PHOTO: Barefoot Investor Scott Pape has exposed the Rental Rewards scheme. (Source: Getty, AAP)
Barefoot Investor Scott Pape has slammed “leading real estate agencies” for “outsourcing” rent collection to a third-party platform that charges fees and rips off vulnerable Australians.
In a recent article on the Barefoot Investor website, the best-selling author and popular personal finance expert said renters were being punished through a “fast-growing scheme” called Rental Rewards that required tenants pay a fee in order to pay their rent.
“Here’s how it works: real estate agents outsource their rent-collecting to Rental Rewards, who charge renters a fee to pay their rent, and reward them with Qantas Frequent Flyer points,” Pape wrote.
Major property groups such as Ray White, Century 21, Laing+Simmons RE/MAX, Professionals and Richardson & Wrench are listed on the Rental Rewards website as clients.
The platform describes itself as a “convenient and rewarding service” that “processes rent payments on behalf of tenants and forwards the funds to the tenant’s Real Estate Agents”.
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