Jobs @ Career Consulting Limited

Return to career-consulting-limited.com
Managing
People
Managing Your Career
CV Examples
Coaching
Cover Letter Examples
Pre-Employment Tests


How To Receive Payment as a Freelance Translator?


A problem most freelance translators are facing with is how to receive payment. In particular: How to receive payment for small jobs. Many translation agencies are reluctant to pay small fees via wire transfer due to the transaction fees; often they will send you a check instead. And I suppose I don't have to tell you: The banks charge an enormous commission when you come and want to cash in your check.

Then along came PayPal ?

Basically PayPal lets you send and receive payment over the Internet. It bases its service on the existing bank and credit card networks, but it is not a bank in itself.

Registering is free; all you need is an email address. Sending money is free - receiving money however, is not. You pay 3.4 % of the received amount unless you are receiving dollars; in this case you pay 2.9 % of the received amount. Then you have to pay a flat fee for each transaction: 0.35 Euros or 0.30 Dollars. In addition you have to pay a cross boarder fee of 0.5 % - 1.0 % if you receive payment from someone located in another country.

Then you have to pay a small fee when you withdraw your money to your regular bank account. (Unless your bank is located in the United States; then you don't have to pay this fee.) How much this is depends on the country you are located in. I for instance live in Switzerland and have to pay 0.50 CHF to withdraw to my account. Banks in countries within EU, except the United Kingdom, all charge 1.0 Euro.

Lets have a look at an example. I perform a small translation and charge a minimum fee of 20 Euro. 3.4 % of 20 Euro is 0.68 Euro, plus the flat fee of 0.35 Euro. Add the cross boarder fee of 1%, which is 0.20 Euro. So, of my 20 Euros PayPal takes 1.20 Euros. In addition comes the fee of 0.50 CHF for withdrawing the money to my regular bank account.

If the agency sent me a check instead of using PayPal, my bank would charge 7.50 CHF (4.80 Euros) for cashing the check for me. Each bank has its own fees for cashing checks and receiving wire transfers. But for smaller amounts PayPal is definitely the cheapest way of accepting payment. You will have to do a small calculation and see how large amounts you can receive before the PayPal fees exceed the fees your bank charges.

But is it safe?

Most freelance translators using this way of receiving payment are satisfied with the service and have had no problem with PayPal. I have only heard of one-two translators having their accounts frozen by PayPal for no legitimate reason.

Some negative aspects of PayPal

The problems with PayPal only start when you have a problem, so to speak. Resolving a problem can be very time-consuming and frustrating, and in many cases no solution is reached. Their customer support is not exactly something to brag about. It is very difficult to get behind their wall of auto responders and answering machines!

Another thing to be aware of are scams. There are numerous scams around, from people sending out emails pretending to be from PayPal asking you to confirm your credit card numbers, to hackers going in to your account and spending all your money.

Other negative aspects of PayPal are that it is not available in all countries and you can only receive payment in a few currencies.

By using PayPal you take a large risk compared to using the normal banking system. The chance of loosing your money is there. At the moment there are several lawsuits filed against PayPal and a lot of people who have lost money and not received any compensation.

Have a look at these web sites:

http://www.paypalwarning.com
http://www.aboutpaypal.org/

A few tips for using PayPal

The majority of the people having problems with PayPal are people selling items via auctions etc. Some examples: Payment is cashed from the buyers account and not transferred to the sellers account. A buyer uses a stolen credit card number to purchase items from you and your account risk being frozen for being involved with criminal activity.

As long as you use PayPal to receive money and don't connect you PayPal account to a credit card the risk is relatively low. In the worst case you could lose the money available on you PayPal account, threw whatever reason: hackers getting in to your account, PayPal freezing your account etc.

Having read a few of the horror stories about PayPal, I am very cautious using their system. But I still use it for receiving small payments. Basically out of lack of alternatives. PayPal was the first company to offer this kind of service, and for a long time it was the only company providing this service.

In the last year or so a few other companies have started providing the same service or very similar services. Most of them are very new companies and still not industry standard. When I ask agencies if they pay via Moneybookers for instance, they have never heard of this. But many of them can offer payment threw PayPal.

I am sure there soon will be very good alternatives. But for nowit seems we are stuck with PayPal whether we like it or not.

Guidelines for using PayPal

The only advice I can give is to be careful using PayPal. Here are some tips to help minimize the risk of loosing money threw PayPal.

1. Only receive smaller amounts through PayPal.

2. Never leave large amounts on your PayPal account: Withdraw your money as soon as you have a couple of hundred Euros/Dollars.

3. Log in to your account and check that everything is ok each time you expect to receive payment.

4. Be prepared to lose the money on your account.

Get more info at Vertaalbureau Metamorfose Vertalingen

Khalid Belamdini is a freelance webmaster working at Vertaalbureau Metamorfose Vertalingen


MORE RESOURCES:



Careers | Career Opportunities  West Virginia University





Jobs  City of Rochester (.gov)

Careers at TWU  Texas Woman's University


Careers  Catholic University Communications


Recruitment  St John's University News






Careers at VA  VA.gov Home | Veterans Affairs

Job Seekers  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

City of Tampa Careers  City of Tampa


Careers  BASF


Nursing jobs  VA.gov Home | Veterans Affairs


Jobs at BCA  Minnesota Department of Public Safety

Careers | Human Resources  The Seattle U Newsroom - News, stories and more



Careers  Washington State University


Employment Services  American Mathematical Society



Working for ICE  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Newsroom




UF Health Careers  UF Health - University of Florida Health



Careers at Prairie View A&M University  Prairie View A&M University


Job Search Results  UnitedHealth Group

UN COMMON CAREERS  VCU Health

Career Opportunities  Gilead Sciences


Careers  S&P Global

Careers  Medline




Job Opportunities  Bellevue School District

How to Apply  FEMA


Work at Syracuse University  Syracuse University


Careers  Micron

Careers at Discovery Education  Discovery Education





Join our team  FHI 360

Careers  KPMG



Careers  Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Careers  The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation

Careers at Air Liquide  Air Liquide

Internship Opportunities | Careers  Boston Consulting Group


Search & apply for jobs  Boehringer Ingelheim


Careers in  A&O Shearman

Work At Chess.com  Chess.com

Students and graduates  JPMorgan Chase

Careers  Oregon WildBlog

Career Paths  FEMA

Green Jobs  King County

Highest-Paying Engineering Careers in 2024  University of North Dakota







The Best Jobs in America in 2024  U.S News & World Report Money

Mental health at work  World Health Organization


20 Careers With the Most Job Security Right Now  U.S News & World Report Money




Why Employees Quit  HBR.org Daily

JobFeed  NSW Department of Education



Need More Information?
Site Home | Site Map | Links | Contact Us | Privacy Policy
© Career Consulting Limited.com 2011

tumblr visit counter