Autopay Helps Tenants Pay On-Time 99% of the Time

Highlights for RentRedi Autopay Data

1. Autopay is a widely used tool on RentRedi that allows tenants to set up automatic payments for rent charges. 
2. Autopay allows multiple tenants to make automatic payments toward a single-unit’s rent charge. 
3. Units rented by a tenant using autopay have a 99% on-time since January 2020 compared to 88% for other rent-paying tenants. 

Tenants can set up automatic payments (autopay) on RentRedi, ensuring that their rent payments will be made at the same time for the same amount every month. 

Automatic payments are widely used on the RentRedi platform. While units associated with classic residential property categories (single-family residential, duplex, etc.) dominate the top of the list of autopay users, other property types using automatic payments include sorority and fraternity housing, parking garages, and storage/warehousing facilities. Tenants can easily take advantage of RentRedi’s features that allow multiple tenants to pay a rent charge using automatic payments. 

Units rented by a tenant using autopay have a 99% on-time payment rate since January 2020. Conversely, rent-paying tenants not using automatic payments had an 88% on-time payment rate. Prior research has found that utilizing autopay features has helped reduce credit card users’ likelihood of missing payments. For example, Wang (2024) found that autopay enrollment makes credit card users double the rate of minimum payments. Guttman-Kenny et al. (2023) found that credit card users were more likely to miss their payments when not enrolled in autopay. 

Autopay’s benefits stay consistent when considering tenants with different economic situations. For example, tenants with weaker credit scores still pay 98.8% of their monthly payments on time when using autopay, as opposed to 85.4% for those who do not enable the feature. 

References

1. Wang, Jialan, To Pay or Autopay? Fintech Innovation and Credit Card Payments (April 2024). NBER Working Paper No. w32332, Available at SSRN: https://www.nber.org/papers/w32332
2. Guttman-Kenney, Benedict and Adams, Paul and Hunt, Stefan and Laibson, David I. and Stewart, Neil and Leary, Jesse, The Semblance of Success in Nudging Consumers to Pay Down Credit Card Debt (December 2023). NBER Working Paper No. w31926, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4660251