Rent Payments Go Mobile

Ask a millennial about their checkbook and you’re likely to learn they don’t use one.

But it isn’t just young consumers. More than ever, people are eschewing paper checks for new payment methods. A study from by the U.S. Federal Reserve reported that the number of checks in use declined by more than 50 percent over a 12-year period beginning in 2000. Another study by WePay found that 52 percent of millennials never use checks.

Yet, checks continue to dominate the rental payments space despite the inconvenience and security risks that accompany them. Jonathan Eppers, founder and CEO of RadPad, believes the right solution can change that.

His app, which started as an apartment search engine, began offering a simple and universal mobile payment option for renters across the country, 16 months ago. It’s since been used to send more than $120 million in rent to landlords in all 50 states. We spoke with Eppers for the August edition of the PYMNTS mPOS Tracker about why mobile payments have been slow to arrive in the rental industry, and what’s coming next.

Here’s a preview:

Eppers said that he thinks there are two reasons so many tenants who may not use checks in their day-to-day life still write one on the first of every month to cover the rent.

“I think, for one, it’s been within really the past three years that people have gotten comfortable paying anything on their phone,” he said. However, even as mobile payments became a more accepted and trusted currency, there was another problem to solve.

“If you wanted to sign up on one of these rent payment products, both the landlord and the renter had to use the platform,” Eppers said, explaining that most landlords had no incentive to receive mobile payments. “They’d been getting checks for as long as checks had been around, and they’re not begging for something new.”

So Eppers and his team worked to find a solution that would make receiving payments even simpler for landlords, who were wary of changing the way they made their money.

“Your landlord does not have to use our platform in order to use our product as a renter,” Eppers explained.

Around the mPOS world

Over the course of the past month, some major mPOS players have made it known that they plan to test new global markets.

Square, for one, submitted paperwork that shows plans for expansion into Europe. Meanwhile, mPOS provider Mosambee announced they would widen their international offerings by entering the U.S. market and establishing a larger footprint in Africa.

In some cases, they even sought out partnerships to help bolster their cause. For example, Bejing-based Feitian Technologies announced a new collaboration with Spanish developer Vintegris to jointly market their solutions, expanding their marketing reach.

Financial solutions provider GoSwiff also has new plans for European expansion. The company will collaborate with Mastercard and UniCredit for a mobile payments solution in Romania that enables Allianz-Tiriac Asigurari agents to accept card payments with mPOS for their insurance policies.

The August edition of the mPOS Tracker features the latest industry news in the mPOS space along with the profiles of more than 200 players, including five new additions to the tracker.

To download the August edition of the PYMNTS.com mPOS Tracker, click the button below …

About The Tracker

The PYMNTS mPOS Tracker is your go-to resource for staying up to date on a month-by-month basis. The Tracker highlights the contribution of different stakeholders, including institutions and technology coming together to make this happen.