How do you receive commission payments?

[Bella_Artz]

I'm not sure if I should have put thus under the Questions section even though I'm speaking directly to artists but correct me if I'm wrong.

So today I was asked for a commission on Instagram but I declined since I feel I have a long way to go before that. But it got me thinking of about a year ago when I wanted to go into commissions and went into research about it.

The thing that concerned me most was payment and I noticed PayPal was the go-to option and so I tried it but it doesn't work in my area.

After today the idea of taking commissions is starting to look appealing once more and I want to know if there are other recommended payment methods out there that are experience approved.

Other advice in taking commissions is also welcomed.

[joannekwan]

If you don't have Paypal in your area, you could try Stripe? I notice more international creators use it.

I don't know Stripe's functionalities, but with my experience using Paypal, the best feature is the invoicing system. It makes transactions more professional and it's great for keeping records on your end.

I personally only charge a client after they've approved a sketch, but I understand creators who want an upfront charge before doing any work. But I like showing a sketch first in case the client wants significant changes that will add to the overall price. I also sketch pretty fast so it's not an incredible amount of labor lost if I get stiffed.

[river121693]

Paypal has the Xoom service which people can use to send money directly to certain bank branches in other countries. I use it regularly to send money to Vietnam with no issues. Not sure whether it's prone to refund abuse like the rest of Paypal.

[Kelheor]

Honestly, the question will be where are you from. Like different countries may have different systems, I know many use Pioneer or Buy me a coffee, the question is whether they work in your country (for example, the only thing that works in Russia now is Boosty).

[Katzalcoatl]

I have always received payments two ways. Directly to my bank account or through paypal. Many sites like Ko-Fi require you get a paypal or a Stripe iirc.

Tapas normally pays you through paypal. Having said that other sites/clients deposit directly to your bank account. It just depends on what you prefer or what is available to your clients.

[RedLenai]

Paypal is usually the most common option for artists
There are others that use CashApp, Stripe or other similar methods that are virtual wallets.
There are artists that only work with local folk so then they use bank transactions and similar.
Still, I believe that knowing the country you're from may help some a bit, be it if they are from the same country or if there is actually an alternative for Paypal.

Still, I would recommend to be careful, since nowadays when people say "someone approaching me for commissions through instagram" or similar, is highly likely it was a scam attempt, these are becoming extremely common and they usually try to go for people who are new to commissions or artists in general. A lot of genuine people interested in commissions would try to dig up through your profile to know if you take those kinda gigs, and would likely not ask if they see you never stated such thing.

[Bella_Artz]

Thanks for the heads up.

[allisoncandraw]

Back when I did comms, I used PayPal, Venmo, and Ko-Fi to receive payment. I think Ko-Fi requires you to connect a PayPal account, though.