I’ve recently spent some time in the “Looking for Work? Got Talent?” sub-forum, and have been wondering about how to safely pay, and safely collect payments. When I say safely, I mean without being ripped off or scammed for money & time. I do not have any large payments in mind, so escrow services are out of the question, but what do you guys use? How big are the payments before you start having a contract signed?
If you really want to be safe, you should have a contract with ANYONE you are paying money to.
That being said, some people can’t get the whole contract thing done so if it’s in the thousands DEFINITELY get a contract, if it’s in the hundreds… just be wary.
If you’re offering a job where no monetary payment is involved, a contract isn’t really needed.
I think Paypal is reliable and I believe you can transfer funds.
It would be good to have someone back all this up though.
Yes, I am aware that Paypal has a method to refund buyers & sellers if they dispute a transfer, but has anyone used this dispute service before?
I have only been actively doing freelancing for a month and i am in no capacity protected.
My experiences so far have been that bitcoin is great for a freelancer because there is no cancelling of payments.
What i don’t like about bitcoin is that i lose money transferring it to my bank account.
I have never signed a contract to do work. The effort to pursue someone in another country in my opinion is not worth the effort. again i don’t handle massive contracts. I break it up into smaller projects and quote per small section of a large contract.
That way the client only pays small amounts as the work progresses. Which protects them and also me.
Except in very rare cases. Where i take a massive risk to do a ton of work and only receive payment.
Majority of the time i have gotten paid with a few exceptions of delivering work and never hearing from the people again. Or on other occasions them just responding that payments are on the way but they never come.
Generally i prefer to be paid via paypal. Mostly because its a secure payment method and i can directly withdraw it into my bank account.
I do wish there was some way of protecting against being conned into doing work for free but truthfully when dealing with freelancing online there is no full proof. I guess there are just signs to look out for.
Just my personal experience thus far.
Have you done anything like taking half payment upfront? Do people usually cooperate with that request?
I have yes. Some people do that but not everyone does.
I guess because it exposes the customer to be conned.
I generally try to stay clear from working more than 3 hours without pay. Mind you its only applicable when i design games and blueprints for them.
But things have to be in context as well.
If you are only doing a small part of massive project or you are sub freelancing in some cases you will wait a month or two to get paid.
A formal contract won’t help you much. The best way is to make sure the gain from ripping you off is small. When working with a new contact, make sure you get paid often instead of one large sum.
One standard when working with new people is to pay/take half up front, and half on completion. This serves to mitigate risk on both ends of the deal.
If the freelancer doesn’t complete the assignment, only half the funds are lost to the client. If the client doesn’t pay upon completion, only half the funds are lost to the freelancer. It’s the fairest way of dividing risk.
Personally, I won’t use paypal, it’s bank to bank or nothing, even if I lose money in the process.
But do I really have anything to lose from a frozen account besides wasted time?
That’s true… But again. They are one of the few trustable companies. (And that’s considering all their problems!)
Use Upwork or Elance.
Err, how about all your money? If you get paid $5000, Paypal freeze your account, you’re not going to be too happy. Paypal are notorious for hanging on to large sums of cash and just sitting on it.