Tech Stuff Tuesday * Making Paying The Rent Rad

Have you seen my checkbook? Me neither. I can't tell you the last time I wrote a check.  Well, ok maybe I could if I think hard enough, but I write about two checks a month. So few, that I have to hunt around for my checkbook just to write said two checks.  

As usual, someone (smarter than me) has created "an app for that".  No, it won't find my checkbook (well, actually I think there is an app where I could stick some dongle-thingy to my checkbook and the app would help me find it, however that seems a bit extreme), but it will possibly eliminate my need for a checkbook altogether.

It's an app called RadPad. You use your credit or debit card to schedule a payment via the app and they mail, say to your landlord or mortgage bank, a check. Then the app stores everything you just did and makes it twice as easy to do it again next month because you've scheduled it. But even better than that, when you're ready to apply for your next apartment, you have your payment history at your fingertips. The app will even send you notifications along the way to let you know when your check was mailed and deposited or cashed and the check appears as if it's coming from you (we all know that one landlord that got confused about EVERYTHING. No need to give them another excuse to stop by unannounced). 

RadPad even has something called The Rent Guarantee, promising that if anything goes wrong and your landlord doesn't get your rent check, they'll take care of it for you - like covering late fees, bank fees, and even the entire month's rent if for some reason, any reason (i.e. the check is somewhere in the mail), that your landlord never gets it. 

There's a small fee involved each month (hey, banking ain't free and neither is postage) but to eliminate the hassle of having to 1) remember to write the check and get it off on time each month and 2) find your check book (or let's just say things are a little tight this month and you need to pay the rent with your credit card?  Done and done. Priceless.), I think a small fee is worth it.   To be upfront, I haven't yet signed up for it (The Hubbs can be a bit slow to adopt new technology and we have our mortgage scheduled through our bank's online bill pay for now. But I'm watching these guys.  If they work it out so that I can pay the cleaning folks and the volunteer fire fighters looking for a donation, I'm there! Until then, let me know if you see my checkbook anywhere.
You're welcome.