I recently moved and the new property agent uses Macquarie Bank’s DEFT (www.deft.com.au) online/phone payment system. This costs at least $0.85 per transaction, or more if you use a credit/debit card. Extortion racket, but that’s another matter. I can’t even sign up for this system, because DEFT has now been down for over a week, with apparent security issues:
“Macquarie Payment Services – Powered by DEFT”
This site is currently undergoing maintenance work which is designed to upgraed the security for your DEFT payments. We are working to bring the site back online as soon as possible and will continue to provide updates on this page [they have not]. Existing payments will not be impacted. […] DEFT is committed to providing you with the most up to date protection for your transactions. We apologise for any inconvenience.
So this morning I got two weeks rent out of an ATM, and walked into their offices (by the way, it’s near impossible to get a park nearby so that’s a time drain in itself). Conversation with receptionist follows:
A: I’m here to pay the rent for <my address>.
Receptionist: Sure, how would you like to pay?
A: Cash.
Receptionist: Sorry, we don’t accept cash.
A: Yes you do. The DEFT payment system has been down for over a week, and me having to come in here is a considerable time drain already. I am very unhappy.
Receptionist: I can call the manager?
A: Please do.
Receptionist: Oh. Just a moment please [and vanishes]
Receptionist: Ok we’ll accept cash, as long as the DEFT system is down.
A: Thank you. And please pass this letter on to your manager. Have a good day.
The letter states the payment problem, the DEFT fail and apparent security issues, and a request/demand to remove the arrears notice from my rental record. Attached a printout of the DEFT front fail page, and an invoice for my lost company time, to be repeated bi-weekly until adequate and secure payment facilities are provided.
The cash was a test; apparently they are able to accept it and just prefer not to; I know I can pay through EFT (many agents don’t even accept that and require a cheque or money order which costs even more time/money). Of course I don’t want to do any of that as it requires me to go in to their offices every few weeks, which is downright ridiculous. I just want to be able to set up some automatic system. They don’t accept direct debit either. You must go DEFT.
Why do I bother getting cranky about this? Because I despise unfairness and borked business processes. And because literally thousands of people are getting screwed over by it, and they’ll generally have more hassle getting away from work.
Hear Hear,
I have had the same problems with DEFT. Did find you can ring them though and they will effect the payment over the phone.
I Agree Entirely, I signed my Lease agreement for a set amount of rent which did’nt include an extra $0.85 for Deft.What happend to depositing directly into their account with a rent book at least it did’nt cost,if their so keen on Deft why dont they pay the charge themselves?
same things happening to me, now its been over two and a half months the system has been down!
DEFT may be great for agents, but it is terrible for tenants. My previous agent used DEFT, and, as I didn’t have internet access, and only a mobile phone, it cost me to pay my rent. I paid for two months each time to cut costs. I was ok with it because at that time there was no fee for making payments. Any extra charges for paying my rent were due to how I chose to pay it (same as people who choose to pay by bank cheque choose to incur a fee from the bank). There was always a fee-free option, but then DEFT started charging a fee, and my agent stopped accepting any other form of payment. Well, I quit my tenancy based on that decision. Now, my current agent has decided to use DEFT, and stop accepting BPay. I am so angry. As Chris Nunan points out, the agent has increased our rent by not accepting any fee-free options of payment. I contacted the Residential Tenancies Authority about it, and was told that it wasn’t technically an increase in rent, and that I should try to negotiate with the agent. The agent refuses to accept my point of view (“it’s only 85 cents”). So, I’ve paid out the whole rest of my lease in one go (11 months worth) to save costs (I’m such a cheapskate), but also to make a point. Agents really should offer a fee-free option of payment. I can’t believe there’s no law about it.
DEFT is sucks! I’m stuck paying by credit card and it costs me $12 on the $800 I pay every fortnight. I don’t want to set up direct debit as I have flatmate and sometimes he pays a day late which means I would have to incur a dishonour fee if I didn’t font up with his share of the rent. And they don’t allow you to direct debit from two separate accounts.
Surprises happen: today a letter got sent out to Ray White tennants that they’re ditching Macquarie DEFT rental payment system, and moving to PayWay. Now I don’t know if that’s an entirely sane system – but at least it allows BPAY and with my bank I can set that up on automatic and BPAY itself does not incur a fee in this case. So it’s a heck of a lot more sane.
Whether my letter and other action had any impact on this I don’t know, but at least it’s a (positive) move (and Ray White moving is a great signal to Macquarie) and I’ll be sure to send a followup note to the Ray White manager with my acknowledgement of this step. Chance *does* happen.
Im so glad that i’m not the only one thats angry with these blood suckers, I’m sick to the back teeth of being shafted by the hilariously named ‘convienience fees’ that seem to crop up everywhere but having one attatched to my rent was particularly galling. However its our own fault for paying them, I refuse to do so, I will pay my rent in full, minus the $0.85 until someone can explain to me excactly how any of this is bloody convenient! The more people that do this the more pressure there will be to change the system, it’s up to you if you want to carry on being robbed but I for one have had enough.
I complained but it fell on DEFT ears
Oh I think it must be the truly incompetent ones who use it we gave our Agent a month notice we would continue on lease after flat mate moved out gave a date to come sign everything and hand over money 2 weeks after the date they came by and we got overdue notice for a time when we had no way to pay rent.
This is how the big banks in Australia make profits in excess of $23 BILLION from a population of 22 Million. Do the maths on how much per man, woman and CHILD that is….
Big business is in collusion with the banks. Its all in their favour. I think we should all start to be more active in objecting to this behaviour. We could all start by sending a link to this page to your local MP.
Power belongs to those with money. The rest of us will die the death of a thousand cuts!
i use direct debit via DEFT, but i have never been charged a fee.. i’m keen to know where this charge is hiding???
I agree with all your comments. I emailed Maquarie suggesting that this was just a form of tax on the poorer members of the population and asking where was their sense of community spirit. Of course I received no reply. My agent replied to my email, expressing my dismay at this, she expressed some dismay at the situation but as yet has not withdrawn from the system.
i agree, it sux to the max. like they say someones winning and it’s not us.
I agree with everything everyone has said about deft when i first signed up i could not sign up due to the sight being down their was no customer service when i called for assistance so we went in to the rent agents to pay by cash at first they would not except my rent in cash as they do not hold cash on the premises but then when i asked “how am i going to pay my rent then” they excepted. After a brief conversation with the tenancy manager about the not being able to sign up she said it seems to be working for us and if we wanted to come in to the office they would set it up for us. How ever I no nothing about the $0.85 fee I’ve been paying by debit card and been getting hit $6.00 a pop until today when i went to pay double my rent and got double surcharged $12.00 but after seeing that i canceled my payment this just seems dodgy i process my payment by entering in the data payment details and their reaping the benefits for my time the only service their offering is to the agents who use their service so i’m going to walk in and pay by eftpos from now on only because I’m not working the way i had been paying would have cost me $300 a year but not if i can help it and i know the agents are going to harass me about this but i welcome the challenge maybe our local MP does need to be made aware of whats going on in his community i was being lazy in accepting the system not anymore and what about our older generation that don’t really have a choice or the support for their fee-free options and are suffering the consequence.
This is my first time renting, but I am horrified by the commercialism within the rental system. I dislike the deft system, to start with the 85cents per transaction fee, then my first payment was dishonoured – I didn’t find out until I received a letter from my rental agent charging me $45 admin fee. So I went to the site and made a payment, by this time I had two weeks rent to pay. Two days later the money still hadn’t come out of my bank. Now I phoned Deft to ask why and found out that I had made an error on my account no, by one digit. So now I am having to pay $135 to the rental agent for my error. I asked the rental agent for other options to pay my rent, but apparently all I can do is use the deft system or pay by cheque, involving dropping the cheque into their office.
I am disgusted by the admin fee that the rental agents are charging for the dishonoured payments.
I would like the law to be changed so that I could pay by bpay or direct debt to the rental agents bank account. Something they refuse to give out.
I’m not concerned with paying a minimal fee for a transaction, but agree it should be borne by the agent.
What I am concerned about, is that the DEFT website does not contain a list of fees in one place. You have to search around and try different options to work it out. And to my reckoning, the credit card option at 1.5% – 3.5% is the first option given to the payer.
This is definitely deliberate and deceitful. There should be a full disclosure of all fees and charges in one place, just like bank accounts offer, so the consumer can make a more informed choice.
Similar issues to everyone here I think we all should have a choice on how we pay our rent.
Dan. B
How deft are they that scam our pay!
I am another unhappy about this ineqitable system; we have no choice and we are charged for it.
I paid bond and 1st month rent to the agent with the only thing they would take – bank cheque, then I went to DEFT on-line, followed the prompts and have had requests for overdue rent ever since- also no response to requests made to agent to pay rent other ways.
It works; if you are a financial agent, the tenents get shafted , the owners don’t get paid and the agents – well…what do they achieve ??
It’s so bad. I’ve been paying via direct deposit to my agents bank now for 12 months. Suddenly, they’re insisting I pay using the DEFT system. So now, I have more numbers and codes to record or memorize in addition to paying the direct deposit not into the agents account directly anymore, but now …..to the Macquarie DEFT account, so that they can administer my funds (instead of me) and re-coup the .85cent fee as a result. They’re nothing more than a pointless but greedy middle man!
I think we all need to complain to the ACCC and our local Ombudsman, don’t bother with the Residential Tennancy Authorities – no balls!
We have been paying the 85cents for the last 6 years and finally i have had enough.I will be contacting Harourts Monday morning to discuss reimbursment otherwise we will be deducting the fee from the rent amount from now on or when we give notice the rent will stop and the bond can be used and the amount spent over the past 6 years or so will be deducted. There is NO CONVENIENCE for me paying using DEFT.
Not to mention the security issues
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