Same thing happened to me last week....got a nice E-mail telling me to sign up or lose out.  I said I'd find another client...especially after going to Valu website and trying to register...the drop down boxes didn't work and it wouldn't accept things in certain "required" fields.  Now this is the company I'm suppose to trust and give my C/card and SS# too???  I think not!!!  I know of one person who has been paid by them and she says they hit your c/card first naturally, then you get a check but you don't know what the check covers....there's no order numbers or any breakdown given...what if you work for more than one company that uses them???...it would cause an acct'g nightmare.  I hope enough people say NO!!! so this trend, if it is one, will disappear as fast as it appeared...it's hard enough sometimes getting paid by the ones we deal with directly...we certainly don't need a 3rd party clearinghouse in the mix as well.