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Agency delaying payment - What can I do?
Thread poster: S_G_C
Rita Pang
Rita Pang  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 03:32
Member (2011)
Chinese to English
+ ...

Moderator of this forum
Unfortunately Jun 23, 2017

I am very sorry for your family's loss and all the troubles, Sorana.

That being said, while I agree with Tom, late payments happen, unfortunately. Banks in China face a number of sanctions and sometimes random acts/policies from the government result in inexplicable delays. This is also why I don't work with agencies in China, even though I am a Chinese/English translator and live in Hong Kong (you know the deal, one country, two systems - all that bureaucratic fanfare). Since the b
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I am very sorry for your family's loss and all the troubles, Sorana.

That being said, while I agree with Tom, late payments happen, unfortunately. Banks in China face a number of sanctions and sometimes random acts/policies from the government result in inexplicable delays. This is also why I don't work with agencies in China, even though I am a Chinese/English translator and live in Hong Kong (you know the deal, one country, two systems - all that bureaucratic fanfare). Since the banking system is entirely different, I would get paid by PayPal or AliPay if I were to work with a Chinese agency. However as of June/July last year they froze all assets on non-Chinese AliPay accounts. If you could not provide a bank account located within China, your AliPay (China's equivalent and much better version of PayPal) account is put on hold. Too much trouble for me to consider working with a Chinese agency.

To be frank, in hindsight you should have never scheduled urgent payments that close in time to an agency far, far away (and one that is not with the EU).

I agree with Tom that no pestering and no phoning is key. You don't necessarily need to be severing all ties, however. They're late, but from the looks of the email they are promising payment, just not on time. Send them a formal email informing them of your situation and be stern in saying that you really need the transfer to be made on time.

By the way, good call on not taking on any projects or requests until the matter is resolved. That should help push things along. In the meantime, a lot of useful information have been mentioned here, and Kay-Viktor says it best. Go to your bank. Talk to someone.

Best of luck.
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S_G_C
S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 09:32
English to Romanian
TOPIC STARTER
PayPal Jun 23, 2017

They agreed to pay by PayPal. I felt relieved until I started calculating PayPal's fees in this particular case. I will lose around 40 USD, maybe more, according to my calculations. That's a lot.

Rita, I've experienced so many ups and downs with health issues and money problems over the past two years, that I can't be sure whether there is even a proper moment to schedule payments. I've lost clients to these health is
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They agreed to pay by PayPal. I felt relieved until I started calculating PayPal's fees in this particular case. I will lose around 40 USD, maybe more, according to my calculations. That's a lot.

Rita, I've experienced so many ups and downs with health issues and money problems over the past two years, that I can't be sure whether there is even a proper moment to schedule payments. I've lost clients to these health issues before and now I did my best - and managed - to lower their occurrences. One of my doctor's orders is "avoid stress". I lol'd.

[Edited at 2017-06-23 05:23 GMT]

[Edited at 2017-06-23 05:25 GMT]
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Maija Cirule
Maija Cirule  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 09:32
German to English
+ ...
I don't think Jun 23, 2017

Sorana_M. wrote:

They agreed to pay by PayPal. I felt relieved until I started calculating PayPal's fees in this particular case. I will lose around 40 USD, maybe more, according to my calculations. That's a lot.

Rita, I've experienced so many ups and downs with health issues and money problems over the past two years, that I can't be sure whether there is even a proper moment to schedule payments. I've lost clients to these health issues before and now I did my best - and managed - to lower their occurrences. One of my doctor's orders is "avoid stress". I lol'd.

[Edited at 2017-06-23 05:23 GMT]

[Edited at 2017-06-23 05:25 GMT]


that in your situation 40 USD is a lot. Late payment penalties might amount to more than 40 USD plus bad credit ratings to boot.


 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 08:32
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
PayPal. Jun 23, 2017

At least they will pay, even if it's PayPal with its unfavorable fees.

40 USD fee tells me the amount wasn't that big. PayPal used to take me hundreds in fees, and I avoid it as much as possible.

I am curious as to how a bank approves the loan to a person without regular and stable employment, I wasn't aware it was possible? Or perhaps I misunderstood something.


 
S_G_C
S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 09:32
English to Romanian
TOPIC STARTER
In RON, it is a lot Jun 23, 2017

Maija Cirule wrote:
that in your situation 40 USD is a lot. Late payment penalties might amount to more than 40 USD plus bad credit ratings to boot.


I'll see, I've already contacted PayPal concerning these fees. Converted to RON, it is a lot. It's around 16% of the minimum net wage here. I could buy 42 liters of milk with 40 USD. Or buy fresh fruit and vegetables for 3 weeks. Or pay my TV + Internet bill for 2 and a half months.


 
Rita Pang
Rita Pang  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 03:32
Member (2011)
Chinese to English
+ ...

Moderator of this forum
You can't get the best of both worlds. Jun 23, 2017

Sorana_M. wrote:

I'll see, I've already contacted PayPal concerning these fees. Converted to RON, it is a lot. It's around 16% of the minimum net wage here. I could buy 42 liters of milk with 40 USD. Or buy fresh fruit and vegetables for 3 weeks. Or pay my TV + Internet bill for 2 and a half months.


At least they'd pay. That's the most important thing. There's a lot of "if only" but try to look on the bright(er) side of things.


 
S_G_C
S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 09:32
English to Romanian
TOPIC STARTER
In Romania Jun 23, 2017

Lingua 5B wrote:

40 USD fee tells me the amount wasn't that big.


It's big in Romania. In Romania, in 2016, 2 out of 3 employees earned less than 1.700 lei net/month. That is less than 368.57 EUR net/month today. In Romania, in 2016, only 3% of the employees earned more than 1.000 EUR net/month.

Freelancers are expected to earn more than that, otherwise, why would one turn to freelancing? But I cannot tell whether, apart from the IT sector, freelancers - generally speaking - actually manage to earn more.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:32
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Oh well Jun 23, 2017

Sorana_M. wrote:

The agency is located in China.


Oh well. I wish you'd told us that earlier. It would have saved a lot of time.

I don't think there's anything that can be done.


 
Maija Cirule
Maija Cirule  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 09:32
German to English
+ ...
The only thing Jun 23, 2017

that can be done is to collect your money from PayPal and in the future avoid any collaboration with agencies based in China, India and some other countries. Given your present situation, your calculations are of no use to you.

 
S_G_C
S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 09:32
English to Romanian
TOPIC STARTER
The loan Jun 23, 2017

I have just talked to the bank. They agreed to let me return the loan by installments. I will pay a third of it today. They will apply a higher interest rate over the next three months, but I won't have a bad credit score or anything like that.

 
Maija Cirule
Maija Cirule  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 09:32
German to English
+ ...
Glad to hear that Jun 23, 2017

Sorana_M. wrote:

I have just talked to the bank. They agreed to let me return the loan by installments. I will pay a third of it today. They will apply a higher interest rate over the next three months, but I won't have a bad credit score or anything like that.


 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 08:32
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
OK, but. Jun 23, 2017

Sorana_M. wrote:

Maija Cirule wrote:
that in your situation 40 USD is a lot. Late payment penalties might amount to more than 40 USD plus bad credit ratings to boot.


I'll see, I've already contacted PayPal concerning these fees. Converted to RON, it is a lot. It's around 16% of the minimum net wage here. I could buy 42 liters of milk with 40 USD. Or buy fresh fruit and vegetables for 3 weeks. Or pay my TV + Internet bill for 2 and a half months.


I guess this is the logic followed by people working for $0.01 per word, "at least I can buy a gallon of milk after I have translated 20k words". Then we end up having the situation in the market that we have now, as this philosophy was pursued.


 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 08:32
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
I am not an expert in banking but... Jun 23, 2017

Sorana_M. wrote:

I have just talked to the bank. They agreed to let me return the loan by installments. I will pay a third of it today. They will apply a higher interest rate over the next three months, but I won't have a bad credit score or anything like that.


To the best of my knowledge, no bank in my country would approve a loan to a freelancer with unstable income.


 
S_G_C
S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 09:32
English to Romanian
TOPIC STARTER
Loans Jun 23, 2017

Lingua 5B wrote:

To the best of my knowledge, no bank in my country would approve a loan to a freelancer with unstable income.


Guarantor or other guarantees. I'm glad they've understood my situation.

In Romania, there are several companies (not banks) which boast with granting you smaller or larger loans against your ID, no financial situation statement needed. I have no idea whether they exist in other countries as well.


 
Robert Rietvelt
Robert Rietvelt  Identity Verified
Local time: 08:32
Member (2006)
Spanish to Dutch
+ ...
They do Jun 23, 2017

Sorana_M. wrote:

Lingua 5B wrote:

To the best of my knowledge, no bank in my country would approve a loan to a freelancer with unstable income.


Guarantor or other guarantees. I'm glad they've understood my situation.

In Romania, there are several companies (not banks) which boast with granting you smaller or larger loans against your ID, no financial situation statement needed. I have no idea whether they exist in other countries as well.


We call them 'loansharks' (what is in the word), and I for one try to keep away from them as far as posible.


 
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Agency delaying payment - What can I do?







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