If you haven't written a cheque in a while, wait until you have kids in school.  It's constant!

Very slowly starting to improve - this year there were a couple of payments I could make online.

I voted in Alamy's survey for PayPal. They didn't ask, but I wish they'd drop the payout amount from $250 if you use an online service I have $180 sitting there and I don't intend to upload any more, but would like to remove my cash.

They need minimum two online payment options if they want to cover almost worldwide...
Paypal doesn't work in many countries...

I am confused about the banking terms.

In Canada, if I get money through wire transfer, I will get charged twice, once by the overseas paying bank, and again by my home bank ($15).

But if someone makes a deposit to my bank account, there is no fee to me.

The question is whether or not Alamy can make direct deposit to my Canadian bank account without incurring fees to me. 

I sent an email to [email protected] asking that they add paypal.  I encourage others to do the same.  Thanks

Direct deposit paychecks are the norm if you work for a big company, where I come from.  But I'm not sure if it's actually a good idea.

In the early 1990s the place I was at introduced a controversial overtime plan, which was not well thought out.  All the employees understood the description of the plan to mean that if they came in to the office and worked between Christmas and New Years (on the three days that were normally designated freebie holidays every year) they would receive triple overtime, or something like that.  A number of people took advantage of this generosity (?) by working like demons during these three days, and put in claims for a lot of hours.  Evidently the HR or payroll people also interpreted the overtime scheme the way the employees did, because they started making out people's pay stubs and doing direct deposit of the claimed amounts into people's bank accounts.  Then a couple of days later, someone in finance or some VP or something hit the roof.  NO THAT'S NOT WHAT WE MEANT, they claimed it was a big mistake and they never promised triple overtime (or whatever it was).  They ordered the payroll people to WITHDRAW the money they had deposited in people's bank accounts, which the banks did for them.  Not only that, but I heard there were some people whose overtime money had NOT EVEN BEEN DEPOSITED YET in their account, but the company told the bank there had been a mistake in payroll and were allowed to withdraw the amount anyways.  Needless to say this could have caused havoc with people's finances, like overdrawing their accounts or making them miss an automatic loan repayment or bouncing checks because of insufficient funds.

It didn't happen to me, but I was so shocked that I phoned my bank to find out how this could be so.  They said, "We allow direct depositors to withdraw money if they tell us that they made a mistake.  If you want to block this then you have to come down to the bank and do all kinds of paperwork to prevent it." Or words to that effect.  I'm not sure but possibly they wouldn't let you do direct deposit unless you also allowed the depositors to yank money out of your account.

It's one thing to put up with this for a company you work for where you can walk right into HR or payroll and get it straightened out, but with a bunch of strangers you've never met, in a land far, far away?  Sounds dodgy to me.

Thanks for sharing that Pet Chia.  I have always heard the same - once you allow people to deposit money INTO your bank, they also have the ability to take money OUT of your account.  That's my main reason for not wanting too many people to have access to my account. 

Lisa:
Did you check this thread on the forums? They're considering PayPal, Moneybookers, Payoneer and 'others: please specify'.
http://www.alamy.com/forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=8749

ACH Transfers do not cost you anything.  You are giving the same information that is on your checks that you write.
This is the Alamy Blog post:


Update on USD payments
Permalink17 August 2010 at 15:10 by James Allsworth - Content Executive
Posted under Boring but necessary announcements, News



We are making plans to phase out check payments by the end of the year. With checks there can be issues with them being lost or delayed by the postal system. As a form of sending payment out, they are also not very cost effective.

If you are currently set up to be paid by check, now is a good time to change the method of payment to funds transfer in preparation. You can do this by going to �My Alamy� and then �Change payment and tax details". Your money will be sent via direct deposit ACH transfer.

For Contributors who currently receive wire transfers these will change to ACH direct deposits on September 1st. This method will save you money if your bank charges you for receiving wire transfers. For this we need your bank's 9 digit routing code without dashes or spaces. This will be the 9 digit number on the bottom of your checks to the left of your account number. (The routing code number is also known as the ABA number, routing transit number (RTN), ACH RTN or FED WIRE number). If you currently have a SWIFT (8 or 11 alphanumeric) code or CHIPS (6 digit) number as your routing code, please make the changes as soon as possible from within �My Alamy� in preparation of the changes.

Your bank should not charge you for receiving money this way and we do not charge you any fees for this. Please note that even though we may be using your FED WIRE number, we are not sending you a FED WIRE payment (this typically incurs a fee), we are sending you a direct deposit ACH transfer.

We will also need to know whether your account is a Checking, Savings or Loan account. We will automatically default everyone to have a Checking account, so you only need to change your details if your payments currently go to either a Savings or Loan account.

Again, we do not charge any fees for sending funds transfer payments and any money due to you will be clear in your account within 3 working days of us sending it.

I have always heard the same - once you allow people to deposit money INTO your bank, they also have the ability to take money OUT of your account. 

I never heard of that here in Brazil. You can cancel a transfer while it has not been processed yet, but not after. Even my employee can not withdraw money they deposit in my account; if there was any error, they have to deduct it in my next payment. They are very few situations in which this is not the case, but as far as I know they require a specific authorization.