Poll: How do you prefer to be paid?

Oliver Lawrence wrote:

Some agencies have asked me for quotes per page or per line, which always seems odd to me, as the number of pages/lines in a text depends partly on the formatting (font size, spacing, etc.) whereas the number of words does not, so it seems clearer and fairer to charge by word.

In terms of charging by the hour (for translation, as opposed to interpreting, I mean), I feel that if I take on a translation in an area which I'm not expert on (e.g. to broaden my experience), then charging by the hour would be slightly unfair on the client, tantamount to asking them to pay for my education as well as the specific translation service that they want. And it's not always at all easy to tell how long something will take before you get your teeth into it!

Jonathan Fedler wrote:

If my memory serves me correctly, before the era of CAT tools translation was generally paid for according to target words. As a German English translator this was to my advantage, as the finished product can be as much as 33% longer.

Some of my older customers sill pay the old way. Most have left the rates unchanged; a few have lowered them slightly. Last week I did a job for a new client (in the EU) that pays by target word, though I only discovered this after checking, as an afterthought. (I located it via a Proz ad, which didn't specify word type).

Have others had this experience?

To avoid all doubt, I think ads in Proz should state specifically what word is being referred to.