Paying your bills online – What are the advantages?

/in /by

Let us look into the main benefits of paying the bills online:

Easy

Using online bill pay allows you to save on time. Instead of writing out checks, gluing stamps and keeping a file of papers, setting up an online account can get rid of these steps. It will also be much easier and faster to manage your debt.

When you need to go over previous bills, you do not have to waste time looking for them because all of your account details are located in one centralized location.

Cost-Effective

Online bill payment enables you to save on postage stamp costs. On the average, a household receives 15 bills every month, amounting to $70 in postage costs per year.

Try to avoid late fees that can be incurred when payment is made after the due date. When you miss payments, this could bring about:

  • Higher interest rates;
  • Over limit fees and late fees;
  • When payment is overdue, your account could be placed on collection status.

Convenient

To manage debt more conveniently and efficiently, go for automatic online bill payment solutions. Creating an account will enable you to set up recurring payments that will regularly be withdrawn from your account. This way, you can minimize the possibility of late or lost payments, saving time during the process.

Even if any of your bills is due the following day, online bill pay makes sure your payment is posted right on schedule.

What consumers should watch out for

There is always some kind of risk involved whenever doing transactions by electronic means. This may only be minimal, but it continues to increase due to the development of more sophisticated hacking techniques.

Over the last few years, a technique called “phishing” has become a major concern. Phishers give out fraudulent messages (via a web page pop-up or email) that are intended to deceive you into sharing your personal account details. Such messages often look legit (with their company logos etc.) so they can easily trick consumers when they are not too careful. According to a recent study, 57 million Americans have been sent phishing emails, and of that number, almost 2 million individuals have been tricked into giving their personal account info to a counterfeit source.

How to Avoid Scams

Consider the following tips to stay away from online scams:

  • Review your online banking transactions on a regular basis to make sure there is no suspicious activity going on.
  • Change your online passwords every 1 to 2 months. Always choose a password that has upper and lower case letters, plus symbols to reduce the chance to be guessed.
  • Watch out for fraudulent emails. Even if an email looks legitimate (with a logo), it may have been sent by a fraudulent source. If the email wants you to verify or update your personal account information immediately, do not respond to the email.
  • When you get an email from an unknown source, make sure to delete it. If you mistakenly open the email, do not click on any of the links. You might download a virus to your computer. If the email looks legitimate, type the web address in your browser instead of clicking on the link.
  • Keep the anti-spam and anti-virus spam software on your computer. This will help you to block out spam and junk mail.

Looking for a reliable online rental payment service? We have specialized in this type of solutions for tenants – get in touch with us today and discover our rent payment service!

Reasons to Use Online Bill Payment

/in /by

In the past, people were not comfortable about paying their bills online. Majority of them felt it was not secure to transact on the web and thought that their money was put at risk when using the online bill payment system.  Every time you give your checking account information to your utilities provider and insurance company, there is a possibility of getting overbilled or falling victim to identity theft. Writing on checks and stamped envelopes seemed a lot safer. For this reason, there are people who still follow that practice.

However, a lot of things have changed. Many people are paying nearly all their bills online, including credit card payments, loan payments, mortgages, rent, tuition fees and utilities, among others. So, why should you opt to pay your bills online?  To start with, you can save a lot of time and postage costs as well as late payment fees. In addition, paying online is a lot safer than by means of snail-mail. Your personal information is more prone to identity theft while on print and being transported through the postal system. If you pay your bills using your credit card, it would be easier to monitor and manage your finances. Moreover, you can earn travel miles plus receive cash-based rewards.

There are 3 easy ways to pay your bill online: through your bank, on the biller’s website or via a third-party.  They all come with advantages and disadvantages so it is up to you to decide on the method you prefer.  There are several good reasons to move ahead and pay your bills online.

Every time you hear about online bill payment, you might think that it has something to do with arranging automated drafts from your bank account so you can pay your bills. Nevertheless, more people use their credit cards to pay their bills online. Also, more merchants accept credit card payments therefore you can pay your rent, mortgage and other bills with your credit card whenever you want to.

Online bill payment is undoubtedly easier and faster than paying via check and snail-mail. In essence, it eliminates problems that involve procrastination. You no longer have to worry about not paying your bills on time. You can agree to a monthly payment schedule through your bank/billing company so you will not go past the due date. Granting you pay online on a monthly basis instead of doing automatic payments, you still save on time, costs and frustration. Even if you pay online close to the deadline, you still save on time since online transactions are still faster than mailing payments.

When you are online, you could be prone to hacking, getting computer viruses and spyware (there are less risks with automated payments). However, you are also prone to identity theft when mailing payments. It is best not to mail checks and paper statements that include your personal information. Whenever you make an online bill payment, you have an option in case of a dispute since you have records of payments and their respective dates.

Thus, contrary to what people formerly believed in, online bill payment is safer than snail mail since it includes more protection when you use your credit card to pay your bills.

An online rental payment service can bring great advantages to both the landlord and the tenants. If you are in the rental business, you really should start considering a rent payment service.

How to Encourage Your Tenants to Pay the Rent Online

/in /by

Landlords continue to search for efficient ways to manage rent payment collections. The traditional way of collecting rent from tenants who pay in the form of a check may still be comfortable for some property owners, but this could also bring about some problems. Checks can get misplaced or lost on their way to you, or tenants may forget to hand over that check on the first day of the month, making you spend more time and effort to monitor their payments.

Fortunately, an online rent payment service can address many of the aforementioned problems and benefit landlords and tenants alike. However, even if a lot of tenants pay most of their bills online these days – like auto payments, cards and utilities – there are still some who hesitate to pay their biggest bill through the Internet. So, how can a landlord encourage tenants to do online rent payments?

Online Rental Payment Advantages

As earlier mentioned, receiving online rent payments takes out the middleman from the process: tenant to landlord to bank. Landlords no longer need to receive a check, file it to deposit later, go to the tenant’s record to mark the payment, sign checks to be deposited, fill out the bank deposit slip and go to the bank to deposit the money. All they have to do is get the payment in one click, then transfer the amount into your bank account with another click. Landlords can set up automatic payments for their tenants, linking their bank accounts to that of their tenants. Rather than wait for them to mail the rent check or drop it off, it will automatically be withdrawn from the bank account of the tenant and deposited into that of the landlord.

Online banking can also save a lot of time and money for tenants. They no longer need to fill out a check, mail it or drop it off. They just need to fill out some spaces online and permit payment, which only takes a few seconds and saves on stamp costs. When a landlord allows credit card payments, tenants can get major rewards from their credit card payments.

How to Encourage Online Rental Payment

A landlord can do a number of things to encourage tenants to pay their rent online.

First of all, see to it that the transaction is free of charge. This is very important. No matter how small an online fee would cost, people would not like to pay it. Make sure to stress that online bill pay is trouble-free and that includes fees, regardless of their amount. So, remove them totally.

Accept credit card payments. You might think that tenants that pay via credit card are spending more than they can afford, but as mentioned earlier, most people pay their bills with credit cards to earn reward points. Allow your tenants to pay rent with their credit card since they know they can have a free vacation by doing it. You will have a smooth sailing income while they get good credit evaluation.

Give incentives for online bill pay. You can give a discount on the monthly rent or a gift card. When you offer rewards and prizes, tenants will be willing to join. This way, tenants will have the habit of paying rent online and will never go back to the traditional way of paying rent.