Question about clients with payments not yet verified

[susanwinlowmedia]

Hello,

Just looking to have a curiosity question answered by my peers in the trenches. 

How often do clients with payments not yet verified come through with an actual job? Do they often languish for a lengthier time before any momentum? I understand all the Upwork articles on such things; at this point I'm just curiosy about actual experiences. 

Thank you!

[prestonhunter]

That is an interesting question.

Personally: I never check to see if a client is payment-verified when I send a proposal to a job.
But I check before I do any work.

I don't know what other freelancers experience, but if I apply to a job, then a client who wants to hire me will do whatever it takes to get payment verified. They will want me to work on their project after they receive my proposal and talk to me.

So I really don't recall getting a hire offer from a client who either was already payment-verified or quickly made sure they became payment-verified.

[susanwinlowmedia]

Preston and Petra,

Thanks for you input. I've been keeping an eye on those without verified payments. After being entangled in a scam awhile ago, I avoided them for a bit;  but then a job came up that I really wanted to do, so I sent in a proposal. It's still sitting there with no interviews or forward momentum. Not a huge deal, I was just curious.

Thanks!

[petra_r]

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Susan W wrote:

How often do clients with payments not yet verified come through with an actual job?

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Some of my favourite clients and most lucrative contracts were with clients whose payment methode were not yet verified when they first started talking to them.

I like working with new clients, they are often still more excited about the whole thing and less jaded.

[wlyonsatl]

Susan,

I'd estimate at least 20% - 25% or so of the projects I apply to do not have a verified payment method. For those that don't, I always include in my initial proposal to them the suggestion that we have a call to discuss their project and specifically tell them that after that call, I can start work for them as soon as Upwork verifies their payment method.

I don't keep track of which ones eventually become clients, but I have never had any prospective client complain about that approach.

Good luck.

[mwiggenhorn]

I work almost exclusively with attorneys and most of them are first-time clients.  I think that over the years, only one had a verified payment when they hired me.  They are cautious and aren't going to put their information out there if they can't find what they need.  I just tell them that I accept the contract but cannot begin working until payment is verified.  Usually done within the hour.

[richard_wein]

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Susan W wrote:

Hello,

Just looking to have a curiosity question answered by my peers in the trenches. 

How often do clients with payments not yet verified come through with an actual job? Do they often languish for a lengthier time before any momentum? I understand all the Upwork articles on such things; at this point I'm just curiosy about actual experiences. 

Thank you!

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I had one today. Client invited me to a very small job. We had a brief telephone discussion. He was interested in hiring. I asked him to verify his payment method and make me an offer. He offered to pay me direct, just to avoid the hassle, but of course I explained that I could only accept payment through Upwork. Anyway, I rang him back a little later, I think it was about an hour, and he'd already verified his payment method. While we were on the phone I talked him through making the job offer, received the offer, and accepted it.

Generally there's no problem. But I had a potential client a while back where it didn't work out. We Skyped and he seemed serious, but then he messaged me to say he'd had trouble verifying his payment method. He'd been in touch with Customer Service, and thought he was now verified, but he still wasn't showing up to me as verified. After that I didn't hear from him again. I can't help thinking that maybe it turned into too much of a hassle and he just gave up.