All of them are kind of a Catch 22…
I personally use paypal for projects unless its a reliable company (Check) or one I plan on working with for a while (Bank Wire Transfers)
Paypal has its ups and downs… Great for instant payment, can withdraw with a Paypal debit card at any ATM or you can transfer to your bank account ( 2-3 days) and it allows you to track all your transactions. The down side are the fee’s and the clients ability to “demand” a refund by filing a complaint even after its all said and done… Ive had experience with this and it sucks, I even got a complaint filed from a client I had used saying I had not paid when I used the client 4 months prior and everything was settle… ended up dropping it because he made the mistake by billing the wrong person.
Western Union has a lot of fee’s and can end up being a counterfeit transaction… Most of the time Ive had clients not wanting to use Western Union because of the fees.
Business Checks I have only received from one company, It took 4 weeks to get my final payment rather than 3-5 days as promised…This became a bit nerve ragging but in the end it paid through…
My choice is still Paypal or Transfer, get a premium business account so you can withdraw more than $500 a month just keep in mind the fees, try and incorporate them into your price next time if you do go this route…So far out of the past 5 years using Paypal I have only had one issue…Ive heard of a lot on the internet but so far so good with me…
Heres a link to a Paypal Fee Calculator: http://www.rolbe.com/paypal.htm