Paying rent via the Tenant Portal
A tenant can pay rent through the Tenant Portal via direct debit or card. You will be able to activate direct debit and card payment options as part of your NAB Portal Pay application.
The Tenant Portal can be used for tenants to pay by bank account when you have a NAB Direct Debit facility in place. A NAB Gateway facility is required to be in place for tenants to have the ability to pay in the portal by card. Please note this NAB Gateway facility is customised to only accept card payments via NAB Portal Pay. If you require additional functionality please speak to your Transactional Banking Specialist.
Once a tenant registers for the portal, they will be able to create one-off or recurring payments.
If a tenant is no longer a tenant of the agency but has set up their payments through the portal, they will need to cancel their payments.
What are the payment methods for tenants?
NAB Portal Pay will accept payments from Australian bank accounts. For card payments, the acceptable card types are currently VISA and Mastercard.
Payment scheduling options include one off, scheduled and recurring payments.
Payment cut off times
For payments via bank account, the cut-off time is 4.30pm AEST/AEDT. Payment will be sent to the tenant’s financial institution for processing on that business day. Payments after this time or on a non-business day will be processed the following business day.
Payments by bank account can take up to three business days to process and will be received into your Statutory Trust Account.
For payments via card (once enabled), the cut-off time will be 10.00pm AEST/AEDT. Payment will be processed and settle to your NAB Statutory Trust Account the same business day. Payments after this time or on a non-business day will be processed the following business day.
What reporting is available for Tenant Portal payments?
To assist you with managing and viewing tenant payments set up in the Tenant Portal you can download a report that will show you insights, including if the Payer Reference Number (PRN) has been registered and if there are payments that have been scheduled.
To download the report follow How to download a PRN file in NAB Connect.
The report includes the following fields
| Field name | What this field means |
|---|---|
|
Date PRN created |
Date PRN was created in NAB Connect |
|
PRN |
Payer Reference Number |
|
Account |
Account PRN is linked to |
|
PRN registered via Portal? |
Y/N if the PRN has been registered via Tenant Portal |
|
Portal Pay Profile active? |
Y/N if the profile is active |
|
Registration Date |
Date PRN was registered |
|
Profile closed date |
If profile is closed, date profile was closed |
|
User First Name |
User First Name |
|
User Middle Name |
User Middle Name |
|
User Last Name |
User Last Name |
|
Active Scheduled Payments (Future) |
If the payer has set up future payments in the portal |
|
Number of active remaining scheduled payments |
How many active scheduled payments are remaining |
|
Frequency |
Frequency of scheduled payments set up |
|
Scheduled Start Date |
Date when payment was first scheduled to be paid |
|
Next scheduled payment date |
Next scheduled payment date |
|
Scheduled End Date |
Date when payments will end |
|
Scheduled Amount |
Amount excluding surcharge fee |
|
Card Surcharge |
Surcharge for card payment |
|
Payment method |
Payment method selected by payer |
Dishonoured payments
Dishonoured payments processed through the Tenant Portal will show up in the account that has been set up as the direct debit returns account as per your NAB Portal Pay application form.
You will need to access the direct debit returns file through NAB Connect to view details of the dishonoured payment.
Accepting Card Payments
Below is a list of guides that will be applicable for you when accepting card payments (via NAB Gateway) made in the Tenant Portal:
- How to login to NAB Gateway
- How to create users in NAB Gateway
- How to search for a transaction in NAB Gateway
- How to process a refund in NAB Gateway
- How to enable surcharging in NAB Gateway
- How to create a custom report
Setting Up Surcharging for card payments
You can choose to pass on the costs, associated with accepting card payments in the Tenant Portal, to tenants as a surcharge To enable this, following How to enable surcharging in NAB Gateway.
A tenant will be presented with and will need to agree to the surcharge fee when scheduling their payment via the Tenant Portal.
If you increase or decrease your surcharge fees, they will not automatically apply to any scheduled or recurring payments that a tenant has already set up through the Tenant Portal. The amended surcharge fees will only apply to any new payments setup after that point in time.
| Surcharge Scenario | Time for it to be active |
|---|---|
| First time surcharge rule setup | Instantly after surcharge is set up |
| Update to existing surcharge rule or addition of new rule | 24 hours after the update or addition |
Reconciling surcharges
Surcharge fees will be debited from your nominated billing account. Surcharges (paid by tenants) will be credited to your linked Statutory Trust Account for the Tenant Portal with the rental payment. You may need to allocate the surcharge manually to the tenant profile in your Property Management Software, check with your provider for steps on how to do this.
You can create a custom report in NAB Gateway to view the surcharge credits. You will need to transfer the credits from your Statutory Trust Account to the billing account.
NAB currently does not have the ability to split payments made by card via NAB Gateway (i.e. have the rental payment directed into your STA and the surcharge into your office account). As such, where tenants choose to make payments by way of card and you decide to collect a surcharge, the full amount (rental payment and surcharge) will be paid into the STA. This full amount of the payment (rent and surcharge) represents funds being collected on instruction from the landlord. The surcharge may be thought of as a necessary and incidental amount collected pursuant to this.
Refunds
How to process refunds for card payments
You can void a transaction or submit a reversal for a transaction on the same day it was received up until 10.00pm (AEST/AEDT). After that time, you can issue a refund by following How to process a refund in NAB Gateway.
When you process a card refund or void a transaction through NAB Gateway status on the refund/void transaction will not show up for your tenant in the Tenant Portal. The status of their payment will remain as ‘paid’ in their payment history.
Card payment refunds (partial or full) are available within 120 days from the original payment date. If a partial refund is required, another refund can be processed up to original total payment amount within 120 days.
Any refunds that you process will be processed from your linked Statutory Trust Account. Please note, before you issue a refund to a tenant, you should check your Statutory Trust Account to ensure that their funds have not already been transferred out as this could result in you returning funds that do not belong to them.
To identify the transaction to refund, select the transaction, scroll down to Merchant Defined Data the Payer PRN will show up in the ‘Merchant Defined Data 3’ field.
Related guides
See some of our other guides to help you get the most out of NAB Portal Pay.
Tenant Portal information
Learn about the Tenant Portal and the benefits it offers in NAB Portal Pay.
Tenant registration
Find out how the tenant registration process works for NAB Portal Pay.
Tenant payments
Learn how payment processing, cut-off times, notifications and scheduling works in NAB Portal Pay.
Call NAB Portal Pay Support
You can call us during the following hours:
- Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm AEST
- Saturday 10am to 3pm AEST
Email NAB Portal Pay
You can reach out to us via email and we will respond as soon as possible.
Speak to your banker
Find out how NAB Portal Pay can help your real estate business.
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