Know this isn't really outdoors, but the OB knows stuff, and I also know some of you here have rentals. Does anyone of you know anything about something called rent app? One of ours suddenly supposedly sent their rent on this. Is it reliable, safe? Thanks guys.

Don't know about rent apps, but sounds like your tenant got scammed out of their rent money.

They had been paying with Venmo, till all of a sudden the wife got a notification from an outfit called Rent App asking her to accept payment from said renter. Googled it, supposed to be through Plaid, supposedly secure, and supposed to help the renter build up credit history. Wife wants to check with the bank before opening it.

What did the renter say when you contacted them? Did they
try to pay via a new method without contacting y'all?

The lease should determine the manner in which rent is paid. The tenant does not get to decide otherwise. Frankly, neither does the landlord after the lease is signed. If both parties want to renegotiate the means of payment, you can do that based on advice from a skilled real estate attorney.

In my opinion -- and this has nothing to do with the law -- rent/lease payments should not appear on credit reports -- positive or negative. That is supposed to be creditor/debtor situations and a landlord/tenant situation is not that. I think a lot of landlords like the idea of dinging someone's credit report if they don't pay (as leverage), but a judgment for eviction can be abstracted. Judgments are different things entirely. But I don't think your rent payment history is fair game for your credit report one way or the other.