When the agent starts by asking 'What's your rate?'...

[chef]

I always answer with "what's the role and where is it?" which is usually followed by "so if it was working from home what's your rate? and if it was working in London what's your rate?"... errr it depends on what the role is?

[NotAllThere]

If the going rate is £600 a day, I'll just say £800 per day. The next question is "would you be prepared to work for less".

"That depends on where, who for, and how interesting the project is".

Then we're able to start discussing sensibly.

[CheeseSlice]

I get this about 5% of the time, and I ask pretty much the same thing.
If they act confused or ask why it is important, as with your reasoning I will say it affects how flexible my rate can be, or whether I need to build in accommodation, travel, etc.

One of the younger agents once responded to me something like "ohhh, I hadn't thought about that"
Bless him

[cojak]

That's absolutely fine and a sensible question.

They're being cowboys if they express surprise if you ask it and realised that you're not a newbie (even if you are) and are not going to be rolled over in the conversation.

If they can't give you that then there probably is no contract and they're phishing.

[bf2]

I usually ask back, 'What's the role and where is it based?'

Is that not a reasonable query? If I can commute then I am happy to charge a little less. Also I can perform a variety of roles from solutions architect to data architect to MDM specialist. Surely the rate would depend on what the role is?

Some agents seem to be surprised/taken aback when I ask this. Is my rate supposed to set in stone?