5 reasons private investigator Atlanta fees might skyrocket after COVID
5 reasons private investigator Atlanta fees might skyrocket after COVID .
The recent virus attack by COVID-19 has caused many businesses to rethink how they conduct their daily activities and has caused many to reconsider their pricing.
Private investigators, like any other professional service charges for their time and efforts in helping you with your case. When you hire a private investigator, you generally pay an upfront retainer (sometimes called a deposit) which is paid to secure the investigator’s time to work on your case.
Then, the private investigator works at an hourly rate and as hours are accumulated, they are deducted from the retainer amount. Retainers range anywhere from $500 to $50,000 depending on the complexity of your case. International cases can even be higher!
Hourly rates can range from $50 to $250/hour depending on the skill level of the investigator you’re working with. The lower the price, the less competent the investigator. In other words, you truly do get what you pay for.
When the private investigator gets close to running out of retainer – that is – they’ve worked enough hours to use up the deposit (retainer) you gave them they will usually ask that you replenish the retainer (give them another deposit).
When this happens, it’s a good opportunity to discuss the case status with the private investigator and determine whether the private investigator Atlanta fees are worth it for you. Most private investigators will let you know whether it’s a waste of time and money to keep going at this point.
There is quite a bit of talk among private investigators currently about rates and the recent COVID-19 pandemic has caused many to raise their rates. There are many reasons for this:
- Firstly, since there has been a lockdown, business has slowed down considerably for many private investigators. Since private investigators are human beings just like you they have bills to pay. Since they weren’t working during the pandemic, they now must earn more to pay those bills.
- Many private investigators subscribe to specialized databases to run searches for locates, missing persons and financial information. Some of these services have raised their rates which in turn the private investigator must pass along to their client.
- Courthouses have generally been closed. Since much of a private investigator’s workload consists of going to court and running live searches the pandemic has meant they are no longer able to do these searches. Clients who paid them for these searches are now not able to. So, business has slowed down for private investigators who specialize in this area.
- Clients are also holding onto their money. The future is uncertain and private investigator Atlanta fees are often a discretionary expenses. People are thinking twice before spending any money they don’t have to. Only in the most vital of circumstances are private investigators getting hired. Since the cases are now more rare for private investigators, they have to charge more to make it worth their while.
- The job is simply getting a bit harder. More people are at home and are often in their yards working during the day. A strange car gets noticed more easily and this makes the private investigator’s job more difficult. As a result, they have to invest in technology such as hidden cameras and night vision technology to conduct their work covertly. These expenses are now passed along to the client.
And finally, things in life are just getting more expensive as time moves along. It’s very rare to see services getting cheaper, especially in the case of private investigators who need to be licensed and carry insurance. Licensing fees increase and insurance costs never go down.
All these factors combined make it very likely that private investigator fees will increase over time.
If you are looking for an affordable private investigator, with 20 years of experience assisting individuals, attorneys and corporations feel free to contact us here. You can also view a portion of our extensive client list here, and see what actual clients say about us here.