Never be late on rent again in 3 easy steps

This post was written by colin nederkoorn, product manager on March 9, 2009
Posted Under: Better Spending Habits

It’s the 6th of the month. Did you remember to send in your rent check? I didn’t!!
I didn’t have to. A few months ago I devised a scheme to set aside rent money from every paycheck and then automate my rent payment to my landlord. Now I always have enough money for rent, and I pay on time.

To do this, you need to schedule three things:

  1. An automatic transfer from your checking account to savings account for half of your month’s rent the day after each pay day.
  2. An automatic transfer for your full rent on the 25th of the month from your savings account to your checking account
  3. A recurring billpay payment to your landlord (your bank has free billpay right?)

That’s it. Simple yet effective, right?

Now you have more time to enjoy life.

P.s. If you’ve got a mortgage, good news. This tip will work for you too. When you see rent, say mortgage. When you see landlord say lender.

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  • mola4everyourz
    Renting a car can be a viable solution if you're on a trip to a foreign country and you hate driving all the way there. So if you're a bit more lazy like I am I think renting a car is a good choice. I sincerely believe (although prices are fluctuating) that you shouldn't need that much money to rent a car or inchirieri masini (with the competition and all) but it really depends on what you want to drive. You can't rent a mercedes for 20 $ a day that's for sure but i don't get people who are renting a car for 6 months when they can buy it :))
  • tibbon
    My landlord is nice enough (err, watching out for himself enough?) to require that they directly debit the checking account. Works out ok actually for me. With prior landlords I had been always just a few days late paying (never later than the 10th), but I do like the regularity of this. Getting a physical check in the mail is such a pain in the ass compared to this.
  • Jessica
    I LOVE this trick and have been using it for a few years now. I think it's easier that I get paid weekly and just divide everything in four. There is a small problem in the fact that my last week's payment gets held for 5 business days and hasn't cleared by the time I need to pay my rent, but I just solve that by having an extra week's worth of rent in the account (which you only have to do once and just leave it there)

    In fact I do this for all of my bills, it just makes things simpler for me.
  • It helps to have a buffer of one paycheck so that you're not cutting it close to the wire. What techniques do you use to budget for irregular bills (namely credit cards)?
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