One of the easiest ways of getting money from freelance work is with paypal.com. Most freelance websites that have an escrow system support paypal withdrawals as a fee free withdrawal option, a lot of clients use it and it is easy to get your money out of paypal. With a bank account attached to your paypal account, you can move money from paypal to your bank account in a few business days. After going through a verification process, you can also get a paypal debit card which allows you to make purchases with it using your paypal balance or even go straight to an ATM to withdraw cash that you have just received to your paypal account. With existing clients that pay me an hourly rate, I can do work throughout the day and then get a paypal payment at the end of the day for my work. I can then immediately have that cash in my hand after every day of work. Many clients will only pay through a freelance website or with paypal. If you get all of your payments through a freelance website, you can use other withdrawal options like having a check mailed to you or having the funds transferred to your bank account (usually for a fee though).



Fees


One of the negative aspects to freelancing is the fees that you have to pay. Freelance websites will charge you monthly fees and/or fees for every project you win. You will usually also pay a fee to make a withdrawal from your freelance website balance. Some clients will pay you directly to your freelance website account and then you will have to withdraw that balance via check, wire, bank transfer, paypal, etc. Some of those withdrawal options have fees associated with them through the freelance website. With some options like paypal, you will pay a fee to receive the paypal payment in most situations. If you decide to do a decent amount of freelance work or even do it full-time, be sure to keep track of the fees you are paying to various websites/companies. You can report these fees and other business expenses when filing your tax return each year and these fees are deductible (as well as things like a portion of your rent/utilities based on your office space square footage compared with your residence square footage, computer costs, internet fees and anything else related to your business/occupation).



Payment Etiquette


Some clients can be touchy about their money and may get offended if you get too pushy about getting paid. However, from a workers point of view, it shouldn’t be difficult getting paid once you have done your job. Do your best to avoid situations where you are owed too much money unless that money is sitting in an escrow account somewhere. If you do find yourself in a situation where you are not getting the money you are owed, do you best to remain as calm and nice as possible with the client or you are likely to only delay your payment even more. Just don’t continue to do work them them until you have received your due funds. Try to avoid problems by working out payment plans before accepting a project so there are not any disagreements when the project is complete. If you have bid on a project, it is common for a client to want to ensure your product is working before paying you or releasing payment but it should not take more than a day or two. Work out the timeline ahead of time to ensure you receive your money in a comfortable amount of time.