Dana Fried
I just paid rent. It was free, through my bank app, and got to my landlord basically instantly. All I needed was my property manager's email address.
I could send money to a friend the same way.
This doesn't sound much different than ACH or PayPal but I assure you it is 1000% nicer.
One of the many things you don't realize living in the US is how much friction is added to basically everything you do to ensure some middleman or service provider can profit off of it.
Rich Felker
@tess That's free in the US to me thru my bank's website, but takes a day or two to arrive.
Mark Squires
@dalias @tess Many landlords/condos have auto-deduct to a tenant bank account. It's auto-processed by landlord/condo without anyone, them or renter, thinking about it, and no fee. Once authorized by the tenant, of course.
Win-win.
That may certainly not apply to every landlord! But it is in their interest to set it up since payment is now automatic and never late.
Lots of other bills, fees, credit cards, utilities, you can do the same.
Rich Felker
@MarkSquiresWine @tess Yeah, no thanks. The fine print for that always allows them to do abusive things, and even if not, you can end up with overdrafts because it's via ACH which isn't synchronous with available balance.
Even if you want automated payments, you want them scheduled and initiated "push" by the sender at their bank, not "pull" by the recipient.
Rich Felker
@MarkSquiresWine @tess Like pretty sure they'd authorize the landlord to charge you extra for claimed damages when you move out, rather than them having to go to court if they want more than your deposit. Or even if not really authorized, slimy landlord would do it if they thought you couldn't afford a lawyer.
Mark Squires
@dalias @tess Well, I'm fortunate that I point to accounts that won't have overdraft issues.
I was a lawyer. I read these once upon a time. I've had auto deductions for 20 years with some vendors. No issues.
What fine print and abuses are you talking about specifically?
feld
monkeyflower jelly bean
@MarkSquiresWine
Dude that's the combination of auto deduct and having a high enough balance. Not just auto deduct. Most people don't have significant extra money in the account - if the rent & an unexpected medium expense hit at the same time it can really screw most Americans.
@dalias @tess
Mark Squires
@dalias @tess I see nothing like that authorized in my ACH.
If you're confronted with a lawless crook, ultimately there's a problem somewhere. No game plan fixes everything. They will find a way to drive you crazy somehow if there is an imbalance in power. (It's one reason I became a lawyer!)
OTOH, with auto-deduct, I have never had a late fee or notice, have a great credit rating as a result, and my obligation gets auto paid even if I'm traveling out of the country. It has advantages too.
monkeyflower jelly bean
@MarkSquiresWine
Correct, you are in a minority who are privileged enough to have not experienced these problems so far.
@feld
feld
Mark Squires
I've been using auto deduct on various bills from credit cards to rent for decades.
That's never happened to me, even once. With several merchants of different types over DECADES. You must be really unlucky. But your experience is not mine or universal.
Mark Squires
@feld Every time you pay someone with a check, online or paper, they see your bank account number and the routing number. Which is all you give them when you want an ACH deduction. What's the difference?
Unless you're going to commit to giving them cash payments every month or going to the effort of getting a money order, they already have your account information anytime they want to take a look at it. Nothing has really changed.
feld
feld
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