The idea of being your own boss has hit off so well that people are now always looking to generate income from home.
And they are succeeding!
Gone are the days when everyone had to work in an office to make a living. Now, you can pretty much become self sufficient from the comfort of your couch.
Making the company to freelancer, or the employer to employee, payment transactions possible is a broad range of reliable services that guarantee safety of both the parties.
Meaning – neither the client nor the freelancer has to worry about getting ripped off. What are they? Let’s find out!
Best ways to get paid for online work
1. PayPal
You’ve heard of PayPal, right? It’s difficult not to because this is perhaps the most widely used online payment service around the globe. PayPal has a reputation for processing transactions super-fast so that the money paid lands on your bank account sooner, rather than later.
Trusted by merchants, agencies, and solopreneurs around the world, PayPal is undoubtedly the most popular among all online payment systems. Sign up by visiting www.PayPal.com, submit your identity and bank details, add your bank card, and wait for the approval. The process does take a couple of days as they have to verify your bank account by making one or two tiny deposits and you, in turn have to confirm the amounts to PayPal.
You get paid by either requesting a payment using your client’s email ID or have your client send money to your email ID (the one you used to register with PayPal). This online payment service even has a Dispute Resolution feature that’s fair to both the payer and payee.
2. Payoneer
While not as popular as PayPal, Payoneer is undoubtedly a good alternative for freelancers. Modeled after PayPal, this online payment service offers one striking advantage that PayPal doesn’t: limited transaction fee. You can check out their complete fees structure here www.payoneer.com/in/fees/
Besides, their referral program gifts $ 25 to each party once the referral party receives $ 100 at the minimum for the first time. Pretty good, right? Sign up by visiting Payoneer.com and just follow the instructions. The process is almost identical to PayPal registration.
The only con of Payoneer is that they are not as fast as PayPal, be it in money transfer or customer support.
There’s a new way of getting paid for online work, and it doesn’t involve actually receiving money. Yes, Amazon gift cards function exactly how you imagine – it gives you money to buy stuff from Amazon. Amazon gift cards work best when you’re owed a small amount.
After all, you don’t want to end up receiving $5,000 or $10,000 as Amazon money. Or do you? These gift cards never expire and don’t carry any fees either. You can use the balance to purchase among millions of products store-wide at Amazon.com.
All you need is an Amazon account to receive gift cards. Note: there are no returns or refunds on gift cards; neither can you redeem the gift card balance for cash. So, think twice before you agree to receive payment this way.
4. Bitcoin
Cryptocurrencies are booming, and it appears that everyone wants a slice of the pie. And unless you’re completely oblivious to what’s going on, you’ve probably heard of the term Bitcoin. Well, what is it? It is currently the highest valued cryptocurrency in the world!
Already being touted as either “the currency of the future” or a “scam of incredible proportions in the making”, Bitcoin is here to give you value like nothing else. Some of the advantages of getting paid in Bitcoin are:
- No need for PayPal, Payoneer, Payza, or any other third party payment processor
- Negligible withdrawal fee and quick transfer to your bitcoin wallet
- No hidden costs or any extra charges involved
- Exchange for cash no matter where you are in the world
WARNING!!! Now, here are the disadvantages:
- Incredible volatility of Bitcoin, or other cryptocurency, value. If you price a project beforehand in Bitcoin, you are at the mercy of the change in price. As an example: You agree to a project on January 6, 2018, due one week later, and the price was set in Bitcoin,at the equivalent of $500 (0.0292 Bitcoin). When you deliver your project on January 13th, that amount of Bitcoin is now only worth $414. It could of course, go the other way and the swings in value could be, and have been, more severe.
- If you don’t regularly need to use Bitcoin as a form of payment for other goods, the same volatility applies to what you have in your Bitcoin wallet. Again, this could be good as well as potentially leading you to lose the whole lot.
Because cryptocurrencies are decentralized, some people have claimed that taxes can be avoided in many cases, probably because it can be harder to trace. That strategy must carry a very big IF, due to the fact that in many or most cases I suggest this will be considered illegal.
It’s crucial that you check for the legalities of using Bitcoin in your country or state because the recent popularity and publicity has sparked controversies.
5. Interac Transfer (Canada) or Zelle (USA)
For anyone in Canada, Interac e-Transfer has been for many years another convenient, basically free, way you can send and receive money from one bank account to another.
To get paid, either use the Interac e-Transfer Request Money feature to submit a request for which the recipient will be notified instantly, or simply give the client your email address along with a security question. They can then send it to you and generally within minutes you will receive an email to deposit the funds in whatever account you wish.
All you need to have is a bank account that participates in the Interac e-Transfer program, which is just about every Canadian bank and financial institution.
You can request money by following the steps mentioned below:
1. Log in to your bank’s online banking or mobile banking platform and go to the Interac e-Transfer Request Money section.
2. Add or select a contact, and then fill out details such as name, mobile number, email address, you wish to send a request to.
3. Type in the amount you are owed and select the account where you’d like to receive the funds.
4. And you’re done! The money will be deposited immediately once the recipient has fulfilled the request.
Note: This service is only available for people owning accounts in Canadian financial institutions.
Zelle: A similar process to the above, but this deals with most major US banks.
The cost of this is usually either free or $1.00.
6. Bank Transfer
Bank transfer or wire transfer is still one of the most commonly used methods for sending or receiving money. If you have a bank account that is approved for international transactions, then you can receive payments from around the world.
Bank transfer, however, is less preferred in freelancing sometimes because of exorbitant transfer fees and lack of protection against fraud. Unlike PayPal, banks usually don’t provide any dispute resolution platform to settle the differences between the payer and payee.
7. Credit cards
Credit cards are the No.1 mode of payment for shopping because of ease of use and buyer protection policies. But did you know that you can also receive money online for work done if you have a credit card?
Well, it’s pretty apparent that you can. Get in touch with your bank and ask about the options available to receive electronic payments. Remember – credit card payments are different from wire transfers, which have fees for the recipient and sender both.
The easy way? Set up a website and sign up for payment service providers like Stripe, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, etc. to make things easier. Most payment service providers have almost identical transaction fees.
Get started right now!
So, now you know about 7 of the most popular ways you can accept money online. All of them are safe and promise to give you maximum ease-of-use. Which one are you planning to use?