Agencies I would recommend working through.

[NickFitz]

And Google leads me home to CUK

Back on topic:

This is could actually be quite a good thread as its good to know up front the payment schedule for an agency and whether they pay on time sometimes you find out too late!

+1. It would be a good idea to have a sticky thread for this kind of stuff, or maybe even something on the main CUK site crowdsourcing information about agency payment terms - it's usually not easy to find this stuff out in advance.

Current - Monarch - Monthly (Boo) apparently (new gig) Invoice/TS by Tuesday will be paid the following Friday...we will see.......

Far too late for the OP, but if you ask, Monarch will allow weekly invoicing for the first month of the contract. Furthermore, on one gig with a bunch of Monarchists I dutifully switched to monthly after the first month, then found out several months later that the other guys had just carried on invoicing weekly and nobody at Monarch ever questioned it

They're also prompt payers. I've worked through them a few times and give them a definite +1.

[Scrag Meister]

Thread still going after 2 years.

Currently working through Resource Solutions, they are the in-house pet agent, with client co emails addresses and they have weekly payments, and the schedule was up and running week 1.

Invoice end of week 1 paid end of week 2, can't ask for more, been fine for 4 weeks so far.

Update : Been here over 4 months now, paid on time every week. . Can't ask for more.

[Jubber]

+1 Hays

Had 3 good rate financial gigs through them - pay weekly

[Gentile]

I've no complaints about any of the agencies I've worked through, including Elan, Harvey Nash, and plenty of others. Some are better in finding permie work, others contract. Elan are the only one I've seen that have been good at both, though it greatly depends on the individual agent you go through how effective they are.

Of them all, I think the best was definitely Plexian. Who were later acquired by Computer People and seemed to become a bit tulip after that. Whilst they were still Plexian (during the dot com bubble) the agent was on the ball, kept good contact throughout the contracts, and got me repeat business. They also gave me a nice leather document folder as a "congratulations on securing your first contract through us" type-of-a-thing, which I still have ten years on. I thought that was a nice touch. Needless to say, like all the others, they never missed a payment date. The first time I experienced that with any agency would be the last.

[Wanderer]

Here's a list of agencies I would recommend working through:

[SarahL2012]

I've no complaints about any of the agencies I've worked through, including Elan, Harvey Nash, and plenty of others.

I'm having a hard time getting Harvey Nash to make contract adjustments at the moment. Quote from agent yesterday "people usually just opt out and then sign the contract". I presume that means they don't read it first.

[Gentile]

I'm having a hard time getting Harvey Nash to make contract adjustments at the moment. Quote from agent yesterday "people usually just opt out and then sign the contract". I presume that means they don't read it first.

Yes, I had that too (I've had it with every agency I've contracted with, to be honest). The agent said they couldn't agree amendments, that it had to be a Harvey Nash Director that did so, in a tone that suggested such an insurmountable obstacle should spell the end of our discussion. I just told her in that case to get someone with the appropriate authority to call me, and one of their Directors did. We agreed terms pretty quickly after that. I've yet to see a contractual amendments discussion go any other way: it gets escalated to their Director / Grand Wizard / Pal Sitting Next To Them, then we stop playing sillybuggers. I can't fault any agency for trying it on with that alone: they're all as bad as one another on that score.

[Sausage Surprise]

Max 20
Timothy James
Fine Green Associates

Payments weekly and on time. Can't be faulted.
Max 20 even tell you what their margin is

Can I add Fruition IT to the list please

[platforminc]

+1 for Aston Carter
Been with them for over a year, I like to invoice monthly as its less paper work for me. Although they have started weekly payments now, I still invoice monthly and they pay a week or so later. No probs so far.

[SarahL2012]

Yes, I had that too (I've had it with every agency I've contracted with, to be honest). The agent said they couldn't agree amendments, that it had to be a Harvey Nash Director that did so, in a tone that suggested such an insurmountable obstacle should spell the end of our discussion. I just told her in that case to get someone with the appropriate authority to call me, and one of their Directors did. We agreed terms pretty quickly after that. I've yet to see a contractual amendments discussion go any other way: it gets escalated to their Director / Grand Wizard / Pal Sitting Next To Them, then we stop playing sillybuggers. I can't fault any agency for trying it on with that alone: they're all as bad as one another on that score.

Thanks for that - when I've got the strength to pick up the phone to them again (can't handle it on a Friday) I'll suggest that I talk to someone with authority to make the changes and hopefully it will move along faster.