Credit Card Charges- Charging tenants to run their credit cards

Matt_W

We don't charge a fee for taking credit cards unless it is over the phone. (We charge $3.50.) 
However with the thousands of dollars we end up paying every month just to run credit cards, we are considering the idea of charging our auto-pay customers to run their cards.
Does anyone else do this? How did you set it up?
I have been looking in program defaults to try to automate the process but not having much luck.
For example...

Joe Bloggs moves into a storage unit, wants to set up card on auto pay, I enter his card details and confirm them. Every month because he is on auto pay, he is charged a card processing fee automatically.

Is this even possible? We have over 200 auto bill customers and I don't like the idea of having to manually add a card processing fee to each one.

ESS

We don't do that at our facility. I see where you're coming from, but this seems as a way to discourage tenants to sign up for autopay...or to discourage from doing business with a company who charges them for doing business with them. It is almost like charging your cash and check tenants extra because you're having to use your mileage and gas to take their deposits to the bank. I think at the end of the day, that's the cost of running a business and sometimes not everything should be passed onto the tenants.

Matt_W

So we'd end up raising the rents across the board then... as the cost of everything is going up. I can see your point, it's just with the volume of cards we run in a month o.o We don't charge tax on our rent either... So maybe we'll end up doing that instead.

Orkocean

If you truly want to capture money on it i'd suggest raising rates in general to compensate. Most facilities want tenants to get on auto pay to not be a head ache to collect on every month.

Me personally any business who wants to charge me to pay them money I am going to stop doing business with them. My wife has a clothing store card and we went to make a phone payment once and they charged us to make the payment. That used to be a couple times a month shopping trip for her until we experienced that, now it's a once in a blue moon if that. 

MamaDuke7

Matt_W said:

We don't charge tax on our rent either... So maybe we'll end up doing that instead.

You can't charge tax just to keep the money.  You can only charge tax if your city/state requires it, and then you send it on to them.  It's not a money maker for the property.

You should just raise street rates if this is a big issue there.  And existing tenants should have rate increases annually anyway because operating costs increase.

MamaDuke7

At a previous property where I worked, we charged $1.00 for phone and walk-in card payments, but if they went on autopay, then they saved that.  It was an incentive for them to be on autopay.

paschn

Amazing how things change. +/-50 years ago, all this was considered a "business expense". This was years before "administration fees" as well. Now we make insurance mandatory in SPITE of numerous disclaimers shielding businesses from frivolous lawsuits. And, PLEASE don't tell me "studies show" or other Hegelian BS. If there's actually bonafide research that can be TRACED to it's origin along with HOW the research was executed, leave me a link.

Storageinasnapp

We charge a $2.50 processing fee in person or over the phone.  No processing fee if they pay on our website
If the the tenant is on Auto-pay, there is a "recurring Processing fee" you can activate. Go to the Tenant's Payment screen. Bottom Right corner is "Edit Charges & Payments" click on that. Under "Add New Charge"" is the option for Processing Fee Recurring" choose that,  then set the "Start and end date". (Start will be date rent is due, End will be a month later, the day BEFORE rent is due)
Click on Add New Charge, then OK.
If it is not set up in your payment screen and you have access permission, go to Setup-General setup- Charges-Highlight and select "Used"  if you need to edit it first, double click to edit & save.

Matt_W

I don't have that option.
I am dinking around in setup and I can't see the reoccuring part. I've added the charges I want in there though.

MamaDuke7

Matt_W said:

I don't have that option.
I am dinking around in setup and I can't see the reoccuring part. I've added the charges I want in there though.

You need to setup one of the pre-defined recurring charges to be what you want.  Those are the ones that will add monthly like the rent.  Otherwise, you have to manually add them each month.

BusyProperties

I agree with others, we do not charge a fee for processing. We would just raise the rates across the board if it came to that point. I'd rather they pay by CC to be honest, it's guaranteed