Best way to collect rent as a landlord

Compare them on three axes

Who initiates the payment, what it costs, and what happens when it fails. A tenant-initiated bank transfer costs nothing and depends entirely on the tenant remembering. A debit you initiate costs almost nothing and depends on an authorisation you must be able to produce. A card payment is immediate, costs a percentage and can be reversed. Cash and cheques cost time and create the strongest receipt obligation.

Pick by portfolio size, not by preference

Below about five tenancies, a standing instruction from the tenant plus a monthly check of the bank is entirely adequate and free. Above that, initiating the debit yourself is worth the setup, because rent changes no longer depend on every tenant remembering to update something. Above about twenty, the reconciliation is what drives the choice, and a product that posts payments to ledgers automatically pays for itself.

Keep one alternative open

Whatever the default, one workable alternative should exist, because a tenant who genuinely cannot use your method generates arrears that are really an access problem. Record payments made by the alternative route in the same ledger so the arrears position stays true, rather than keeping a mental note that this tenant pays differently.

Whatever you choose, do the same four things

Issue a demand before the due date, receipt every payment, post it to a per-tenancy ledger, and look at the arrears position the day after rent was due. Those four are what make any collection method work, and their absence is what makes every method feel broken.