Transaction Fee for Denied CC

helenatim

Has anyone started charging for denied credit cards on autopay? If so, can a fee be added automatically when this happens or do I have to do it manually?

ESS

We haven't and don't plan to start. It's a charge you would have to manually add. If I have a tenant on autopay and their card gets declined 2 months consecutively, I let them know they are removed from autopay and are in charge of making sure their payment is made each month. When I get the notice on the 1st of declined cards, I email those tenants and let them know. I let them run on the 2nd and if they are still declined, I let them know they've been temporarily removed from autopay until they contact me when the funds are available/card has been updated. Sometimes I wish we charged a fee though.

helenatim

ESS said:

We haven't and don't plan to start. It's a charge you would have to manually add. If I have a tenant on autopay and their card gets declined 2 months consecutively, I let them know they are removed from autopay and are in charge of making sure their payment is made each month. When I get the notice on the 1st of declined cards, I email those tenants and let them know. I let them run on the 2nd and if they are still declined, I let them know they've been temporarily removed from autopay until they contact me when the funds are available/card has been updated. Sometimes I wish we charged a fee though.

Thanks for the info. I don't want to deal with manually adding charges and I also dont want to punish people on autopay since it's my preferred payment source.
Do you take ACH payments? I seem to get a few people asking about it and am tempted to add it.

ESS

helenatim said:

ESS said:

We haven't and don't plan to start. It's a charge you would have to manually add. If I have a tenant on autopay and their card gets declined 2 months consecutively, I let them know they are removed from autopay and are in charge of making sure their payment is made each month. When I get the notice on the 1st of declined cards, I email those tenants and let them know. I let them run on the 2nd and if they are still declined, I let them know they've been temporarily removed from autopay until they contact me when the funds are available/card has been updated. Sometimes I wish we charged a fee though.

Thanks for the info. I don't want to deal with manually adding charges and I also dont want to punish people on autopay since it's my preferred payment source.
Do you take ACH payments? I seem to get a few people asking about it and am tempted to add it.

We don't. In 5 years I've had about 3 people ask if we do. I think there's only 1 additional step, to batch them, if you choose to add it. I think I remember seeing it has to be manually done, separately from your daily close, but I could be wrong. I think there would be a lot less "declines" since it's dealing with the actual account and not cards that are lost/stolen/compromised, etc. 

BusyProperties

We do not charge a fee. I usually message them the day it declines & ask them to let me know when to run it again. I may or may not take it off of autopay so that I don't accidentally run it but it is only once or twice a week so I can track them. If it happens a second month in a row I ask them to notify me when I can run it & take it off of autopay. 

Nazpastortony

I do not charge a fee either.  If it is persistent and too problematic, remove and inform them they are responsible for a different method.  I agree with others.  I do have a small amount of ACH, I try to push it on rental through suggestions because it is less costly for the company but cards seem easier for people to want to set up autopay.