Personal Checks, Still Popular at Senior Living Communities, Finally Giving Way to Online Payments

Personal checks have long been the bane of multifamily properties. They’re time-consuming to process and prone to returns and fraud.  To everyone’s benefit, paper checks have been steadily eclipsed by online payments over the past decade. As late as 2012, 70% of renters were paying their rent with checks. But by 2019, 76% were paying online. Senior living properties, however, tend to be more conservative and slower about adopting new technologies. There are also peculiarities about invoicing and payments in the senior sector that standard online payment systems have been unable to address. So seniors, or commonly their children or proxies, continue to write personal checks to pay the bill. The challenges of paper checks Paper checks present all sorts of problems in the multifamily business. Particularly back when they were the payment method of choice, they flooded the front office during a short period at the end of every month. This meant that a staff designed to handle a somewhat steady allotment of duties was faced with a spike for one week of every month. The checks had to be recorded and entered into the accounting system, and often physically driven to a bank. Scanners tied to software reduced the burden to some extent – and they’re still in use in most cases to handle checks that continue to come in. But they still involve processing. Then there’s the problem of the checks that turn out to be “hot,” discovered days later. There’s the occasional fraudulent check or money order as well. And sometimes, dishonest staff diverting checks or money orders for their own use. Online payments by credit card or ACH solve these problems. But at senior living properties, conservatism towards adopting new technology has combined with particularities unique to the sector to slow down the movement to web-based payments. Why senior living is different Often it’s not the seniors themselves reviewing and payin...