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There is one way to pay rent which requires no RAM or CPU cycles: write a check, and mail it. In my experience, most payees accept the date a check is mailed as

There is one way to pay rent which requires no RAM or CPU cycles: write a check, and mail it. In my experience, most payees accept the date a check is mailed as the date of payment. (There may be exceptions to this, and I'm not sure what, if any, protections the law provides, so it may not be a valid fallback.) In general society needs to maintain these low-tech fallbacks to high-tech "improvements". For example, we should keep taxis (that can be flagged down with your hand, and paid for in cash) and not rely solely on Uber, Lyft, etc. We should keep the ability to order from a human at restaurants. We must resist putting the smartphone into the unreplacable critical path of human life. To do so values technology above the value of human life.

supportengineer 1y ago
It's already happening today where children and the elderly need a fully-charged, fully-patched secure device with multiple apps, passwords and two-factor authentication, just to receive health care.
jeffbee 1y ago
In general one should never agree to use an app to pay rent, since these apps are often wrapped in terms and conditions. You should always just pay your rent by check, cash, or money order. Every jurisdiction in America requires lessors to accept these.
- cormorant 1y ago
  Not quite. According to a quick search [1]: "Under California law, it's illegal for a landlord to require cash and/or electronic deposits as the sole methods to pay rent.1 Landlords must allow a tenant to pay rent using at least one of these other options as well: check, cashier's check, or money order." When I lived in CA I had a landlord that demanded cashier's check. Do you know how annoying those are to get? I could have also paid cash but then I'd take the risk that the cash, dropped in a mailbox, would "go missing". [1] https://caretaker.com/learn/rent/rent-payment-laws-in-california https://caretaker.com/learn/rent/rent-payment-laws-in-califo...
  - jeffbee 1y ago
    Doesn't seem like that much of a problem? My bank has a form in their app to have a cashier's check mailed to whomever.
    - xp84 1y ago
      Most banks charge at least $5-10 for the privilege. Not all, but all the ones with the most market share. And also I think for most of them you have to go in person during business hours and wait in line to get one.
  - tomjakubowski 1y ago
    My former giant corporate landlord (Onni) began refusing to accept checks as a matter of policy, even when I pointed this out exact law, and the language in my lease saying the landlord would accept them. They claimed that because the mandatory $5 "convenience fee" on their payment portal was paid to a third party processor, and not to them, that they were in the clear. I didn't want to go so far as to challenge them to either continue accepting check payments or, if they still refused, try and evict me, but maybe I should have.
asdsadasdasd123 1y ago
For this to work, cash needs to suck less. The convenience factor will overpower any concerns you or i have.
- cormorant 1y ago
  How would cash be made to "suck less"?
  - asdsadasdasd123 1y ago
    I think coins need to be banned full stop. At current prices, you can probably just do a paper quarter and create a law to allow cash payments to be rounded down to the nearest quarter. Most business would be ok with this since they can avoid the credit card fees. I think we should also go plastic like canada, the bills are easier to count, harder to get dirty, and harder to get lost or crumpled. I'd also imagine itd also be harder to counterfeit and easier to track.
    - xp84 1y ago
      Coins aren't so bad! In every country other than ours they use coins for the $1-2 amounts and it works fine. The reason being is that $1 get so much use that they wear out, whereas coins last for decades (unless they're our worthless pennies and nickels that people literally throw on the ground, those ones we mint billions of dollars worth per year at a loss just to keep up) All for polymer bills too. Basically we should adopt all Canada's cash ideas.
      - asdsadasdasd123 1y ago
        I guess that makes sense for a government, but for regular people, accumulating coins is super annoying. I wouldnt mind carrying coins if i just had to carry quarters and dollars
akeck 1y ago
Doesn't work in my part of the US. USPS Mail check theft is so rampant here that my elderly parents are moving entirely to online bill pay.
- whereisthis3 1y ago
  What city/town do they live in?

supportengineer 1y ago

It's already happening today where children and the elderly need a fully-charged, fully-patched secure device with multiple apps, passwords and two-factor authentication, just to receive health care.

jeffbee 1y ago

In general one should never agree to use an app to pay rent, since these apps are often wrapped in terms and conditions. You should always just pay your rent by check, cash, or money order. Every jurisdiction in America requires lessors to accept these.

cormorant 1y ago
Not quite. According to a quick search [1]: "Under California law, it's illegal for a landlord to require cash and/or electronic deposits as the sole methods to pay rent.1 Landlords must allow a tenant to pay rent using at least one of these other options as well: check, cashier's check, or money order." When I lived in CA I had a landlord that demanded cashier's check. Do you know how annoying those are to get? I could have also paid cash but then I'd take the risk that the cash, dropped in a mailbox, would "go missing". [1] https://caretaker.com/learn/rent/rent-payment-laws-in-california https://caretaker.com/learn/rent/rent-payment-laws-in-califo...
- jeffbee 1y ago
  Doesn't seem like that much of a problem? My bank has a form in their app to have a cashier's check mailed to whomever.
  - xp84 1y ago
    Most banks charge at least $5-10 for the privilege. Not all, but all the ones with the most market share. And also I think for most of them you have to go in person during business hours and wait in line to get one.
- tomjakubowski 1y ago
  My former giant corporate landlord (Onni) began refusing to accept checks as a matter of policy, even when I pointed this out exact law, and the language in my lease saying the landlord would accept them. They claimed that because the mandatory $5 "convenience fee" on their payment portal was paid to a third party processor, and not to them, that they were in the clear. I didn't want to go so far as to challenge them to either continue accepting check payments or, if they still refused, try and evict me, but maybe I should have.

asdsadasdasd123 1y ago

For this to work, cash needs to suck less. The convenience factor will overpower any concerns you or i have.

cormorant 1y ago
How would cash be made to "suck less"?
- asdsadasdasd123 1y ago
  I think coins need to be banned full stop. At current prices, you can probably just do a paper quarter and create a law to allow cash payments to be rounded down to the nearest quarter. Most business would be ok with this since they can avoid the credit card fees. I think we should also go plastic like canada, the bills are easier to count, harder to get dirty, and harder to get lost or crumpled. I'd also imagine itd also be harder to counterfeit and easier to track.
  - xp84 1y ago
    Coins aren't so bad! In every country other than ours they use coins for the $1-2 amounts and it works fine. The reason being is that $1 get so much use that they wear out, whereas coins last for decades (unless they're our worthless pennies and nickels that people literally throw on the ground, those ones we mint billions of dollars worth per year at a loss just to keep up) All for polymer bills too. Basically we should adopt all Canada's cash ideas.
    - asdsadasdasd123 1y ago
      I guess that makes sense for a government, but for regular people, accumulating coins is super annoying. I wouldnt mind carrying coins if i just had to carry quarters and dollars

akeck 1y ago

Doesn't work in my part of the US. USPS Mail check theft is so rampant here that my elderly parents are moving entirely to online bill pay.

whereisthis3 1y ago
What city/town do they live in?