The reason is the obvious one – I don’t want to pay the credit card processing fees. In Berkeley, landlords who own older buildings, like me, don’t accept credit cards. Some of the new buildings do accept credit cards, but that is because their rents are vastly higher than the rents in older buildings. In the new apartment houses near campus, a 1-bedroom apartment can cost $3,000 a month – or more. There is an apartment house across the street from campus that is charging $5,000 a month for 1-bedroom apartments, and it’s fully rented. I sometimes look at the students going into these new buildings and think: “I know that building charges $3,500 a month for 1-bedroom apartments. How can college students afford that? They can’t all be rich. They don’t look rich.” Anyway, if I was getting $3,000 or $4,000 a month for 1-bedroom apartments, I would accept credit cards too!

Consider Auto Pay. If you don’t want to write out rent checks every month, consider bank auto-pay. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and most other major banks offer auto-pay as a free service to their customers. With auto-pay, you can instruct your bank to print and mail checks on a regular basis to anyone who you wish. I use auto-pay myself to mail checks to people who I have to send money to on a regular basis.