Since different clients prefer different methods of payments it's best to offer your customers several options for paying you. If your contract doesn't state the method of payment, you may wish to include your desired method on your invoice to the client.
Some payment options that I've used include:
- PayPal
- Direct deposit into your bank account
- Check
Here are some of the advantages of each method.
PayPal
PayPal has some definite advantages - the main one being speed. A client can send you payment and it will appear in your PayPal account almost instantly. You can even create an invoice to send to a client from within PayPal.
You can also have money transferred from your PayPal account to your bank account or you can request a check directly from PayPal. (These last two options take additional time.) You can use your PayPal account to pay some Internet merchants directly or you can order a PayPal debit card that you can use in stores like an ordinary debit card.
Personal PayPal accounts are free, but have limits on the number of credit or debit card payments that you can accept. If you have a high transaction volume or receive larger amounts of money you will have to upgrade your account and pay a small percentage of amounts received as a fee.
Direct Deposit
I have had one client pay me through direct deposit. The main advantage to this method is that you receive your payment instantly. You can access fund by ATM or through your regular checkbook.
I would caution freelancers to only allow well-known and established customers to use the direct deposit method of payment.
Check
Some of my customers still mail me a paper check through snail mail. The disadvantages with this method of receiving payment are the time lag (which can sometimes be a few weeks if the mail service is slow) and the fact that a paper check can literally get lost in the mail.
However, if you are close to your transaction limit on PayPal, you may wish for a client to send you a paper check rather than pay a percentage of your payment to PayPal.
There's an excellent post at FreelanceSwitch describing how to use online options (including some that I haven't used) to receive payment.
What about you? What options have you used to receive payment from clients?
Leave us a comment and let us know.
Because I didn't have a choice, Xoom was the only remittance service that I use back then. But now that PayPal has finally supported Philippine users fully, I'll be exploring that option soon.
I'm also currently trying to use Moneybookers, which is a tad difficult to withdraw funds from because of the too many validation and codes required. :-(
Posted by: Alfa | October 20, 2007 11:57 PM | Permalink to Comment