Should I pay upfront before the work ?

Tommy · Mar 8, 2013

Hi all,

In any cases, I want to hire freelancers to do my work or online job. Should I pay upfront before the work ?
I think upfront payment is not good because your hired people will not provide quality work when they got payment.
what do you think ? any thoughts ?

Inquestor · Mar 8, 2013

I believe that people who do quality work will require a down payment of at lest 10-25%.

Most definitely if it is a long term project you require to be done. This keeps the interest in completing with quality of the project, then nit pick the rest, etc...

For little gigs like Fiver, absolutely pay after your work is complete. No doubt about that one!

developersend · Nov 11, 2016

Upfront is necessary part of freelancing. Many more freelancers did not have the money so freelancing company starting upfront. Don't worry, Your work don't finished you don't release your money. Freelancing company look at your problem.

24x7CSM · Nov 11, 2016

You need to do atleast 40% of the total project cost in order to start the things. Its the trust factor. As some times freelancers do not get their payments even though the project is completed.

Or you can open up an escrow account where the money should be deposited and it can be withdraw by freelancer only if you are satisfied with the work.

Inevitable · Nov 23, 2016

You should not pay upfront, never pay upfront.. they won't have much quality work done and you should try to avoid scammers. (etc)

You can probably pay half the said amount and half after all work is done.

forumrating · Dec 15, 2016

Booking amount is required to confirm the transaction and order, rest payment can be done after satisfaction of the work. Prefer paypal for low to nil fees

energizedit · Dec 15, 2016

Only do split payments. A portion up front then the balance when the work is completed. This is the usual payment terms with freelance/contract work.

TheHost · Dec 16, 2016

Never pay full price upfront, at least I don't. It's ok to pay a part before and the rest after work completion, for short projects. For long projects, I usually talk with the said freelancer and define some milestone in the project, after each milestone I pay a portion (that we agreed on) of the total cost.

Tip: If you really like the work, and you can afford, send a small tip. It doesn't have to be much but you will be surprised how far it can take you

HostXNow · Dec 16, 2016

I would pay 25% then another 50% and then pay the rest.

Nixtree · Dec 17, 2016

I have worked as a freelancer many years earlier and if you are working or hiring based on upwork/freelancer sites , there will be some protection for the money. But in cases where client and admin are working directly , then main thing I care is to build a trust and I believe in customer satisfaction. So I always ask payment after my work and if the work is too heavy, I will spilt those works and payments once he gave me the entire work process list and I will bill him on 2 or 3 invoices via paypal.

But now a days , we fix a initial payment of 1 hour in advance and then only we will start works which are based on hourly works (in which time cannot be defnined earlier) and we will send a quote for those fixed works and will ask an upfront payment of 10 or 20 % just to confirm the client is genuine and is serious on the work. Now a days there are many fraud cases as they get the works done and do not pay and remote works are always done in some trust.

I do not agree a total upfront payment but In my opinion asking a small percentage of payment is genuine and needed.

StartVM · Dec 17, 2016

Trust is a two way street. If you aren't willing to offer payment upfront, what makes the freelancer think you will actually pay them?

R Langley · Dec 18, 2016

Tommy said:
Hi all,

In any cases, I want to hire freelancers to do my work or online job. Should I pay upfront before the work ?
I think upfront payment is not good because your hired people will not provide quality work when they got payment.
what do you think ? any thoughts ?

It would depend on what the work is, what is it?

Tommy · Dec 19, 2016

24x7CSM said:
Or you can open up an escrow account where the money should be deposited and it can be withdraw by freelancer only if you are satisfied with the work.

I will keep this advice and will try for next times to see if it works for me or not. Are there any alternative to escrow account, I like this way.

Inevitable said:
You should not pay upfront, never pay upfront.. they won't have much quality work done and you should try to avoid scammers. (etc)

You can probably pay half the said amount and half after all work is done.

Even I paid a half of money but they still scammed me, this happened sometimes, I lost $65 for a freelancer that I sent upfront payment, after sent payment he never replied back

Kipplex-Chase said:
Trust is a two way street. If you aren't willing to offer payment upfront, what makes the freelancer think you will actually pay them?

Its reason why I asked this question, I think 24x7CSM's way is a good idea to deal with freelancers.

R Langley said:
It would depend on what the work is, what is it?

I don't think so, I hired to write content, create videos, design my website logo, design website template and plugins...etc for all kind of these works, they required me to send upfront payment.

LeatherCrafting · Dec 28, 2016

I would say go to freelancer .com is your best bet because you can set up a mile stone payments, which can be in 4 part payments and each mile stone you would see the progress of the freelancer work because most of them own re-seller hosting, if not their own company. Lastly you can send the payment at anytime you feel and both party are protected, you get the work first and then you release the payment.

blessing02 · Jul 31, 2017

Basically, paying upfront before a work is done is not advice able, however on another hand i believe in credibility and accountability, this means that for me to even think of giving my work to some guy i have to first find out your credibility status and how accountable you are to your previous jobs. this will enable me decide which to do.

Nancy G · Dec 6, 2017

Just to play safe and be fair, once you have decided to hire a freelancer directly, it is best to negotiate to pay via installments depending on the project and deadline set. You can start with 20-25% down and request for a progress report, if necessary, to see if initial work is done as per expectation, to avoid waste of time and to correct wrong interpretations while still at the onset of work. Once achieved, the next 25% can be released, and/or you can still pay another 25% with the next progress report, the rest upon final submission .

Another alternative is secure help from other freelancing site where you get to interview and select prequalified candidates and payment arranged through the job site.

Should I pay upfront before the work ?

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