[consulting] How do you receive payments?

[Andrew Cohill]

Paypal and other fees are just the cost of business.  Most businesses  
accept credit cards and have to pay 3% to 5% in fees on every  
transaction.  They build these costs into their prices so that they  
don't have to bother their customers with special fees.

If you are doing consulting and are working for someone in another  
country, simply include payment terms as part of the job negotiation  
process (.e.g. wire transfer, Paypal, credit card).

In the U.S., it is not very difficult or expensive to get a  
"merchant" account for Visa/MC.  My local bank charges only $10 USD  
per month plus the normal 3%-5% processing fee.  So you could take  
credit card payments.

The main thing is make it easy for your customer to pay you.   
Different sizes of fees may tell you what is appropriate.

A $100 fee is Paypal, because it may cost the customer $25 to $50 to  
wire the funds--no one will do that.

A $2000 fee works better for a wire transfer if the customer agrees.

And so on.

Andrew

On Sep 25, 2006, at 8:53 AM, Khalid B wrote:

>> >> This is a lot cheaper than paypal, but I don't currently have any
>> >> numbers. IIRC the cost is between 1 and 2%.
>> > It's already been said here (and my experiences concur) that  
>> bank fees
>> > to perform such wire transfers often seriously outweigh the  
>> percentages
>> > that Paypal gets. If you are aware of a bank that charges only  
>> $2 for a
>> > $100 wire transfer to Italy, I want to know the name of that bank.
>>
>> This is a consulting list, I didn't think anybody would either  
>> write or
>> receive invoices on pocket money. :p
>>
>> What I wrote applies to amounts of USD 1000 and up.
>
> Gerhard:
>
> What is pocket money in one country can be a nice month's salary
> in another.
>
> What is "cheap" in the G8 is very expensive in developing countries.
>
> It is all relative.
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Andrew Michael Cohill, Ph.D.
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