'[Don't] charge senseless, greedy fees': Landlord charges tenants $10/month to pay rent online; thrifty tenant mails a paper check instead, forcing the landlord to go to the bank every month

Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor

Nov 3, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

Going to the bank is a tedious but sometimes necessary task. For those of us who work regular 9-5 jobs, it's tough to even find a time that you're available and the bank is even open, making it even more flustering to have to literally walk into the bank offices. This is why most people have switched to online banking and online auto payments. In 2023, most people can even pay their bills online, including renters who can Venmo or Zelle their rent payments directly to the homeowner at no cost (or inconvenience) to either party. However, we all know that landlords can be money-grubbing greed machines, so even though we live in an age of online convenience, some landlords really just want to squeeze every last penny out of their tenants.

For tenants, we already have enough on our plate. We juggle work, recreation, and responsibilities every day of the week and envy the late-morning lifestyle of the loser landlords we're feeding cash every month. Just the knowledge that our landlords probably bought our apartment for 1/10th it's current value and are living fat off of our rent check every month is enough to grind our gears, but if a landlord has the audacity to wring out a single cent more than our rent amount at the end of the month, we feel the back of our throats prickle with rage.

None more than the star of our next story, whose landlord charged $10/month to process auto payments online– something that has no reason being an added fee, apart from the greedy, grubby needs of the landlord. Scroll for the full story of how one tenant used extreme inconvenience to slay their landlord's silly fee, winning a tiny victory for tenants everywhere.