Have you ever forgotten to pay rent until the last day of the month? If you have, odds are your experience was one filled with panic—wondering how you were going to possibly find time to take your lunch break, go home, get your checkbook—if you remembered to order more checks last month—and get your check to your landlord’s rental office before they closed for the day.
If this has ever been you, making your rent payment with minutes to spare or even a day late, you aren’t alone. Considering the advances in available technology, many landlord’s methods for accepting rent payments are behind the times. For the most part, we as consumers—and tenants—are used to being able to access resources when we need them, without having to spend too much time considering constraints like business hours. While some landlords and rental companies offer online portals on which tenants are able to pay and manage their accounts from their own phones or computers, others still require that a physical check is hand or mail delivered to their office every month.
Though online payment portals are convenient resources, they aren’t necessarily a solution. Online payment portals are not necessarily readily accessible for all tenants and they still require that tenants pay in a specific way. Luckily for landlords and tenants alike, digital kiosks are changing the rent payment game.
Digital self-service kiosks are able to be placed at indoor or outdoor locations throughout living communities and apartment complexes, allowing tenants to quickly pay their rent at their own convenience, through a variety of payment forms. As their prevalence continues to grow across the country, these self-service solutions are proving to be a convenient answer to every tenant’s rent-payment woes.
Self-service digital rent payment kiosks offer the convenience, flexible payment options, efficiency, and security that both landlords and tenants desire.
Convenience
Unlike rental offices, which are typically only open during 8am–5pm business hours on weekdays, digital kiosks are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 24-7 availability ensures that all tenants are able to pay their rent on-time through a solution that is ready to use at whichever time best suits their schedule. In addition to being available at all times of the day or night, digital kiosks also account for accessibility challenges. Tenants don’t have to have access to their own internet or internet-compatible devices, rather the kiosk is conveniently located within their living community, they just have to walk out their door.
Flexible Payment Options
Whereas most rental offices require checks or online credit card or debit card payment, digital kiosks have the ability to accept all kinds of payment forms—accommodating tenants that may not have checks, a bank account, or a credit or debit card. Meridian’s scalable, easy-to-use transactional solution, MzeroPay, is built on the Mzero self-service software platform. MzeroPay equips Meridian’s digital kiosks to accept cash, check, and all major credit card payments, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Android Pay, and Apple Pay. The availability of multiple, flexible payment options makes the rent payment solution suitable to any tenant’s needs.
Efficiency
In addition to being convenient and flexible, digital kiosks make paying rent quick and efficient. Tenants simply enter their information along with their payment, and their rent for the month is taken care of in a matter of minutes. As soon as their transaction is complete, tenants are immediately issued a receipt for their payment, and they are free to go on with the rest of their day.
Security
Any time someone pays for something in a new or unfamiliar way for the first time, security is one of their top concerns. Meridian’s kiosks mitigate these worries by providing a secure environment for transactions. Meridian’s MzeroPay software security and anti-virus options include Endpoint protection suite, Endpoint protection suite with application control and deep command, and Endpoint protection suite with integrity control and deep command. Additionally, the solution provides the kiosk owner with custom reports on transactions and the kiosk’s state of health.
As people continue to lead busier lives, self-service solutions—such as digital rent payment kiosks—that make their lives easier will become more valuable to tenants. Self-service digital kiosks offer the convenience, flexibility, efficiency, and security that tenants seek when making their monthly rent payments.
To learn more about Meridian’s self-service digital kiosks and MzeroPay solutions, visit meridiankiosks.com.
