Appreciation post: The $100 'good faith' deposit that saved me from a nightmare job

A potential client for a website redesign balked at my standard contract and asked to work on a 'handshake deal' instead. I insisted on a small, non-refundable deposit before starting any work, and they ghosted me immediately after I sent the invoice. Has anyone else found that asking for a token payment upfront is the fastest way to filter out bad clients?

4 comments

4 Comments

pat_harris3mo ago

Seems like a pretty low bar for a nightmare.

jennyfisher3mo ago

Learned that lesson the hard way after wasting a week on "just a quick mockup" for a friend of a friend. My hundred dollar test is basically a jerk tax, and I'm happy to let them not pay it.

rose_perry123mo ago

That hundred bucks also works as a great filter for people who don't value your time at all. They'll argue about the fee but expect endless free revisions. It saves you from a much bigger headache later.

webb.hannah15d ago

My sister actually does this with her freelance graphic design work and it weeds out like 90% of the difficult people before she even starts. It's wild how the same people who fight you on a small upfront fee are the ones who will message you at 10pm with "one tiny change" that takes three hours. I see this pattern everywhere now, not just in paid work. Somebody who argues about splitting a $12 bill evenly or complains about a suggested tip is probably going to be exhausting in other ways too. Money boundaries just seem to expose people's general attitude toward respecting other people's time and effort. It's like a shortcut to knowing who's worth dealing with before you waste weeks finding out the hard way.