MichaelBluejay - 10:51 pm on Nov 30, 2004 (gmt 0)

In most cases I think you need to get the payment up front anyway. When I first set up shop I decided that I'd let customers pay after I did the work, and that I'd re-evaluate that if someone ever stiffed me. Well guess what -- my *first* client stiffed me! And I was only charging $10/mo. to design & host a one-page website. Now I get the money up front.

On the other hand, if you're selling a service that doesn't take you much time to provide, then you might be able to make more money by letting people pay later, even if a large percenage of them don't pay. If you charged up front you might get 100 customers. If you let people pay later you migh get 150 customers, with 20% of them never paying. You still wind up with 120 customers. Something to think about.

By the way, you can't write off payments you didn't receive for a service as an expense on your taxes. The IRS doesn't allow this because it's too easy to abuse.

If you're unhappy with the poor seller protection offered by PayPal to sellers of services then you can always get a secure server and certificate for about $150/yr. That plus a Merchant Account and you're in business without PayPal.