Every freelancer wants to be paid for their services. However, there are several payment systems they can pick. In order to find the best and most trustworthy one, we composed a list with pros and cons of the most popular systems.

1. FREELANCER TIPS
The 3 Main Freelancer Payment
Options – pros and cons
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21.02.2014
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2. Getting paid
All over the world, freelancers have the universal goal to get
paid. As such, they have to take their picks from various
payment systems. There are many aspects to consider when
making this decision for your business. Do you go for online or
offline payment services? Which platform do you trust more?
And last but not last, what fees are you willing to pay? To help
you answer those questions for yourself, we’ve composed a list
with some of the most popular ways to get paid as a freelancer,
discussing their advantages and disadvantages along the way.

3. PayPal, Skrill and Google Wallet
You probably saw this one coming miles away. PayPal - one of
the fastest and easiest methods to receive payments, not to
mention the most popular. Per transaction, a seller is charged a
nominal fee of 2.9% plus $0.30, which can be gotten lower with
a PayPal merchant account. The biggest advantage of the
platform probably is the level of popularity it’s enjoying.
Everybody has heard of this payment platform and customers
are much less likely to hesitate using it, in contrast to less wellknown ones. Other PayPal perks include allowing customers to
make purchases directly through your website and accept credit
card payments by phone, fax, or mail, as long as you have a Pro
merchant account for an additional $35 a month.

4. PayPal, Skrill and Google Wallet (cont'd)
One of the issues with PayPal is its notoriously bad customer
service that can sometimes take a lot of time to process
requests. Other than that, it has to be noted that PayPal has the
right to lock your account if they notice any “suspicious” activity,
freezing your transfers or even withdrawing your funds for a
while. This is an issue you will possible face and dealing with that
will be a tedious endeavor.

5. PayPal, Skrill and Google Wallet (cont'd)
Other services that are worth mentioning are Skrill, formerly
know as Moneybookers and Google Wallet. As far as fees go,
they are both pretty similar to PayPal. Skrill focuses on
worldwide transfers in different currencies, so if you’re working
with international clients a lot, it might be worth looking into.
Google Wallet is strictly for merchants and it boasts a high level
of security as well. Both of the services are not as popular as
PayPal, but they are still viable competitors.

6. Escrow
When it comes down to secure online payments, Escrow is
probably the best way to go. It works in a pretty unique way in
order to guarantee that both parties will get what they want out
of the deal. After agreeing on the service and how much it costs,
your client deposits the payment before you begin working on a
project. The seller, in this case you, then gets a confirmation and
has the reassurance that the funding is secured. After the client
confirms getting the service he paid for, you receive your
payment. There is a transaction fee of 3.25%, but you can
actually negotiate on who pays it, either splitting it or, ideally,
having your client pay it all.

7. Wire transfer, EFT and Checks
Last but not least, you should consider some offline ways to
receive payments as well. Not all of your clients might be willing
to use an online service to pay for your services. While it is
rather uncommon, it could occur and it is good to be prepared
for the possibility. Electronic Fund Transfers (EFT) are one way
to do it. They are essentially a way to transfer funds from one
account to another with none or low transfer fees. Wire transfer
is a type of EFT, but it is faster and more expensive. Getting paid
by check is the traditional way of doing things and there’s
nothing wrong with it if you trust your client and can afford to
wait for the check to actually come and get approved.

8. Further freelancer tips available on http://www.freelancermap.com/channel/19-news.html
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© freelancermap.com
21.02.2014
Contact: info@freelancermap.com