I am finishing my BSc at the UK-based Open University. It is 100% online, legitimate, reasonably rigorous and quite well respected, at least in the UK. You can transfer up to 2/3 of the degree from previous studies. Many courses are not available outside of Europe though.
Two alternatives are Canadian Athabasca University and University of London International Programmes.
Transferwise! For payments from the US to my country (EU) there is a fixed 1% fee. In addition, their exchange rate is 3% better than in my local bank. Clients send the money with ACH or wire transfer. I have it in my bank after two days. Overall, much faster and cheaper than Paypal or international transfers.
I was selling a significant amount of Bitcoins in January. I wanted to use Mt Gox because of higher rate. I did not think there was a real possibility of the whole exchange going down. However, I did not pass identity verification because of some minor problem. So I sold the Bitcoins on Bitstamp and had money in the bank a day later. I was really really lucky.
I have used Elance for a few years as my primary source of income.
Positive:
- meritocratic
- satisfactory rates. I get as much work as I want at $50 (sometimes more) doing upper four or lower five figure projects
- flexibility - I can dump a client, change workload, take a year break, anytime - and come back to where I was. A safety net.
- no need to do anything else than talking to clients and building software. No marketing besides the profile, no Linkedin profile, no Twitter, no conferences, no interacting with HR etc useless people
- no phone or IM. As a rule, I only communicate through email, which I check once a day, tops
Negatives:
- huge fees (close to 10% per transaction)
- have to actually work to earn, but that's how it is with freelancing Elance or not
- overall low prestige, though some clients are top-notch
As others pointed, some clients try change the scope. I just send them back quotes for any changes I don't feel like doing for free. Problem solved.
Most projects are boring CRUDs, but I also got to do some interesting pieces of software.
I appreciate the freedom that Elance gives. Still, I treat it as a convenient alternative to flipping burgers, and I would not recommend it for someone who wants to make a career as a developer.
BTW the screen making software is abomination and no one should ever agree to use it.
And there is zero effort put into figuring out a better system, since those in position of wealth and power don't have an incentive to change what feeds them.
With less than 5% people employed in agriculture [1], it must be possible to allocate resources in a way that does not require most people to waste their lives in jobs. The universal basic income, for instance, would achieve that without abolishing capitalism.
The only problem are people who glorify employment.
I see no reason to commit before you get to know your supervisor/boss well.