Simon Dewsberry Posted March 25, 2007 Report Share Posted March 25, 2007 Hi All Further to my other posts on this subject - another alternative to help avoid the "new deposit system" has just occurred to me - Yep Mark - still "mad as a hatter" !!! I went ski- ing a few weeks ago - I hired a car at Geneva airport which i paid for with my credit card - at the time they took a deposit on my credit card - I also signed the agreement which, unless i have misunderstood it, said that any damages or costs or non full fuel tank that presented upon return of the vehicle would be charged to my credit card!! I then went to hire a pair of skis, and guess what? the same happened at the ski hire shop - deposit on card damages chargeable to card ! Now I am in the fortunate position where i run several businesses and also have merchant status ( ie I have facilities for taking payments by Credit/Debit card - also interesting to note that around 80% of my tenants pay there initial deposit and Bond /first month's rent by card. I also have tenants ring me regularly to pay their rent by plastic- (forgot to set standing order up, unexpected bill means have to pay by cc or even parents helping kids out by card when kids are struggling etc) to be honest i would be stuffed without it !! I appreciate that 99% of private Landlords will not have this facility but you should get it -because if a tenant has no "cash" he may be able to get "credit" but this can take some time to work its way to you as "cash" One simple way would be to open a "paypal acc"(goto www.paypal.com to find out more) Then you as a landlord can NOW TAKE PAYMENT BY CREDIT / DEBIT CARD this is almost essential in today's world of commerce. Now to the point ( only works if you are merchant status and have a pdq) If a line was added in the lease to state that first months rent must be paid for by plastic or credit debit card or details were to be recorded -and further- any outstanding monies would be deducted from this account with their heregiven permission. This then puts us in a much more favorable position in the quest to protect ourselves from loss. Any comments welcome ?! Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPEL Posted March 26, 2007 Report Share Posted March 26, 2007 How do you ensure the card is still valid and hasn't gone past the expiry date at the end of the tenancy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Dewsberry Posted March 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2007 Hi GPEL You can will record exp date when you take details or payment - but as with any payment of this kind ie cheque they can cancel - c/c transactions can be reversed etc People dont usually change their bank acc so debit/c details are good also most of the cc have several years expiry on them ! Or you could make it a term of lease that upto date cc details must be lodged with the landlord at all times - though can see this may cause a problem with tenants !! As we are all to aware there are only 2 things in life which are guaranted -death and taxes - ( or is 3 'cos somewhere along the line a tenent is going to cost you some money !) This is just another string to the bow ! The quest continues! Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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