Payment Frequently Asked Questions
When a property owner begins a new application request, he or she chooses whether to pay for the service or whether he or she will request the potential tenant to pay for the application. Based on who is chosen, credit card entry information will be displayed to that party at the time of the transaction.
You or your potential tenant only pay when the transaction is completed, which occurs after the applicant agrees to screening and successfully verifies their identity.
A charge is an electronic transaction whereby an amount of money is transferred from the purchaser’s account as part of an online process.
With an authorization, the funds remain in the purchaser’s account (they are only kept aside temporarily while the validity of the credit card and availability of funds are verified), whereas with a charge the funds are transferred out of the account as part of the purchase.
Some credit cards operate under the dual debit-credit system (that is, the same card can function as a debit card or credit card), which is why it is possible that an authorization may appear in the purchaser’s online bank account summary, despite the fact that the amount hasn’t been debited. SmartMove representatives do not have the ability to remove authorizations. The purchaser will need to wait until the bank removes them, which can take up to 7 business days.
SmartMove will issue the credit within 24 hours. The purchaser’s bank may take up to seven business days to reflect the refund in the online summary of the credit card.
While it may appear that the credit card has been charged twice for a report request, the pending item the purchase may notice on a bank statement is actually an authorization. Authorizations are the initial communication between SmartMove’s billing system and the bank’s billing system. While the purchaser may see multiple pending listings in the account, only one charge will be deducted after the authorization is completed. When this final deduction occurs, the charge will be posted to the account as successful. SmartMove will not bill an account until we receive an approved authorization from the bank. Authorizations are processed each time a potential renter successfully passes authentication. When a purchaser checks his or her bank account, payment authorizations will often be listed as pending. These authorizations can remain on in the purchaser’s account anywhere from 7 to 10 days, depending on the bank. The purchaser may contact his or her bank to confirm the charge for the report request with SmartMove or to check on the authorization status.
In most cases, an email is sent to the party paying (property owner or potential tenant) the night of the transaction. Unfortunately, at this time, SmartMove does not issue formal receipts on the website or have the ability to generate a duplicate email receipt. Purchasers have the option to print the Payment Confirmation screen after entering credit card information to serve as a receipt if necessary.
