the 2.5% should be fine for amounts less than $10k. and if you have a good business practice and transfer enough money to matter, i guarantee you - you won't have ANY problem with them. I never had a problem with paypal that wasn't solved on the first support call. checks are ok unless you work international. and they might take long to clear. wires are best but also take 1-2 days to clear, sometimes more if international.

1) build a nice portfolio and get references
2) NEVER work without advance payments
3) never call a potential client more than 3 times before getting a deal signed
4) never ever fail in doing what you're hired for
5) paypal will do for invoicing and billing. get a premier/business account and you'll be fine
6) get a set of must-have documents: an agreement, NDA, proposal wireframe, a set of relevant links for each project category
7) avoid custom coding. there are a lot of open-source apps today you can use code from
8) donate to them!
9) use modeling and frameworks. avoid coding pure language, you will waste precious time
10) don't get jobs just because you need the money!! very important.
11) decide on some hourly rates for various category of tasks and only give discounts for large projects. calculate fixed fee projects' values based on these rates.
12) always add 10-20% on the top of any quote you generate. clients will always surprise you with stuff like "i thought that was assumed"
13) establish a sales strategy and stick to it: "i'll do it for X-10% instead of X if you decide today" or "I can do both your projects for 75% their total value"

took me 9 years to learn this on my own. the very hard way.

www.buzzica.com is the result of all this work.
Hit me up if you need help!

I second that.