The system of payments in freelance. Problems and their new solutions

So, we continue to share with readers the results of studies of the Russian-language market of distant work (freelancing), which were conducted by the developers of PROhq.

Today we would like to talk about payment methods in freelancing, often problems that arise with it, and most importantly, tell about the new solutions offered by the remote work exchange of PROhq .
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Everyone who is involved in remote work knows the most common electronic payment systems (Webmoney, Yandex Money, etc.). This popularity is understandable, since it has a number of undeniable amenities. First, you can transfer money in seconds without rising from your workplace. The second advantage of electronic payments is the absence of automatic mandatory tax relief.

Electronic payments are also convenient because they can be made both directly and through the intermediary services of some remote work exchanges, which in turn makes it possible to secure both parties from default.

Nevertheless, many participants of the freelance services market face a number of inconveniences and problems when using the mentioned payment methods.

The objective of our project is the qualitative development of the remote work market, including the search for the optimal solution to the existing issues in the system of payment for freelancers. Therefore, today we will not only voice the existing problems, but also tell you about the ways of solving them, which are offered by PROhq.

Types of payment in freelance. Advantages and disadvantages.

Direct payment is most beneficial when making payments directly. But on one condition: the customer and the freelancer have accounts in the same payment system. Under such conditions, one does not have to resort to the services of exchangers and pay a conversion fee. Otherwise, a number of inconveniences arise, including the aforementioned commission, which means monetary losses.

Certainly convenient and calculations using a bank card . But not every customer can use it to pay for the services of a freelancer.

On the surface lies another problem arising from direct payments - the danger of default by one of the parties. In such cases, both risk. The customer has a chance to run into an optional freelancer, who received an advance payment and disappeared from the horizon. A freelancer may be left with nothing by sending a job to an unreliable customer who refuses to pay for it under any convenient excuse. Yes, today, many of us have learned to hedge, "blocked the oxygen" for those who do not inspire confidence. But new freelancers and new customers are coming to the market. How to deal with them? How to protect yourself? It’s not so easy to figure out who you can trust and who you shouldn’t deal with. And what about those who are just entering the world of freelancing and do not know the pitfalls of its financial side? Of course, they can be advised to use safe systems for calculations. But here too there are often potholes and potholes.

The system of safe calculations , unfortunately, is also imperfect. It is based on a deposit to which the customer transfers money. In this case, most often only one payment system is used on the exchange. On most Russian exchanges, such a system is Webmoney. This is simply explained - the cost of the transfer in the Webmoney system is the lowest among other currencies (0.8%), and the system itself is most widely used in Runet. But the broadest does not mean universal, and therefore not all customers have Webmoney wallets (even worse if the customer lost the password and key from their electronic wallet. Registration of a new wallet takes a long time).
But back to the deposit. With numerous advantages, he has one serious drawback - the cost of this service reaches 10% of the transaction amount. Although creating a safe environment is a direct task for the exchange, these costs are borne by users.
Here, Western analogues of freelance exchanges, including the possibility of using a deposit in free functionality, could become a good example to follow.

The next problem that I would like to dwell on is the problem of accounting for earned money . Virtually none of the existing exchanges does not use the amount of money earned by them as an objective criterion for the qualification of a freelancer. But this could be one of the most important indicators of its activities - an indicator of the capacity of projects carried out by it. The simplest example: one freelancer completed 10 simple projects and received 10 reviews, the second - only two, while completing very capacious and complex projects. We all know that the number of reviews is for the customer one of the main and usual indicators of business qualities and reliability of the contractor. You do not have to wonder for a long time which of the two freelancers described above will be offered by the majority of customers to a new order.
Therefore, an indicator such as an assessment of the capacity of work performed can help the customer to make a choice in favor of a more experienced employee.

Work with PayPal and freelancers from around the world.

The international system PayPal, unfortunately, does not work in Russia in full and does not provide an opportunity for holders of plastic cards of Russian banks to work with it in the territory of the Russian Federation. Freelancers who work abroad also cannot use this system without inconvenience and high commissions when working with Russian customers. Moreover, there are quite a lot of freelancers abroad who are ready to work on the Russian market. We are talking about countries such as the United States, European countries, India, Indonesia and others.

So, to summarize the main problems encountered in freelancing when paying :

- financial losses associated with the frequent need for currency conversion,
- the lack of customer the ability to pay for the work of a freelancer using credit cards,
- the lack of freelancers the possibility of receiving payment on credit cards,
- a high percentage of deductions when using secure payment methods,
- the inability to choose one or another payment system convenient for both parties with a secure payment method,
- the lack of accounting for the amount of money earned by a freelancer, which does not give a real idea of ​​his business and professional skills.
- complex interaction when a customer from Russia pays for services of freelancers living abroad.

New solutions - payment system PROhq.

PROhq payment system is the most convenient when calculating between freelancers and customers. This is achieved as follows. Each user has a personal account in the system to which he can transfer funds in any convenient way. Accordingly, each customer can pay for the work of a freelancer using payments made within the system. The freelancer, in turn, has the opportunity to withdraw the money earned to his personal accounts in several common electronic payment systems, including bank cards.

Payment with bank cards.

The PROhq payment system provides for the possibility to replenish a personal account using Visa / Mastercard.

Pay with PayPal.

PROhq provides an opportunity for freelancers living abroad to work with Russian customers due to the possibility of withdrawing money to an account in PayPal. For the Russian audience, PayPal does not yet provide value, since it is not possible to withdraw money to cards. A list of countries with which PayPal works with the function of withdrawing funds to bank cards can be found here .

Secure payment options.

PROhq Exchange offers its users the Safe Deal service - a convenient and easy to use method of mutual settlements. Its important difference is the absence of binding to any payment system. The customer transfers funds to the deposit from his internal account, which he can always replenish with a credit card or choose one of nine types of electronic currencies.

A “secure transaction” is still held at the exchange for free. Even in the case of the introduction of the commission, its size will be minimal and will not exceed 3%.

Direct translations.

The customer can pay for the work of a freelancer with the help of "Direct Transfer". It is carried out directly from one account of the exchange user to the account of another. The commission at such operations is not removed.

Phased payment for the project.

In PROhq, a customer can invite several performers into one project. The project itself can be divided into several stages for each artist personally. The customer, accordingly, can make payment for each stage separately using the “Direct Transfer” or “Secure Transaction”. To deposit funds to the “Safe Deal” deposit, click the “Pay” button and choose a convenient method of money transfer. To transfer money to a freelancer’s account, a customer needs to select his preferred payment method (“Direct Transfer” or “Secure Transaction”) and click the “Pay” button.

Rating and payment system.

The exchange takes into account all payments made within the system. This information is used in the formation of the overall rating of a freelancer, which is called "Rank" and consists of 12 indicators. The amount of money earned by the freelancer complements the rank system. This allows you to build a general indicator based solely on objective factors. The amount of money earned, taken into account when working as a freelancer, also makes it possible to judge the quality and capacity of the projects that he has completed.
Information about the money earned is not published and is available for viewing only to the account holder.

In the future, having studied the opinions of users, we plan to give freelancers a choice: whether to publish this information or not, the freelancer will decide. It seems to us that this indicator is very important, because The amount of money earned by a freelancer can be a separate important criterion of his business skills.

PROhq members are not tied to the internal payment system. But we hope that they will appreciate the merits of the proposed service and will gladly use it.