Accepting Payment from Clients

February 19th, 2008 @ 8pm : 4 comments : Socialize This
Filed Under: Tags: , , ,

Since leaving my day job last August, I’ve become a very diligent Freelancer. I’ve setup a standard Invoice format. Started reading more articles and books on running a business than on developing. Printed official business cards, the works. I even started accepting electronic payments from clients via PayPal instead of waiting for the printed checks to arrive in the mail then needing to fill out the deposit slip for the bank. Yes, life is pretty good as a work from home freelancer. At least things were all well until I read the latest article from Freelance Switch.

This is one of those little articles that sends shivers down your spine. The article goes into some detail about assets requested by the client and the feeling from the Freelancer that assets were not part of the original deal. The client, being the creative twat that only clients can be, decided to reverse the charges on the credit cars. This is the really scary part. The reversal takes almost less time to come through PayPal that the original payment. That my friends real gets me where I live at the moment. Granted the article only paints on side of the picture. But really it’s all I need. The fact that no questions were ask by the client’s credit card company nor PayPal is quite disturbing

Other than switching back to cold hard printed checks I’m researching the alternate of in between solution that will at least offer me some protection. The thing is I know this will happen. Anyone who deals with clients no matter what the business is bound to come across one of those evil clients that knows the game. Thanks for the wake up Cara

Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “Accepting Payment from Clients”

  1. Linda Millington Says:
    February 20th, 2008 at 11:08 am

    Glad you’re back! I would check your site periodically courtesy of Ryan Fontenot. See, you never really leave.

  2. Mookie Says:
    February 21st, 2008 at 9:57 pm

    You’re right Paul, very interesting article. We discussed that among ourselves at my little company and had a great explanation from our law-guy.

    He reinforced his dislike of PayPal (which he had reservations of since day one) and reinforced our need to ‘itemize’ each and every action, then put a charge with it.

    Still, 99% of what we do with PayPal is outflow, not intake. So, we pay with it more often than we receive from it, and we budget in the time spent waiting on the actual check and the time spent driving to the bank each month. There is a time loss upfront, but I gain it back in better sleep!

  3. Refresh Roundup: Tips, fave editors, BarCampAustin, and design carousels - Refresh Austin Says:
    February 28th, 2008 at 12:24 am

    [...] or accept client work on the side that your money and therefore your living can be at risk if you accept payment from clients via PayPal. Clients may ‘reverse charge’ your account. Like Paul says, “The fact that no [...]

  4. instyler Says:
    December 27th, 2010 at 10:12 am

    When I read a good article I go ahead and do a few things:1.Share it with the relevant friends.2.save it in some of the favorite bookmarking sites.3.Be sure to come back to the site where I read the article.After reading this post I am really concidering doing all of the above…