Gone are the days where Seniors feel overwhelmed and confused by new technology. More and more seniors are adopting technological habits that put them alongside any other consumer interacting with peers and businesses. Visa's data around payment preferences match these senior trends.

Take a look:

• 73% of residents and family members would consider using credit cards for their monthly Senior Living bill.

• 67% of residents and family members would consider using debit cards for their monthly Senior Living bill.

• 67% of consumers surveyed would choose a senior living facility that accepts credit cards over another that does not.

• 69% of consumers surveyed would consider using a credit card even with a 2% processing fee.

• 52% of consumers surveyed would consider using a debit card even with a $10 processing fee.

Now if you're not a data analyst that eats percentages and variables for breakfast, what does this data tell us? The team at CareGrove has come up with 3 major takeaways that finance teams should focus on after reviewing the numbers.

• The Senior Living Industry Needs to Provide Better Payment Options

Whether or not finance leaders at Senior Living communities want to accept the difficult truth, the payment landscape among Senior Living communities is changing. The seniors of today and tomorrow that are considering entering into communities or currently living in communities are expecting a different type of payment experience than in the past. These seniors (and their family members) expect to be able to choose from a wide array of options. Some may want to pay with their credit card, others are used to setting up direct deposit from their bank accounts through ACH transfers, and some want to pay with their debit cards. Based on the data, leadership must come to terms with the fact that decisions around online payment options for residents is no longer a luxury but a necessity.

• Online Payments Match Modern Practices Across Consumer Industries

Is the team at CareGrove blind to the fact that the oldest checkbook in America dates back to the 1700s? By no means. Payment processing has been built on transferring money from one account-holder to another account-holder for hundreds of years, and the team at CareGrove celebrates this rich history. We also celebrate the spirit of innovation that came about when checks came into common existence. The world changed from banks being simply for the wealthiest to it being common place to have many different bank accounts throughout one's life. Similarly, Excel and individual to-the-bank trips used to work well as methods of keeping track of and depositing payments for resident payments, but they are no longer. In an article by AccountingToday, Jeff Phillips explains how "[historically] manual processes caused unnecessary delay and cost when we all worked in offices. In remote work times, they’re unworkable. His argument is that it is time to adapt to the changing times and begin accepting and managing resident payments online. We and the numbers agree.

• More Payment Options Help Differentiate Communities

Lastly, expanding the accessibility of payment options only expands the differentiation between your community and the one down the street. More and more communities around the country are innovating and bringing on technologies that allow them to offer better options to incoming residents and current residents. After reviewing the numbers, there is no longer the excuse that "the senior living industry is just old-fashioned." The truth is that it is not. Not only are other communities offering these types of methods for payments, but simply adding these technologies to their management suite saves them money and time which (also) differentiates them from communities that do not. All of the internal factors aside, once residents experience the ease and simplicity of paying for rent online, there is no backtracking. This type of experience becomes the norm and the communities that do not implement a solution that matches the experience that the residents and their families are expecting will inevitably be left in the dust.