Surprise! Living abroad means paying rent.
We’d love to wave our magic wands and make the responsibility disappear. But paying rent is a tough reality of being an adult. Instead, we'll guide you through Europe's most common ways to pay rent so that you know what's what...
Cash
Whether you’re making monthly trips to the bank or you have wads of it stuffed under your mattress, cash is still king in many rental agreements.
Usually the cash route goes one of two ways...
Your landlord may pass by your apartment once a month to collect the cash in person.
If you’re renting from an agency, they may want you to deliver the cash at their office each month.
These face-to-face arrangements aren’t ideal. It’s difficult to coordinate schedules on a monthly basis.
What’s great about cash?
- There’s no real advantage.
What’s not great about cash?
- Security. Walking around with large amounts of cash is risky.
- Time. Meeting with your landlord every month is an unnecessary waste of time.
- Traceability. Some landlords will sign a handwritten receipt. But what if they forget?
Bank transfers
Paying by bank transfer is the most common way to pay rent in Europe. Thanks to the SEPA initiative, almost all transfers within the EU and free and fast. In SEPA participating countries, a bank transfer shouldn’t take longer than 2 working days.
If you have a banking app on your Smartphone, an online transfer only takes minutes. You can save your landlord’s bank details and make a monthly manual transfer. Complete control.
Alternatively, you can set up a direct debit or a standing order. This means setting up a fixed amount to be transferred in regular installments to the same account. This is great for rent payments, just don’t forget to make adjustments if there are changes to your rental agreement!
What’s great about bank transfers?
- Time. Transfers are faster than ever within Europe.
- Traceability. It’s easy to check and prove bank movements.
What’s not great about bank transfers?
- Admin. Setting up a bank account is difficult for foreigners. It can involve some tricky paperwork, fees or maybe it’s just not worth it for the time that you’ll be staying in the country.
- Cost. Transfers outside of Europe can be expensive once you factor in bank fees and currency exchange rates.
Online payment platforms
Renting is getting a digital makeover. Now it’s possible to pay your rent online using a number of new online tools...
Let’s take a look at an example - Dreyhub.
Dreyhub works 100% online and reminds you every month when your rent is due.
How does it do that?
It works with your landlord to find out the rent due date and amount.
What do you have to do?
All you have to do is wait for your monthly email and follow the secure link to make your payment. It’s as simple as ordering a pizza.
What’s great about Dreyhub?
- Speed. Paying takes less than a minute and you can do it from anywhere.
- Reminders. You’ll receive a friendly email reminder, so you’ll never forget your payment due date. Organising a recurring transfer is also possible – you can set it and forget it.
- Traceability. Your landlord is notified once you’ve paid through Dreyhub. You also have your own personal dashboard to review your payment history.
- Flexibility. Credit and debit card are accepted payment methods. And Iif, for whatever reason you are not doing great with money, you can always forward the payment link to your relatives or friends so that they can help you out.
- Security. Dreyhub has a HTTPS certificate, which means that all your data will be encrypted and nobody will be able to access it. Dreyhub work with Stripe as its payment gateway.
What’s not great about Dreyhub?
- We’ve thought about it, and we really can’t think of anything. If you can, please leave us a note in the comments section below!
Dreyhub takes the best parts of standard payment methods and condenses them into one neat little process. If you’re interested in trying it, come visit us here.
Photo credits: Ian Dooley and Dominik Wycislo, both on Unsplash