Providing different payment options can be a great, cost-effective way to support the financial wellbeing of your tenants while ensuring your association isn’t left continually chasing late payments.
Many tenants are facing difficult times due to rising costs of living, which can often lead to rental arrears and poor communication between associations and tenants. It’s hard to maintain a positive relationship in these circumstances, especially if your only recourse is to threaten legal action to recover overdue rent.
This is where split payments can really help by providing more flexibility for tenants – let’s take a closer look at how they work.
What are split payments?
A split payments system gives tenants different options to spread the cost of their rent or arrears over a clearly defined period of time.
The tenant commits to an agreed amount and payment schedule, which can be tailored around their salary and income. This is usually weekly, biweekly or monthly, though custom payment schedules can also be created to suit individual needs.
Once that’s confirmed, payment collection can be fully automated so that it's transferred on a set date, with no further intervention needed from staff. Not only does this help to avoid late payments and foster a better client experience, it also frees up valuable time and internal resources.
Avoid holding period issues
More and more housing associations are growing increasingly frustrated with the long holding periods that many payment processing providers enforce – up to 10-14 days in many cases.
This is a major issue that often prevents associations from covering ongoing operational expenses and maintaining a healthy financial position. It’s worth doing your research to find a provider that offers quick reconciliations so that payments are received promptly and not subject to long holding periods.
Payment flexibility matters
Split payments are just one example of how adding more payment options can support your tenant experience and drive greater efficiency among teams.
Top housing associations don’t stop there. They understand that offering a wide range of choices is conducive to a better payment experience for tenants of all ages. Catering to diverse needs is crucial to keep income flowing in, especially during challenging financial times.
Along with standard online payments, offering the option for tenants to pay via Direct Debit, digital wallets and open banking is now considered best practice to encourage people to pay the correct amount on time, while also facilitating payments from tenants that prefer to pay in cash at a Post Office or another in-person pay point.