If your roommates always pay on time, Venmo or Zelle from a bank account works and costs nothing. Where it gets hard is the month someone is late and you're checking four apps to see who paid. An app built for it, like TableCash, shows the whole house who has paid, sends the reminders before the due date, and lets roommates pay by card or mark a Venmo or Zelle payment as paid so the record stays in one place.

The four ways houses do it

	What it costs	What you can see
Venmo	No fee from a bank, debit card or Venmo balance; 3% on a credit card	Your own payments and requests
Zelle	Typically no fee	Your own bank's history
Splitwise	Free, Pro is paid	Each person's balance; paying happens person to person
TableCash	Free to download; 3.5% + $1.49 on a card payment; no fee on one marked paid another way	How much came in this month and how many have paid, for the whole house

Venmo: fine if everyone pays on time

Request each roommate's share, they pay from a bank account or debit card, and there's no fee. Paying with a credit card costs the sender 3%, per Venmo's fee page. The catch is the list: you request three people, one pays, one says "doing it tonight", and you're the one tracking it. Venmo Groups helps when a group splits costs among themselves.

Zelle: free, and final

Zelle goes bank to bank, typically with no fee. Zelle's own FAQ says payments can't be reversed and to send only to people you know and trust, which roommates usually are. Like Venmo, it moves the money but leaves the list of who has paid to you.

Splitwise: the tab, not the payment

Splitwise shows each roommate's balance and can repeat the rent every month. People still pay the person on the lease one by one, through Splitwise Pay where it's offered in the US or on another app. Good for a running tab of shared bills; more on that in is Splitwise good for roommates.

TableCash: one place for the whole month

1. The person who runs the house sets the rent and each roommate's share once, and picks a due date a little before the landlord's.
2. Roommates get one link. They see their part and pay by card, or tap that they paid another way (Venmo, Zelle, cash) and the organizer confirms it.
3. Anyone who hasn't paid gets a reminder 3 days and 1 day before the due date. The organizer doesn't send it.
4. The whole house sees how much has come in, so nobody has to ask.

Card payments go to the organizer's own account through Stripe and wait a few days before they can be cashed out, so set the due date around the 20th if the landlord wants rent on the 1st. TableCash doesn't pay the landlord. Step by step: how to collect rent when the lease is in your name.

Pick by your house

• Everyone pays on time, from a bank account: Venmo or Zelle.
• You want a running tab of everything shared: Splitwise.
• You're the one on the lease and you're tired of keeping the list: TableCash.