I've never done this.

When you give the tenant a deposit slip so that they can deposit to your account at your bank, do you ever have them try to make a partial deposit?

I'm trying to think of the pitfalls of doing it this way. Thanks.

Yes.

1. Some banks won't allow it (Chase). Others want an ID from the account holder.

2. It sure doesn't look very professional. My lawyer doesn't hand me a deposit slip and tell me to pay him that way.

3. A tenant could thwart an eviction by depositing $1.00.

4. Giving out your bank account number to tenants can invite all kinds of problems. You can say, "well my account number is on the bottom of every check I write." It is, but how often do you send checks to tenants?

J, I use this method and yes sometimes a partial payment has been deposited. Tenant making deposits was much better than me waiting for them to bring money to my office. ACH is a better method.

Sisco, some tenants can be reformed. When I hit a new tenant with a $50 late fee at 5:05 PM on the FIRST, in their first full month, and $25 per day thereafter, with a 3-day notice on the 2nd, they know I mean business.

One or two months of that, with all the extra costs on their part, and they usually comply.

I have done that (given a tenant the deposit slip). It worked out ok until he just didn't pay. I don't "care" if they would deposit money. Just because they send you money doesn't mean you have to accept it. If you are in court and the tenant says "but I paid them $1.00 and deposited it into their account this morning" I would bet that the judge most likely would keep going with the eviction. Most tenant's are not smart enough to do that. If they are then I'm thinking the judge should be able to see through that. What are they going to say? "Uh, Mr cjl - were you aware that they made a deposit of $1.00 into your account?" "No Judge, I had no idea. I would have to validate that. If anything, I'll reduce the judgement by $1.00 if that's what is needed?"

The "$1.00" was an extreme example. What if the rent was $1000 and they deposited $400. In many states you can't evict.

If I have a problem, I want to be able to go see someone face-to-face and talk to them about it.

I also don't have an office or a staff (like my attorney does! :P), and I have zero desire to go knocking on doors like many ll's in my town.

I started off by collecting rent by mail. It worked just fine, until a tenant was brilliant enough to buy a USPS money order for his rent, stick it in the envelope right there in the post office, and walk four feet away to drop it in the mail slot. Of course, it doesn't just travel ten feet away to my PO Box-- it travels about 100 miles this way, and then 100 miles back to get its postmark from the regional distribution center-- but I had no way of telling if it was a real "lost in the mail" situation, or if it was a "post office employee decided to help themselves" situation, or if it was a "tenant decides to pull an elaborate trick with a real money order stub for proof but never mailed it" situation.

The next month, I started doing deposit slips at the bank. All of my tenants live within a mile of the bank. It has a night depository and an ATM for after-hours deposits.

It worked really well. (Except for some other brilliant tenants who thought they would shove the rent through the crack in the front doors, rather than using the night depository out back. But that worked out okay.) The best time was when I was in the process of giving a tenant a 3-day pay-or-quit. "So-and-so already deposited the rent at 5:20 today," he told me. "That's nice. Sign here." I kept my eye on the bank account the next business day, but no deposits came through. I went to the bank and we personally went over the security camera footage. We were able to tell that the person had not made any deposits that day, and it gave me the confidence to know I was being lied to, rather than having to guess.

Different experiences for different people.

I am just a mom operation (Pop not allowed to interfere in my business.) I started with giving the tenant the account number, they had to deposit at the bank. Every now and then, I'd get a text saying they left the number at home, could I text it to them?

Then I started opening accounts at THEIR bank, gave them the account number. They could do phone transfer. A tenant asked about PopMoney, we did that for awhile. A few hiccups: bank wouldn't allow more than $500 we day, so the tenant missed the early pay discount once. From then on, when she was out of town, (that was the branch that limited amount. Might have been a state law.) she did her pop money's earlier, so she got the discount.

Currently, my tenants use Zelle through Chase and Wells Fargo (ACH.) Wells Fargo accepted tenants TRANSFERRING into my account, but, not DEPOSITING. Chase accepts deposits, not just transfers.

I give my tenants my account number. Besides I endorse their old checks anyways with a rubber stamp showing my Bank, Branch, Account Name and account number. Then with this information they can:

Do a bank "Bill Pay".

Do a ACH Transfer

To Scott and #22, do you give out deposit slips?

Kurt,

Thanks for the ideas.

Does everyone who uses this method keep the account at $0? That is, transfer the money into a different account as soon as you can?

I started doing this about 2 years ago. Tenants honestly love it!

Yes, I give them pre filled out deposit slips (I put them thru my printer at home.) I hand write the number of the address on them. (like 313)

I also give them 2 business sized cards for their wallet with the account # and the bank's hours listed.

The bank has a branch in the local grocery, so they can deposit 7 days a week. No excuses!

I can check online to see who has deposited, then electronically move the money over into my RE checking account in seconds. I leave $100 in the account.

I can get a text when something is deposited, but I don't like that.

My tenants don't need a totally filled out deposit ticket. Just my company name (ABC Rentals), their name, address, and the last 4 digits of my account number. ******1234. Teller looks it up, scans the deposit ticket...done.

Easy cheesy.