Does ClickPay Charge a Fee for Credit Cards?
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Short answer
Yes. Card payments through ClickPay carry a convenience fee, and there is no published company-wide rate — it is configured per property. Property-published figures cluster around 2.95% for credit cards with e-check free. The critical exception is Visa, where the fee is a flat amount based on your building's average rent rather than your payment, so paying a small charge with a Visa card can cost more in fees than the charge itself.
The short answer
Yes. Credit card payments through ClickPay carry a convenience fee. Bank e-check is often free — though less reliably than it used to be.
There is no ClickPay rate card. The company publishes exactly one fee figure across all properties: $3.95 for cash payments at a MoneyGram location. Everything else is configured per building, which is why you cannot find a number online.
Properties that do publish their own schedules tend to cluster around 2.95% for credit cards with e-check free — but that is each property’s figure, not ClickPay’s.
The Visa trap
If you pay with a Visa card, the fee is not a percentage of your payment. It is a flat amount calculated from your building’s average monthly rent.
ClickPay’s own explanations, in response to complaints:
“Visa has a rule requiring that the fee associated with the transaction be ‘Fixed and Flat’ unlike the other card brands that utilize a percentage-based fee.”
“The fee associated with [Visa] card payments are fixed and flat based on the average rent amount set by the property management company, instead of the transaction amount.”
The fee is derived from what people at your building typically pay in rent — not from what you are paying right now.
For a full rent payment that is usually fine, and can even be cheaper than a percentage. For a small charge it is a disaster. Residents have publicly reported:
- A $23 service fee on a $35 housing application fee
- A $155 service fee on a $15 payment
- A $122.63 service fee on an $80 payment
Those are user allegations rather than vendor-confirmed amounts — but ClickPay’s own statements confirm the calculation method that produces exactly this result.
Never pay a small charge with a Visa card on ClickPay — application fees, amenity charges, a leftover balance. Use e-check, or a Mastercard, Discover or Amex where the fee is a percentage. Check the Fee Chart first, every time.
Card network rules require it. Visa’s rules require convenience fees to be flat rather than percentage-based, while Mastercard and American Express permit either. That is also why ClickPay’s fee update announced Visa credit and debit moving to “a fixed and flat structure with a maximum payment threshold,” while Mastercard debit, Discover debit and Amex prepaid moved to percentage pricing.
| Card | Fee structure | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Visa credit / debit | Flat amount, from your building’s average rent | Large payments only |
| Mastercard debit | Percentage of payment | Small payments |
| Discover debit | Percentage of payment | Small payments |
| American Express prepaid | Percentage of payment | Small payments |
If your payment exceeds your building’s threshold, ClickPay says you will be emailed and asked to choose a different method.
Who actually sets the fee
Not ClickPay alone. Its resident terms say only:
“NovelPay reserves the right to assess a convenience fee for the use of NovelPay services… Resident Convenience Fees will be prominently displayed before payment. Please see the ‘Fee Chart’ within your account after signup.”
No amount appears anywhere in that document. ClickPay’s support material attributes the schedule to your building directly — whether fees apply to AutoPay “depend[s] on your payment method and your property manager’s fee structure.”
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<text x="380" y="168" text-anchor="middle" font-size="13" fill="var(--c-text-muted)">Waiver requests go to your property manager — ClickPay cannot change it.</text>What real properties actually charge
These are individual properties’ published schedules.
- One FirstService Residential community: 2.95% credit card ($3 minimum), or debit at $3 per $100 with a maximum of $9.95 — two completely different schedules at the same property.
- An Anatolia master association (June 2022): e-check free, 2.95% on debit and credit alike — the same management company, pricing debit differently again.
- FirstService Residential Minnesota: 2.95% credit, e-check free.
Same platform, same management company in two of these cases, different answers.
E-check is not always free any more
ClickPay’s public wording is careful: e-check is “generally at no cost to you.” In practice:
- A Virginia HOA announced in July 2024 that ClickPay had added $3.00 to one-time e-check payments, while recurring e-check stayed free.
- In complaint responses during 2026, ClickPay confirmed a $2.95 convenience fee on ACH at some properties, citing “costs associated with processing, administering, and providing customer support for ACH transactions.”
Note also ClickPay’s stated position on refunds in those responses: because the fee “was disclosed prior to payment authorization and the transaction was voluntarily completed after reviewing the applicable fee,” it declined to adjust the charge.
ClickPay's terms state convenience and service fees are non-refundable — the exception being where ClickPay debited in error, or a refund request is validated as legitimate, in which case the service fee is refunded too. Practically: read the confirmation screen before you submit, because afterwards is too late.
How to find your actual fee
- Log into your property’s portal at
clickpay.com/custom/yourproperty/login.html. - Go to Pay Now — or Configure Payment Schedule if you are setting up AutoPay.
- Open the Fee Chart. It lists every method available at your building and what each costs.
- Select your method and read the confirmation screen. Fees must be displayed before submission, so the total there is what you are agreeing to.
If the number surprises you, that screen is your last chance to back out.
The legitimate ways to pay less
Switch to e-check, if it is free at your building. Check whether one-time and recurring are priced differently — several properties charge for one and not the other, so setting up a recurring payment can be free where a manual one is not.
Use your bank’s own bill pay. ClickPay operates a biller network and sweeps these electronically. No portal fee.
Mail a paper cheque. Slow, but no portal fee. ClickPay’s lockbox scans it.
Match the card to the payment size. For a small charge, a percentage-based card (Mastercard, Discover, Amex) will almost always beat Visa’s flat fee. For a large one, the reverse can be true.
Ask your property manager, not ClickPay, about a waiver or a different schedule. The platform applies what your building configured and support cannot override it.
Do the rewards arithmetic honestly. A 2.95% fee against a 2% rewards card is a net loss.
If you live in California
California renters have a statutory backstop that residents elsewhere do not. Civil Code section 1947.3, as amended by SB 611 in 2024, provides that a landlord “shall not charge a tenant any fee for payment by check for rent or security deposit,” and must permit at least one payment method that is neither cash nor electronic funds transfer.
In plain terms: your landlord has to accept a paper cheque, and cannot charge you for using it.
More broadly, rental fees are drawing federal attention. The FTC has published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on rental housing fee practices that names “payment processing fees, convenience fees” directly. That is an inquiry, not a rule — nothing about it makes these fees unlawful today.
One thing that is not ClickPay’s fault
Late fees. ClickPay is explicit that it “simply manages the bill presentment and payment on behalf of your landlord or management company” and does not set late fee policies. Returned-item fees work similarly: ClickPay bills your property management company, which may choose to pass the charge on to you.
If you have been charged a late fee after a payment problem, the conversation is with your property, not the processor.
What to do next
- Open your Fee Chart and write down what each method costs you. Ignore every figure in this article, including the examples.
- Never pay a small charge with a Visa card on this platform.
- Check whether one-time and recurring e-check are priced differently. Switching to recurring is free money at some buildings.
- Screenshot the confirmation screen each month — fees are non-refundable, so your record of what you were shown matters.
- Take waiver requests to your property manager.
For the fuller picture of how the platform works, see what ClickPay is. If you are not certain the portal you are using is even ClickPay, ClickPay versus Property Pay settles it, and is ClickPay legit handles the trust question. We are independent of ClickPay and RealPage — see our disclaimer.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does ClickPay charge for a credit card payment?
- There is no company-wide rate. Properties that publish their schedules commonly show around 2.95% for credit cards, but this is each property's own figure, not ClickPay's. The only number that binds you is the Fee Chart on your own Pay Now page.
- Why was my ClickPay fee bigger than my payment?
- Almost certainly because you used a Visa card. Visa's own rules require convenience fees to be a fixed flat amount rather than a percentage, and ClickPay calculates that flat amount from your property's average monthly rent — not from the amount you are actually paying. On a small payment the fee can exceed the payment. Use e-check or a non-Visa card for small charges.
- Is ClickPay e-check still free?
- Often, but no longer always. ClickPay's own wording is that e-check is "generally at no cost." Some properties have added $2.95 or $3.00 charges to one-time ACH payments while keeping recurring ones free, and ClickPay confirmed live ACH fees in complaint responses during 2026.
- Are ClickPay fees refundable?
- Generally no. ClickPay's terms state convenience and service fees are non-refundable, except where ClickPay debited in error or a refund request is validated — in which case the service fee is included in the refund.
- I live in California. Do different rules apply?
- Yes. California Civil Code section 1947.3, as amended by SB 611 in 2024, says a landlord cannot charge a tenant a fee for paying rent or a security deposit by check, and must allow at least one payment method that is neither cash nor electronic funds transfer.