4 ms·

This is factoring, not payday loans. As the author investigates, he finds this out as well. I've done plenty of freelance work and I deeply know the pain of ge

This is factoring, not payday loans. As the author investigates, he finds this out as well. I've done plenty of freelance work and I deeply know the pain of getting paid late, but as others have pointed out, dealing with a larger business results in net 30/60/90 terms, when things are going well. The fee you pay to the intermediary is justified. Now if the only option to ever get paid was to pay an intermediary a cut of your salary, well then that would be a major issue. But otherwise this is the freelancer paying an intermediary for a) quicker access to funds and b) reducing the (albeit often small) risk of the client not paying.

guelo 8y ago
Net 30/60/90 is a scam, there's no reason companies couldn't pay earlier. That freelancers put up with it just means that they don't have enough market power.
- ljoshua 8y ago
  It's a bit of a relic from back when bank transfers only happened via paper, but I wouldn't call it a scam. Megacorps give each other the same terms all the time, so it's more about tradition and inertia than market power. That being said, when I knew I have been a high-value member of a team as an outside resource, I've negotiated for better terms (net 15, for example).