We reviewed Urbanr before as the best-priced system for paying rent with a credit card; it’s just a 1.5% fee, and they even allow splitting rent across up to three credit cards. The major drawback is that they require your landlord to signup in order to process payments. They also don’t accept Amex.
We heard some information from a reader about temporary changes in the works:
- Urbanr will temporarily shut down their rent payment feature down for the entire month of June. Customers will be told they should continue to pay their rent in the fashion they had prior to Urbanr.
- The reason for this suspension is to upgrade their credit card verification system to properly verify billing information. The enhanced software will ask for additional verification on the card. (Was anyone was using VGC’s on Urbanr? Not sure if this change will affect that.)
- They will be bringing their service back after completing the upgrade, probably in July. The fee will not change from 1.5%. The change seems to be entirely from a fraud prevention angle.
Some of this information is slated to be sent out to Urbanr users in the next few days, I figured people would be interested in the heads-up, along with some of the background information.
I just need to stress that this information is not coming directly from Urbanr, it’s from a reader based on some research/communication on this matter. I assume it all to be true, but in the end we’ll have to wait and see.
The most interesting thing to me is that they indeed plan on keeping the 1.5% rate long term, as their CEO has claimed in the past. It’s difficult to understand how they manage that, but certainly nice to hear.
They also refuse to complete my payment and refuse to refund the money (they claim their system is not set up to process refunds. I have enough to feel confident with a credit card dispute, but
DOC folks–if this is happening to others, I might do a post on this. Seems worth flagging for potential users. Happy to provide verification by email.
I have been attempting to contact them for over a month. I’ve tried every last one of their emails and phone numbers and nobody has responded. I have never signed up for a service with worse customer service.
I have to second that.
They keep the website up even through today–including the part about paying rent by CC. No indication they have crippled that feature.
Then the number they have for customer service delivers only a “this is not a valid number” message.
These people fraudulently charged my card last month.
Never paid the landlord and won’t do a refund.
I’d stay far, far away.
Really? Did you contact them? Tweet at them? What are they saying? Did you issue a chargeback?
Comments like this (a company has stolen thousands from you) are quite dramatic. They make me think there’s some temporary issue and you aren’t taking the effort to follow up.
True but in this case it’s a pop up company with an aggressive business model that is likely overwhelmed and struggling just to operate correctly. The odds of accidental charges seem high (not suggesting they are stealing the money, just they are too busy to notice that they did)
They refuse to refund. It’s been 35 days since they stole the money. I’ve contacted them twice and they LITERALLY REFUSE to refund.
I’m working with Chase — which isn’t my job, Urbanr stole the money — and it’s lagging because clearly Urbanr is NOT cooperating.
The are thieves, pure and simple.
I have tried for over a month to contact them, and have been unable to receive a response from anyone. They payment system simply doe not work. I desperately need assistance from them. Would anyone know how to contact them successfully?
I wonder how Eliot Buchanan (Plastiq CEO) reacts to these payment processors. “Aww come on, not another copycat.”
I for one encourage this competitive option and will look to see how plastiq responds.
Eliot: “Lol what a joke. Bet I can get a new Mac for cheap when they go under”
Not like Plastiq are the first to enter this market