I am wondering how the other sp's feel about cheques. Do you accept them from your regular clients? Do you put them in the bank and take out right away? Is there any fool proof way of ensuring he doesn't stop payment or something? What if he provides all personal info? Input from all the know everything perbs is appreciated as well, maybe theres a few of you who work in a bank or something and have insight. I appreciate all replies and in advance thankyou.
Who writes cheques anymore??
I'm kidding but why not just do an
email transfer if he's going to be giving out his name? Of course you would have to make sure both banks offered this service (most of them do).. And I'm not sure if it means you would absolutely need to give yours (real name) too though. You would have to look into that. You can basically use any email address you choose (and register on your online profile) but I'm not sure if there is a way to set it up without it sending your real name in the confirmation email that is automatically sent out once you've accepted the funds. Email transfers are so unbelievably convenient, it's a great way to transfer money. That's even how I pay my rent! No cheques, saves some trees. lol
Or how about him simply purchasing a
money order?
This way you know it was paid for already and all you need to do is cash it in at the bank. My bank (CIBC...and they suck!) doesn't consider these as 'cash' so regardless of whether you deposit with the teller or at the ATM, if you have a restriction on your account that hold funds for 7days, the money order will be treated the same. If you don't have that restriction or limit, then it's basically just like cash and you have the funds right away, and know there's no chance of NSF or stopped payment.
I've accepted cheques a couple of times from the same person, but it was someone I knew very well. We both knew each others names, I'd been to his place numerous times, etc.. Not really my preferred method of payment though.. Like I said, you might as well go with the online transfer if he's going to write a cheque.
Paypal is another option although unless your client already has a paypal account set up with his banking info already 'verified', it isn't something that can all be done in a day.. In order to transfer funds from his bank account (as opposed to using his credit card), it takes a few days for paypal to 'verify' your bank account info after you've created a profile. Then once he's transfered the funds to your paypal account, it also takes a few days (3-5 business days) to make it from your paypal account to your bank account, if this is what you choose to do. The good thing about this method is it can be kept anonymous (provided you don't use real names for the profile information that is shared when you make a transaction).
And FYI - If you do use paypal, make sure you don't make any reference to 'adult entertainment' as they don't allow this and could very well freeze your account and refuse to give you whatever funds are in there! So just to be on the safe side, I simply don't leave any funds (or much) there and move it right to my bank account.
Oh. Also, there's a fee for accepting payments that you'll have to cover so if you're not willing to, you might want to request your client to include it with his payment.
Sorry, I didn't answer your questions about cheques as I have no idea, but figured I'd still give you a few suggestions on alternative ways to do it..
Hope this helps..
