The deposit: how much to ask for, when, and what it changes

Why a moving company should take a deposit on every booked job, how much (ours is 20 percent of the low end), how to ask for it without sounding pushy, and what happened in one August to the jobs that had one versus the jobs that did not.

For the first year I did not take deposits. A customer said "yes, Saturday works," I wrote it on a calendar, and I showed up. Most of the time they were there. Enough of the time they were not, or they had "found someone cheaper," or the closing got pushed and nobody told me, that I spent Saturdays sitting in a rented truck I had already paid for.

A deposit fixes that, and it fixes three other things you do not notice until you have one. Here is how we do it, what it changed, and what one month's calendar looked like split between the jobs that had a deposit and the jobs that did not.

How much

Twenty percent of the low end of the estimate, or a flat $100 on a small job, whichever is simpler to say. On a $1,200 to $1,500 hourly estimate that is $240. On a $1,400 flat pod load it was $280. On a one-bedroom estimated at $800 to $1,200, we said "a $100 deposit holds the date," because $100 is easier to say yes to than $160, and the point of the deposit is not the money.

The deposit comes off the final balance. It is not a fee. Say that in the same sentence, every time: "a $100 deposit to hold the date, which comes straight off your final balance."

When

On the same call or text where they say yes, before the date is written anywhere you cannot erase it. The script has the words: "What is the best email for you? I will send the Moving Services Agreement and the deposit link over in the next hour. The date is held once the deposit is in."

The date is held once the deposit is in. Not once they say yes, not once they sign. Once the money lands. A signed agreement with no deposit is still a maybe, and maybes cancel on Thursday night.

What it changes

The obvious thing: fewer no-shows and last-minute cancellations, because a person with $200 on the line texts you when the closing slips instead of just not being there.

The less obvious things are bigger.

They pack. A customer with skin in the game treats moving day like an appointment. The boxes are taped, the beds are stripped, the fridge is empty. A customer with nothing down treats it like a plan, and plans are what people are still working on when the truck pulls up.

They stop shopping. The three-quote customer stops calling around the moment she pays you, because she has decided. Before the deposit, every hour is an hour she might book someone else.

You rent the truck. This is the one the truck post depends on. If you are renting, you reserve the truck after the deposit clears, and the deposit is what pays for it. No deposit, no reservation, no risk. That single sequence is how you start a moving company with no money.

And you find out who they are. Someone who balks at $100 to hold a Saturday, on a job they say is worth $1,000 to them, has told you something. Not always something bad. Sometimes just that they are not ready to book, which is fine, and better to know now.

One month, sorted

Here is what our calendar looked like going into one August, split the only way that matters.

The jobs with a signed agreement and a deposit in hand all ran on the day they were booked. A pod load with $280 down, locked two weeks out. A five-man full pack with $560 down, paid by Venmo, the customer covering the 3 percent card fee himself. A two-day $5,000 out-of-state delivery with 20 percent down on signing. A one-bedroom with $100 down. Every one of them happened as written.

The jobs without one were a different calendar. A three-bedroom house verbally booked by text in July, nothing in writing, nothing collected, had moved its date three times by the time August started. A three-pod unload had its date "confirmed by the client" with the agreement unsent and no deposit, which meant the date was confirmed by nobody. A U-Haul load was holding a Saturday slot for a customer who had not replied to the quote in two weeks. A Sunday move had the agreement built and sent and a $300 deposit requested, and until it landed our calendar note said, in capital letters, that it was not locked.

None of those people were bad customers. Some of them became good ones. But every one of them was holding a date on our calendar that we could not sell to anyone else, on a promise that cost them nothing to break.

How to ask without sounding like a bank

Calm, short, and in the same breath as the good news.

"Great, I will hold the 27th for you. I will email the agreement and the deposit link now, it is $100 and it comes off your final balance, and the date is locked once that is in."

Do not apologize for it. Do not explain it. Every plumber, every caterer, every photographer the customer has ever hired took a deposit. You are the only one who is nervous about it.

If they ask why: "It holds the date so I am not renting a truck for a job that might not happen. It comes straight off the bill." That is the whole answer, and it is true.

What goes on the agreement

The amount, that it applies to the balance, and what happens if they cancel. Ours: cancel more than 48 hours out and the deposit is applied as a credit toward a future date. Inside 48 hours there is a cancellation fee, because by then the crew is assigned and the truck is reserved. Write it down so it is never a conversation on the day.

The deposit is one of the twelve things a moving agreement has to say. The rest of the list, and why each line exists, is going to the email list first.

Three ways to take it

Cash App and Zelle if you have them, with no fee. A card link if you want it to be one tap, with the 3 percent fee stated on the agreement so the customer chooses. Venmo works and customers like it. Whatever you take, take the same thing every time and put the options on the agreement, so nobody is surprised.

One customer of ours paid a $560 deposit through Venmo and covered the 3 percent fee without being asked. That is what a customer who has decided looks like. A deposit is how you find out, early, which ones have. Getting enough of those calls in the first place is a separate problem, and where moving leads come from covers it.

If you are booking jobs on a handshake and losing Saturdays to it, the strategy call is an hour on your agreement, your deposit, and the words to ask for both.