Venmo credit card for paying rent

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CoherentIntegration
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Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by CoherentIntegration »

Does anyone use the Venmo Credit Card? I'm in the process of signing a new lease, and the landlord accepts Venmo as a payment option. The Venmo credit card seems like an easy way to shave a bit off the top of my rent. I don't use Venmo very often, maybe once every month or two to split food with friends. My concern is that I might end up with a card that I don't use if my next landlord doesn't accept Venmo. Has anyone here used the Venmo card for something like this?
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anon_investor
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by anon_investor »

CoherentIntegration wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:03 am Does anyone use the Venmo Credit Card? I'm in the process of signing a new lease, and the landlord accepts Venmo as a payment option. The Venmo credit card seems like an easy way to shave a bit off the top of my rent. I don't use Venmo very often, maybe once every month or two to split food with friends. My concern is that I might end up with a card that I don't use if my next landlord doesn't accept Venmo. Has anyone here used the Venmo card for something like this?
I thought the Venmo CC had certain cash back catagories. Would you use it for any of those?
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CoherentIntegration
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by CoherentIntegration »

anon_investor wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:05 am I thought the Venmo CC had certain cash back catagories. Would you use it for any of those?
Bills/Utilities is an eligible category for 2% or 3% cashback, but it looks like this landlord accepts payments to a personal account rather than business. I doubt that my payments would fall into that category then. These payments would likely fall into the 1% "everything else" cashback bucket.
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anon_investor
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by anon_investor »

CoherentIntegration wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:24 pm
anon_investor wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:05 am I thought the Venmo CC had certain cash back catagories. Would you use it for any of those?
Bills/Utilities is an eligible category for 2% or 3% cashback, but it looks like this landlord accepts payments to a personal account rather than business. I doubt that my payments would fall into that category then. These payments would likely fall into the 1% "everything else" cashback bucket.
Ah. Does Venmo charge a processing fee, or would you be able to charge your rent and get 1% cash back with no processing fee, that might still be worth something. Most places I have ever rented from would charge you a processing fee to use a CC to pay rent. This may be a viable work around.
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CoherentIntegration
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by CoherentIntegration »

anon_investor wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:32 pm
CoherentIntegration wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:24 pm
anon_investor wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:05 am I thought the Venmo CC had certain cash back catagories. Would you use it for any of those?
Bills/Utilities is an eligible category for 2% or 3% cashback, but it looks like this landlord accepts payments to a personal account rather than business. I doubt that my payments would fall into that category then. These payments would likely fall into the 1% "everything else" cashback bucket.
Ah. Does Venmo charge a processing fee, or would you be able to charge your rent and get 1% cash back with no processing fee, that might still be worth something. Most places I have ever rented from would charge you a processing fee to use a CC to pay rent. This may be a viable work around.
There is a 3% processing fee for this type of transaction via CC. I've been looking (hoping) for an exemption to that fee for using the Venmo card, but I don't see it. Ah well, it was a nice thought while it lasted.
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samsoes
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by samsoes »

Can you just pay your rent by check?
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bradinsky
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by bradinsky »

I have accepted Venmo rent payments from my tenant for about 4 years. Much easier than checks for both parties. Payment from the tenant is from his bank account & I transfer the received funds to mine No credit card is involved. Love it!
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by LittleMaggieMae »

I'm seeing most banks are offering/using Zelle to transfer money - with no service charge between checking accounts.

I have tenants paying me via Zelle. They just needed the email address associated with the checking account I wanted their rent deposited into. I believe they set up an automatic monthly transfer.

I have no idea who my tenant banks with (other than their bank offers the Zelle service) nor do I have any of their banking info (routing/account) - and my tenant has no idea what bank or account their payment is going to.
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by anon_investor »

CoherentIntegration wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:46 pm
anon_investor wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:32 pm
CoherentIntegration wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:24 pm
anon_investor wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:05 am I thought the Venmo CC had certain cash back catagories. Would you use it for any of those?
Bills/Utilities is an eligible category for 2% or 3% cashback, but it looks like this landlord accepts payments to a personal account rather than business. I doubt that my payments would fall into that category then. These payments would likely fall into the 1% "everything else" cashback bucket.
Ah. Does Venmo charge a processing fee, or would you be able to charge your rent and get 1% cash back with no processing fee, that might still be worth something. Most places I have ever rented from would charge you a processing fee to use a CC to pay rent. This may be a viable work around.
There is a 3% processing fee for this type of transaction via CC. I've been looking (hoping) for an exemption to that fee for using the Venmo card, but I don't see it. Ah well, it was a nice thought while it lasted.
That is too bad, no work around I guess.
idunno246
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by idunno246 »

yea venmo isnt the same as venmo credit card. when you use the credit card it goes through visa/mc and gets charged interchange fees which gets passed on, whereas venmo is just a cash transfer within venmos network
alex_686
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by alex_686 »

bradinsky wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 1:01 pm I have accepted Venmo rent payments from my tenant for about 4 years. Much easier than checks for both parties. Payment from the tenant is from his bank account & I transfer the received funds to mine No credit card is involved. Love it!
How do you know the payment is coming from the renter's bank account? It could be coming from almost anywhere. And to extend, why would you care where the payments were coming from?

My renter does pay me via Venmo. It works well. But I really can't see what is happening on the other side of the transaction.
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bradinsky
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by bradinsky »

alex_686 wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 2:10 pm
bradinsky wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 1:01 pm I have accepted Venmo rent payments from my tenant for about 4 years. Much easier than checks for both parties. Payment from the tenant is from his bank account & I transfer the received funds to mine No credit card is involved. Love it!
How do you know the payment is coming from the renter's bank account? It could be coming from almost anywhere. And to extend, why would you care where the payments were coming from?

My renter does pay me via Venmo. It works well. But I really can't see what is happening on the other side of the transaction.
Alex,
Didn’t say I cared, did I? Personally, it doesn’t matter where it comes from as long as I get paid! I know because the tenant is a relative & they told me. In actuality it could be drawn on a credit card. They actually got me started with Venmo. Very skeptical at first but it’s worked well for both parties.
.
cbeck
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by cbeck »

What proof of payment does Venmo provide in lieu of a cashed check image?
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anon_investor
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by anon_investor »

cbeck wrote: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:02 pm What proof of payment does Venmo provide in lieu of a cashed check image?
You can print out a statement.
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by cbeck »

anon_investor wrote: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:07 pm
cbeck wrote: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:02 pm What proof of payment does Venmo provide in lieu of a cashed check image?
You can print out a statement.
I always wonder how effective such a statement would be in the event of a dispute, since any statement can be mocked up easily, unlike a cancelled check that confirms that the payee's bank actually received the funds.
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by JackoC »

cbeck wrote: Sat Sep 25, 2021 6:53 pm
anon_investor wrote: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:07 pm
cbeck wrote: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:02 pm What proof of payment does Venmo provide in lieu of a cashed check image?
You can print out a statement.
I always wonder how effective such a statement would be in the event of a dispute, since any statement can be mocked up easily, unlike a cancelled check that confirms that the payee's bank actually received the funds.
Seems most/all the statements about rent paid by Venmo just now have been by landlords. From that side we don't have any incremental worry about tenants failing to pay because they use Venmo. They could mock up a fake statement saying paid, ours still wouldn't and Venmo will know which one is fake. We worry about people not paying, especially in the recent situation (I won't comment further) but not about Venmo.

From the other side I think the same logic actually applies: landlord presents fake Venmo statement saying the tenant didn't pay, tenant has one saying they did pay, Venmo knows theirs is real. But different people worry about all different remote scenarios. Anyway Venmo use by our tenants is strictly by age: above a certain age all tenants pay by check or money order, below it by Venmo; regular 'peer to peer' no fee Venmo.
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by LeftCoast »

Landlord here. Given the continuing deterioration of the U.S. Postal Service, more and more tenants are using Zelle to pay their rent. No charge to either party.

No tenant has ever asked to pay by Venmo. I would say the breakdown is 60% checks, 30% Zelle, and one guy who pays by money order.
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by Grogs »

anon_investor wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 1:51 pm
CoherentIntegration wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:46 pm
anon_investor wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:32 pm
CoherentIntegration wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:24 pm
anon_investor wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:05 am I thought the Venmo CC had certain cash back catagories. Would you use it for any of those?
Bills/Utilities is an eligible category for 2% or 3% cashback, but it looks like this landlord accepts payments to a personal account rather than business. I doubt that my payments would fall into that category then. These payments would likely fall into the 1% "everything else" cashback bucket.
Ah. Does Venmo charge a processing fee, or would you be able to charge your rent and get 1% cash back with no processing fee, that might still be worth something. Most places I have ever rented from would charge you a processing fee to use a CC to pay rent. This may be a viable work around.
There is a 3% processing fee for this type of transaction via CC. I've been looking (hoping) for an exemption to that fee for using the Venmo card, but I don't see it. Ah well, it was a nice thought while it lasted.
That is too bad, no work around I guess.
I recently discovered this for myself. I'm working out of state and the company is reimbursing my rent while I'm here. There's about a 1.5 month lag between paying the rent and getting the reimbursement. When I started, I thought I would be able to pay the rent by CC and then the carry on the card would be about the same as the lag in reimbursement. Unfortunately, I discovered that the apartment building adds a 3.5% CC fee and the company won't reimburse that. :( I would have liked to get the extra miles and hit the annual spend waiver on the CC, but it's not worth paying hundreds of dollars of fees out of pocket to get there.

For utilities, my experience has been mixed. The electric company charges a small fee for CC - about 1.5%. The gas company doesn't charge a fee, but I have to jump through more hoops relative to just using an e-check. The only one where the CC is seamless is the cable company. Not only do they not charge a fee, they give me a monthly discount for enrolling my account for auto-billing via CC. Maybe that's a sign that the cable company overcharges so much that a 3% fee for the transaction is in the noise. :annoyed
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by goodenyou »

bradinsky wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 1:01 pm I have accepted Venmo rent payments from my tenant for about 4 years. Much easier than checks for both parties. Payment from the tenant is from his bank account & I transfer the received funds to mine No credit card is involved. Love it!
I pay with Venmo as well. It's great. The only problem is the rent is split in 2 payments because of the $2,000 per day limit. Landlord still prefers since my electronic check was "lost" in the mail previously.
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by cbeck »

JackoC wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 12:33 pm
cbeck wrote: Sat Sep 25, 2021 6:53 pm
anon_investor wrote: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:07 pm
cbeck wrote: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:02 pm What proof of payment does Venmo provide in lieu of a cashed check image?
You can print out a statement.
I always wonder how effective such a statement would be in the event of a dispute, since any statement can be mocked up easily, unlike a cancelled check that confirms that the payee's bank actually received the funds.
Seems most/all the statements about rent paid by Venmo just now have been by landlords. From that side we don't have any incremental worry about tenants failing to pay because they use Venmo. They could mock up a fake statement saying paid, ours still wouldn't and Venmo will know which one is fake. We worry about people not paying, especially in the recent situation (I won't comment further) but not about Venmo.

From the other side I think the same logic actually applies: landlord presents fake Venmo statement saying the tenant didn't pay, tenant has one saying they did pay, Venmo knows theirs is real. But different people worry about all different remote scenarios. Anyway Venmo use by our tenants is strictly by age: above a certain age all tenants pay by check or money order, below it by Venmo; regular 'peer to peer' no fee Venmo.
It's true that I haven't heard about people being unable to resolve payment disputes made through phone apps. Still, a Venmo statement seems to me to fall short of a cancelled check as proof of payment. Of course, no one uses checks anymore. I pay my rent through a bank transfer to the landlord's account at the same bank, so that doesn't worry me.
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by JackoC »

LeftCoast wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 1:27 pm Landlord here. Given the continuing deterioration of the U.S. Postal Service, more and more tenants are using Zelle to pay their rent. No charge to either party.

No tenant has ever asked to pay by Venmo. I would say the breakdown is 60% checks, 30% Zelle, and one guy who pays by money order.
Venmo vs. Zelle is probably partly location and general 'circle'. Among my grown kids and friends in NY area personal payments to one another seem to be pretty strictly Venmo. In fact since my kids do the hands-on aspects of property management it's possible our younger tenants asked 'can I pay electronically?' and my kids said 'how about Venmo?', or maybe also Venmo is just the thing in those tenants' circles. We also often pay service providers with Venmo but have never used Zelle in either direction. But if a tenant insisted on Zelle, why not, getting the money is the priority. :happy It just seems the basic reason for all these choices is people's habits, also between old school and electronic. I agree the most common dispute with checks 'we sent it/we didn't get it' is much more common in reality than disputes about electronic payments, we've never experienced the latter situation. I think it's mainly just that older people are used to checks. And some people don't have bank accounts, which I assume is the reason several of our tenants pay with money orders. In some parts of the developing world there are popular systems to pay by phone without a bank account and people who pay by phone have come to far outnumber people who have bank accounts. But in the US the electronic systems are more predicated on having a bank account. It's possible to use at least some of them without one (Venmo it is) but practically seems like people without bank accounts rarely use electronic payment systems.
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by NYGiantsFan »

Before Venmo & Zelle became standard, I provided my bank account number to some tenants and they directly deposited in the bank. I moved money from that account overnight for safety.
Since last several years, I have started asking payment only electronically via Zelle. It is fairly simple except Zelle has limit per transaction as well as bank has incoming limit on Zelle. I ended up creating separate account for each tenant and asking them to deposit money viz Zelle in split transaction. Due to banking relationship, I don't have minimum requirement for these deposit accounts. Once money is in the account, I move them out.
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by anon_investor »

NYGiantsFan wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 2:56 pm Before Venmo & Zelle became standard, I provided my bank account number to some tenants and they directly deposited in the bank. I moved money from that account overnight for safety.
Since last several years, I have started asking payment only electronically via Zelle. It is fairly simple except Zelle has limit per transaction as well as bank has incoming limit on Zelle. I ended up creating separate account for each tenant and asking them to deposit money viz Zelle in split transaction. Due to banking relationship, I don't have minimum requirement for these deposit accounts. Once money is in the account, I move them out.
Interesting set up. How many accounts did you have to create? That seems exccessive to have to do that. Do you close the accounts after each tenant moves? I wonder how other smaller landlords do it. I have only rented from places that have a management company handling rental payments. All of the ones within the last 10 years usually have some online account portal that allows you to set up an ACH transaction to pay your rent. I have some older family members that have rentals, they still have tenants mail them checks.
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by NYGiantsFan »

anon_investor wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:05 pm Interesting set up. How many accounts did you have to create? That seems exccessive to have to do that. Do you close the accounts after each tenant moves? I wonder how other smaller landlords do it. I have only rented from places that have a management company handling rental payments. All of the ones within the last 10 years usually have some online account portal that allows you to set up an ACH transaction to pay your rent. I have some older family members that have rentals, they still have tenants mail them checks.
I assume it can become excessive if there are more than ten units. Positive part of this set up is that it makes my accounting and tax straightforward. All income and expenses are paid for each property from that property's bank account. At the time of filing the tax, I can download year worth of transactions for previous year and get it done quickly. I don't need to close the account when tenant moves out as tenant is only sending money via Zelle.
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anon_investor
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by anon_investor »

NYGiantsFan wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:55 pm
anon_investor wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:05 pm Interesting set up. How many accounts did you have to create? That seems exccessive to have to do that. Do you close the accounts after each tenant moves? I wonder how other smaller landlords do it. I have only rented from places that have a management company handling rental payments. All of the ones within the last 10 years usually have some online account portal that allows you to set up an ACH transaction to pay your rent. I have some older family members that have rentals, they still have tenants mail them checks.
I assume it can become excessive if there are more than ten units. Positive part of this set up is that it makes my accounting and tax straightforward. All income and expenses are paid for each property from that property's bank account. At the time of filing the tax, I can download year worth of transactions for previous year and get it done quickly. I don't need to close the account when tenant moves out as tenant is only sending money via Zelle.
Interesting, what are the transfer limited for Zelle? I have only ever used it to transfer small amounts.
NYGiantsFan
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Re: Venmo credit card for paying rent

Post by NYGiantsFan »

anon_investor wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 4:06 pm
NYGiantsFan wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:55 pm
anon_investor wrote: Mon Sep 27, 2021 3:05 pm Interesting set up. How many accounts did you have to create? That seems exccessive to have to do that. Do you close the accounts after each tenant moves? I wonder how other smaller landlords do it. I have only rented from places that have a management company handling rental payments. All of the ones within the last 10 years usually have some online account portal that allows you to set up an ACH transaction to pay your rent. I have some older family members that have rentals, they still have tenants mail them checks.
I assume it can become excessive if there are more than ten units. Positive part of this set up is that it makes my accounting and tax straightforward. All income and expenses are paid for each property from that property's bank account. At the time of filing the tax, I can download year worth of transactions for previous year and get it done quickly. I don't need to close the account when tenant moves out as tenant is only sending money via Zelle.
Interesting, what are the transfer limited for Zelle? I have only ever used it to transfer small amounts.
Zelle limits to $1000 for each transaction as per my tenant who is doing on monthly basis. Tenant ends up doing 2 transactions on two consecutive days. One tenant is also using Cash from Square. It takes time to get money transferred from Cash to bank (3 days hold).
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