? The answer is yes. It isn’t recommended, though, because you run the risk of a misdirected payment, as a tenant. And as a landlord, you’ll have to pay fees and deal with inconveniences that may arise due to partial payments.
Moreover, if you’re going to use Venmo to pay rent, make sure the transaction is marked as a business transaction so that you don’t run the risk of getting your account closed.
Also, make sure to write the recipient’s information carefully to avoid making a misdirected payment.
