When did you decide to charge for Readings?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 05 Jan 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Ophiel	05 Jan 2003
Some of you charge for your readings and I thought defining that moment when you decided to charge for your services would make for an interesting discussion. There was a point when you decided to charge for what you readings. Perhaps it was circumstantial, that you were 'invited' to set up at a local fair, and the promoters/friends offered you some money for your trouble. Or perhaps your friends, for whom you had been reading for free since forever, encouraged you to charge for your service (except them, of course, because they could claim "finder's fee"), or maybe you have had a urge to help people and saw the Tarot as a tool to do so, or...well, instead of me thinking up all these scenarios, why don't you post yours?

allibee	05 Jan 2003
People/friends when finding out I read tarot cards always start with...."how much do you charge?" I've always found that HUGELY embarrassing and shot myself in the foot every time by saying..."er... nothing". Even when there was no food in the house. Because I'd be saying "er.. nothing" to them and to myself I'd be saying, "because I'm not good enough". So, I'M GOOD enough now I feel to charge IMHO. I get round the problem of embarrasment at actually charging, by getting a semi faceless website together. Sorted ;) allibee

Kazz	07 Jan 2003
Allibee, I am with you ...I usually find myself saying..'uh ..no it's ok..next trime" But I have advertised (without a price) in my sister-in-law's cafe and have gotten great responses...the charge is $20.00 ..$5.00 to her...and $15.00 to me..I have found that in doing this, then I will know that the readings are charged for ..... Someone in here mentioned once...."that you are providing a service, therefore, you should be paid for that service"...I totally agree!. I also think that the clients that pay , feel like they are getting something for their money, more professional so to speak...when money is exchanged, it changes peoples perspective. Cheers Kazz :TQC

Diana	08 Jan 2003
Ophiel, there were many things that decided me to charge. I think the thing that stands foremost in my mind was the realisation that if I didn't charge, people didn't listen, unless what I told them suited them. I felt like I was wasting my time and throwing away pearls to swine. Since I've charged, I have had a lot less people asking for readings, but those who do, have come back and also phone me to give me up-dates. When I didn't charge, people hardly ever bothered to give me feedback. Another reason is that I need the money. I also used to do "exchanges", like I'd say "take me to the movies for the Tarot reading", but I don't anymore. The fee is fixed and if they don't want to pay, then I don't do the reading. Of course, if someone is unemployed and living in the streets, (which is not something that has ever happened to me, but this is just an example), then I would ask them to pay me at a later stage, when their life improves. Even if they don't ever do it, at least the notion of give-and-take is there. It's not charity. Most of my "clients" are friends. And funnily enough, I think they prefer paying than not paying. They don't feel like they're asking for favours and puts them on an equal footing with me. That equality makes things easy for keeping things friendly between us.

Ophiel	08 Jan 2003
And charging would also separate the people (especially friends, in Diana's case) who are really interested in learning something from the cards, as opposed to asking you because there's nothing good to watch on tv, or just to see if you can really read cards. I teach music for a livelihood and free lessons work the same way. This [music lessons] is what I've chosen to do to earn my daily bread, or even some snack biscuits, if reading tarot isn't your main source of bread.

Eviemay	08 Jan 2003
I still don't charge. I still feel I don't know enough to charge, and that the practice is payment enough. Looking forward to being compitant enough to charge though... :) Bright Blessings, Evie

Karenwhe	08 Jan 2003
I don't charge I never did but my mom on the other hand reads free all the time for friends and charges references... in other words all the friends that she reads for send to her clients. Her friends know she doesn't ever charge them but she charges people she doesn't know. And she gets loads of references, she never advertised in her life (it is not in her culture).

Eowyn	08 Jan 2003
I think when you give a read as a gift, a gift it is. But you decide it to be this way. I think when you give, you must receive something back, which can be material, inc. money, or "energetic", I mean the person who gets the reading may do something, for example, therapeutic massage, and can pay you back with his/hers work. Other times, specially fur us the begginers, the experience is the best payment. But I think that you both, reader and querent, need to be equal, other way as some has said in the forum, you cannot tell if the querent is going to listen or is only havin fun. And sometimes you can get really tired with a difficult reading and thats unfair.

allibee	08 Jan 2003
the other thing to touch on is the time put into learning, practicing and becoming as skillful as you can. like all professionals, the charge is then based on how much you have put into becoming proficient in your craft. Lawyers, plumbers, doctors and mechanics don't apply their skills for free. Does the Reiki Master give free classes? - maybe, just guessing *LOL*- does the psychologist or the optician treat you without recompense? All have spent serious time learning, practicing and honing their skills. Reading the tarot professionally is like any other skill and should be rewarded - if that's the right word - appropriately. allibee

tarotbear	08 Jan 2003
One point here is that if you do everything for 'free' , it is perceived as 'having no value'. Should you chose that you will never charge for a reading - well, that is wonderful for you. You do what works. "Value' is an important thing, not that a free reading may not 'have' value, but when you do something for free, people view it as trivial or worthless. By charging a fee you remove the 'rif-raf' from your client base - those who will call you every waking hour to find out if they should wash their hair or not or if they should risk going to the grocery store. By charging, you give the message that YOUR time is also important, not just your knowledge. The opposite swing of the pendulum, of course, is those 'nationally known' personalities that will charge you $100 or more for a reading...yeah, right. That automatically says to me "Although I may have talent, I don't want to be bothered with ANY of you who are not willing to pay my fee." Then there was also a certain woman of mock-island descent who offered you the sun, moon, and stars for a fee and charged you , and charged you.... The start of this thread had a mocking quality to me - that we were being challenged because we charge a fee. Well, in truth I have a wonderful web page and it's been up for three years and I have yet to make a single red cent from it. I do many readings all the time, at no charge. However, I do have rent to pay, and clothes to wash, and when I do a house party or a psychic faire, there is a fee charged- for my gas, my time, and my work. I do feel that most people coming to a psychic faire feel that $15- $20 a reading is reasonable.

Ophiel	08 Jan 2003
I'm a firm "true believer" that things don't happen strictly by chance, that if we trace back closely, we can find some interesting threads in our lives of how we came to certain crossroads, made certain decisions, met certain people, etc. and how all of this tells our biography, in a sense. I think for those of us who charge for readings, that is true. (Of course, you can choose not to share my perception on this!) I thought it would make for an interesting discussion to see how the 'professionals' (those who charge) got to that point. It's not like we all went to Tarot college and it was a natural progression to go out and get a job reading cards. Thanks for all your input so far. I hope we get more! Can you recall what led you to your decision?

Eowyn	08 Jan 2003
I wanted to move away all those who wanted to spend some funny time. But I still do uncharged readings mostly. And I ask really little money, about less than 10% of what a professional asks around here. I charge those people who I dont know (friends or relatives of my friends).

HeyElan	08 Jan 2003
Not very "spiritual", but a great story: I decided to recieve compensation for my effort - not always cash - when I was at the bar with my friend, also into the metaphysical scene. She started chatting some guy up, they got started talking tarot. She mentioned I had my cards on me and since it was my off-time, I should be compensated with a drink. The line slowly grew and I was doing reads at a little corner table. It was -great- And it was spiritual. Hehe. If you deal with spirits who like booze often - Hail Dionysius. :P

Mojo	08 Jan 2003
Making money was the entire reason I got interested in Tarot in the first place. I was 8 or 9 and I was into anything that was fun and could supplement my pitiful allowance. Tarot seemed like a cool way to do it, so I taught myself. I was charging for readings by the time I was 10 or 11. A nickle, a dime, a quarter, a peek at a dirty magazine, whatever I could wrangle out of the other kids. In college, I would put up my card table anywhere I could find and do readings at $5 or $10 a pop. Made lots of beer money that way (as compared to my best friend who put himself through 4 years of college AND law school by scalping concert tickets and making book on sporting events!). I do the occasional free reading because it's a great way to meet new people. And I will do casual readings at a local coffee house where I charge "a bill" and I let the customer determine what demonination of bill they put in the box. However, I also have many regular clients for whom I read anytime, anyplace and for any reason. I usually charge anywhere from $50 to $100 an hour for these depending on circumstances. I do readings at fairs or carnivals for $15-25 apiece. I also do parties where I charge from $150 - $300 depending on how much time they want. However, for parties, I give the hosts a list of my favorite charities and they have to make a check payable to one of those instead of to me. And there is always my guarantee. If you don't feel like the reading you got from me has value, you don't have to pay. No questions asked. However, in all the years I've been doing this, I've only had 2 people who didn't pay.

Karenwhe	08 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Mojo In college, I would put up my card table anywhere I could find and do readings at $5 or $10 a pop. Made lots of beer money that way (as compared to my best friend who put himself through 4 years of college AND law school by scalping concert tickets and making book on sporting events!). Mojo that sounds like such a great idea...... dohhhhhhhh what was I thinking ................ when I was in high-school and in the army I used to play poker for money and for cigarettes.... why didn't I think about my cards, I guess I was such an idiot. I was carrying the cards with me anyway, and at that time I was reading only in regular cards (not tarot) ............................ it would have been so much easier than poker (in poker you actually have to think to make a buck............. :) he he he he he

MeeWah	08 Jan 2003
Diana & Tarotbear express my sentiments aptly. I started charging when I was 19, after I realized that what I do *has* intrinsic worth. By then, I was very serious about what I could do, & wanted to discourage those who did not really appreciate my time & energy. Way back then, I was not using Tarot but either regular playing cards, a non-Tarot deck or using the birthdate. I first started charging my co-workers $1.50. I read for them at my desk during breaks.

DarkElectric	08 Jan 2003
When did I decide to read for money? The day all of my bills came in at once, 3 checks bounced, and several gigs got cancelled. People have asked me if I think it's unethical to read for $$$$$. No, I personally think it's unethical to write bad checks. I have no problem charging clients for my time. A woman once asked me how much I charge for a reading. I had just started the fee approach, and I was charging $20.00. She gaped at me, and said "Why don't you charge more? The good readers charge $50.00." I told her I was just starting out, but she didn't get the reading from me because I didn't charge her ENOUGH! I read out of shops now, and most people think $20.00 is fair. The more experience I get, however, will cause my rates to increase. I also give my clients a money back guarantee, and even though I haven't been reading anywhere near as long as Mojo, nobody so far has wanted their money back. I intend to be in this biz a long time, though, so I'm sure it will happen. And I really love to read for people. That's the key. Clients know I enjoy reading for them. They enjoy having me read for them. This makes a lot of difference. So, they don't mind paying. And nobody is dragging them in off the street and forcing a reading on them, they choose what to do with their money. But I do a lot of free readings too. Like I said, I love this.

The When did you decide to charge for Readings? thread was originally posted on 05 Jan 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.