For many tenants, the end of the month is a moment of dread as they struggle to pay the rent due. If they have lost work hours due to illness or being laid off when a business cuts back, the fear is even greater. And it has given rise to a multibillion-dollar fintech sector that helps tenants keep up with their rent payments and landlords more efficiently manage their properties in a market that could be worth $1 trillion.
As rents come due, tenants may be juggling how to pay for utilities, food, school and household expenses, and transportation.
Looming over all that is the knowledge that the landlord is likely to charge a late fee, and if that is not paid, issue an eviction notice. In some states – including Georgia -- the tenant may be required to pay the landlord's cost of filing and serving the eviction notice after a grace period of just three days. In some counties in Georgia, the late fee may be around $300 to $400 and the cost of the eviction filing is the same – a double burden on tenants who are already unable to pay the rent.
"Rent is the largest monthly bill for most households and it's still due in one lump sum around the first of the month, even though most people are now paid weekly, biweekly, or on irregular schedules. That mismatch is a predictable source of instability, not because people are irresponsible, but because the system is rigid and most households don't have the liquidity to bridge short-term gaps," according to Ryan Metcalf, vice president of public affairs for Flex, a leading provider of flexible payment systems designed to help both tenants and landlords.
The traditional system, Flex stated, costs Americans $186 billion in late fees and penalties every year.
"A functional system should support on-time payments without relying on penalties, compounding, or prolonged indebtedness as the default," Metcalf added. Financial products "should be designed with transparent pricing, bounded use, guardrails that prevent escalation, and outcomes that reflect stability."
Flex Rent bills itself as a company that helps tenants split rent into smaller payments within the month while ensuring property managers are paid in full and on time.
Some 84% of landlords cite rent payment issues as their worst headache. Late rent payments cause cash flow disruptions, increased administrative workloads, and high legal costs associated with evictions. When a tenant leaves, the landlord may face an average of $1,750 per unit in repairs and marketing costs. Tenant retention directly improves profitability.
Traditional rent collection is labor-intensive and creates a negative user experience while delinquency and eviction result in hidden costs, Flex stated. Using flexible rent payment systems is reported to reduce default rates, increase on-time rent payments, increase tenant engagement, and lower vacancy rates, resulting in fewer evictions.
"The lender is the one taking the credit risk, so the landlord doesn't need to worry about that. They get paid in full," commented Ted Rossman, principal analyst with Bankrate. "These services can actually help them in the sense that they might not get paid right away if the tenant didn't have access to one of these services."
Flex claims to be used by over two million renters and be available in 8.2 million units nationwide, helping them make over $24 billion in on-time payments and avoid over $500 million in late fees.
Rossman cautioned, however, that tenants should watch out for fees and interest. "This financing does have some costs associated with it. I'd view it more as a short-term crutch than something you'd want to use habitually."
Flex has several competitors, including DoorLoop, Avail, PayYourRent, RentPayment, TenantCloud and Buildium. Some also report rent payments to credit bureaus to help tenants maintain good credit.
Another is Zego, which was acquired by Atlanta-based Global Payments in 221for $925 million. At the time, Global Payments claimed that Zego facilitated some $830 million in payments annually "in a market with a volume opportunity that exceeds $1 trillion." It said its solutions "support property managers and residents throughout the real estate lifecycle, from leasing and onboarding to one-time and recurring payments, work orders, utility management, resident communications, renewals and offboarding."
In a GlobeSt.com article last year, Nathan Miller, founder and CEO of Rentec Direct, stated that online payments have become the new norm. According to his company's analysis, online rent payments became the majority in 2025, climbing from 4% in 2014 to 51% in 2025. Tenants who paid offline were 23% more likely to pay late.
"Digital payments now represent the standard over checks, with 58% of tenants preferring ACH (Automated Clearing House) and 34% preferring credit/debit cards," Rentec Direct noted.
"Many tenants expect the same convenience, speed and transparency from their rental experience as they do in banking, retail, subscriptions and other payment services," Miller commented.
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