Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks, recently launched the Intuit PaymentNetwork. Both you and your client need to register for an account, which is not much different from PayPal, really. Once you both have accounts, you can request money from your client -- you pay a single, $0.50 fee and the money is transferred directly to your bank account within 2-4 days. It's a price that can't be beat, from what I can tell!! You don't have to give your client any bank information at all.

I have a blog post on the topic with more details, if you're interested:
http://greenleafaccounting.com/blog/...r-than-paypal/

Deb

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Deb Howard Greenleaf, Certified QB ProAdvisor
Virtual Bookkeeping & QB Consulting

Gosh, I am learning so much here. I never thought about direct deposit. I am looking into PayPal now, and I love the idea of no fees.

So much for my poor little brain.

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~ Norma Guerin
DSA Virtual Assistant Services

Thank you for the information Deb. This is great news. I will have to look into further but, your article was very impressive.

Thanks again,
Andrea

Question: For those using PayPal, do you build in a "service charge" so that the fees are coming out of your clients' pockets rather than your own? Or do just chalk it up to a cost of doing business and convenience?

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase :daisy:

I like Direct Deposit but I would only go that route with clients I've known for a very long time. Paypal would be the safest until you know your clients well.
VirtualRachel

Interestingly enough, the "western world" especially the US, is actually a bit behind in this. Over in Europe, for example, bank transfers are the most common method for moving money around because the European Union essentially regulates the fees involved -- and the fees are basically nothing.

Like Candy said, anytime you write a check you're giving that entity your banking information anyway. There's not a whole lot that can be done just by knowing your account number.

If you're especially concerned about direct deposit and giving away your financial data... you can always set up an additional business account that acts as an "in basket" for funds, that you then transfer to another account. I do this for Paypal. My "backup account" for paypal is only meant for Paypal transactions. Not because I don't trust the people paying me... but because I don't trust Paypal. If anything should happen, Paypal won't have access to all of my funds. I just do this as a precaution after reading all of the horror stories, but I've been using PayPal for years and years (at least 9) and have never had an issue.

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Marian Harmon, Certified Virtual Assistant
www.crossmydesk.com

Being in South Africa we can't use Paypal to accept payments so I make regular use of Direct Deposits. I've never had a problem with anyone trying to use the details to withdraw money from it. I did however at one point last year have my cash point card cloaned but fortunately I don't keep much money in the account and while they did manage to get some money from my account it really wasn't that much in the grand scheme of things.

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Trish Donmall
http://conorsadmin.co.za

Wonderful info! I especially was drawn to Deb's post, went directly to Intuit's site and signed up for their Payment Network. Any savings on fees is a big help these days. I'll keep you all posted going forward.

Interesting thread. I thought of only getting paid by check, didn't think of paypal or direct deposit.

Deb, is this a system that accepts credit card payments from clients, or is this only bank account to bank account set up?