From Alamy on their Facebook site:

Alamy #photographers ! - Good news, we'll now pay out every time you clear $100!

A necessary step, thank you Alamy.

Great stuff, I am waiting for my 180 dollar payment for 7 months, and now they lower the threshold At least I will see a nice sum in November.

But seriously, good stuff, now all I need is sales. LOL

I thought 'GREAT NEWS AND ABOUT TIME'

Until I read the part about paypal users being charged a 'small' fee for having the audacity to want their money paid.

*! Is 50% commision not enough payment for these guys?

Quote from: Tonygers on October 15, 2013, 11:39
I thought 'GREAT NEWS AND ABOUT TIME'

Until I read the part about paypal users being charged a 'small' fee for having the audacity to want their money paid.

*! Is 50% commision not enough payment for these guys?

It was too good to be true. *, cant these agencies do anything right. Man, that pisses me off so much. I feel violated now submitting 80 images this weekend.

Thanks for nothing Alamy.

From the Alamy site "The changes come in on 30th November 2013 so if you have $100 or over cleared in your account by December 1st you'll get paid in the December pay run". Just in time for Christmas to get that last gift (after the fees for Paypal of course)

http://www.alamy.com/contributor/contract/amendments/151013.asp

they are not even saying what the fees are. Seriously.

Can't you use a direct bank payment or Skrill?  They're both free.

I am not going to sign up for Skrill, I am with PayPal, and I have an Irish bank.

Quote from: Ron on October 15, 2013, 12:35
I am not going to sign up for Skrill, I am with PayPal, and I have an Irish bank.

Same with me except Swedish bank instead.
Getting so pissed off with these agencies taking more and more every year.
Maybe time to consider other options?

I don't think you need a British bank account I have a German bank account and I do get my payment without bank fees for several years from Alamy, so Irish and Swedish bank accounts should work too.

The new set up says Euro to EU bank now is at a fee.

I am on over a dozen sites using paypal on all of them and this is the first one EVER to charge a fee for paypal.  Very disappointing.  Can anyone see what the charge will be?  I can't find it in the contract.

Quote from: Ron on October 15, 2013, 13:47
The new set up says Euro to EU bank now is at a fee.

Yes you are right I read the email now too, well I will see in the next transfer if they now charge for the thing and how much.

The one thing they didn't outline is what the fee will be.

Definitely a step backwards

I don't see why I should feel grateful about it. Every other agency pays when it reaches $50 - 100. Not only it does not perform that well, it is painfully slow in collecting our fees. Now it becomes the only one among the top and middle tier agencies to charge us a Paypal fee (and the only one I am aware of). So petty!!

I read the mail and thought, boy, people must be having a hard time getting to the payout amount!  It speaks to sales volume dropping, more than kindness.

From an admin on the Alamy forum.

Sorry if this isn't clear. Alamy aren't charging you here. The charge is a PayPal charge, which goes to PayPal. You can receive a free bank transfer in the UK or US, and if you're based outside you can get a free payment from Skrill.

But I don't buy this as I don't get charged by paypal for receiving payments from other american based sites.

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on October 15, 2013, 14:53
I read the mail and thought, boy, people must be having a hard time getting to the payout amount!  It speaks to sales volume dropping, more than kindness.

+1

More and more images, more and more contributors taking longer to reach payout and more and more people complaining that they are not getting their money. With the time it takes for Alamy to collect payment, and to then wait until you reach $175 could take years to make payout.

Even with current interest rates Alamy must be making a nice little amount off the top and now they charge for Paypal - is that to cover their loss of interest earnings?

Another step on the slippery road of stock.

Quote from: Tonygers on October 15, 2013, 15:12
From an admin on the Alamy forum.

Sorry if this isn't clear. Alamy aren't charging you here. The charge is a PayPal charge, which goes to PayPal. You can receive a free bank transfer in the UK or US, and if you're based outside you can get a free payment from Skrill.

But I don't buy this as I don't get charged by paypal for receiving payments from other american based sites.

Aren't the Paypal charges linked to bulk payments or something? Ron, you seem to know Paypal quite well, any ideas?

Sure it is a Paypal charge, but every other agency covers it for their contributors. Alamy is so poor that it cannot do the same.

Quote from: Tonygers on October 15, 2013, 15:12
From an admin on the Alamy forum.

Sorry if this isn't clear. Alamy aren't charging you here. The charge is a PayPal charge, which goes to PayPal. You can receive a free bank transfer in the UK or US, and if you're based outside you can get a free payment from Skrill.

But I don't buy this as I don't get charged by paypal for receiving payments from other american based sites.

Not only that! It is at least 2 months after you reached the payout, they clear the money. Say if you reach the payout in July, the money won't get cleared at least until October, and you'll be lucky to see that money in Paypal on November 7 or 8.

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on October 15, 2013, 14:53
I read the mail and thought, boy, people must be having a hard time getting to the payout amount!  It speaks to sales volume dropping, more than kindness.

Quote from: Freedom on October 15, 2013, 15:18
Sure it is a Paypal charge, but every other agency covers it for their contributors. Alamy is so poor that it cannot do the same.

Quote from: Tonygers on October 15, 2013, 15:12
From an admin on the Alamy forum.

Sorry if this isn't clear. Alamy aren't charging you here. The charge is a PayPal charge, which goes to PayPal. You can receive a free bank transfer in the UK or US, and if you're based outside you can get a free payment from Skrill.

But I don't buy this as I don't get charged by paypal for receiving payments from other american based sites.

Payments from Rodeo are also subject to a PayPal charge so Alamy are not unique.

I'm not personally unhappy as I'm in the US and get paid by them via direct deposit (although I'm currently at a cleared balance of $97.xx and sales have just vanished, so I may never get paid!), but they apparently just don't get that they are not special enough to be able to pull this sort of stunt.

Here are the mass pay fees for the payer - in the case of a UK company paying in Euros to someone in Ireland (to pick Ron as an example), Alamy would pay only 2.0% up to 6 euros as their mass pay fee. It's not going to break the bank, IMO

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_batch-payment-overview-outside

It used to be that their royalty rate was high - they keep cutting it and on distributor sales (which I have opted out of) contributors end up with 30%

It used to be that their sales prices were higher but now most things are massively discounted from the apparently irrelevant "list price"

They take months to clear payments, offer liberal refunds, have a massively painful keywording system (I periodically get a reminder about 30 images I uploaded that I couldn't be bothered to keyword once sales just slowed to an occasional trickle) that isn't like any other site.

There used to be sales...

I had to wait for a payment from June to be cleared in October  and thats quick.

I am done with them anyway. I will be closing my account. Had enough with them.

Quote from: Ron on October 15, 2013, 12:35
I am not going to sign up for Skrill, I am with PayPal, and I have an Irish bank.

Why not? Having at least 2 options to get your money makes sense.  Anyone outside the US should save money with Skrill, as they give you more money when you exchange currencies.  There is a small withdrawal fee but I still get more money with Skrill.  If anything goes wrong with PayPal, at least you have another choice.