Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard Concerns

[Petra R]

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Alexander N wrote:

Petra please clarify - funds on Payoneer in excess of $10K which were on the card, can be withdrawn to the bank? Or they are blocked too?

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That's how I understand it and what Payoneer seem to be saying. But you have to understand that most people do not have $ 10,000 on their card... Telling people not to overreact because "only" $ 10,000 are on the card and blocked is insensitive at best, downright rude at worst. Some people have never earned $ 10,000 and rely on their money on the card to pay their rent or food etc...

This also doesn't just affect Payoneer. A lot of the big online payment processors rely on Wirecard...

It would appear (reding also German news who knew about this before yesterday) that it is likely (not certain) that the block will be lifted after a few days but little or nothing will happen over the weekend.

[Alexander N]

Sorry if i have offended anyone. Just i think that disruption of business is a lot more important than 10K.

Worst part of it, that seems to be the case and Payoneer also stopped doing any withdrawals at all.

[Maria C]

An audit can take several months or years. There are precedents for this. 

After that, the procedure to get the money back can be slow and complicated. 

Upwork needs to find new payment solutions right now. 

[Alexander N]

I think the ultimate solution in the end of the day, is for the Upwork to become a sorta Payoneer of it's own, providing business accounts (which is as simple as letting business account owners pay for services they order on Upwork as customers, from their agency financial accounts, i.e. joining agency and client financial accounts into one), and issue cards. With arrangements like that, there will be no need for anything else, and KYC will be a no brainer since origin of all funds is known to Upwork already and it already does very good identity checks on both contractors and their clients.

[Reinier B]

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Alexander N wrote:

I think the ultimate solution in the end of the day, is for the Upwork to become a sorta Payoneer of it's own, providing business accounts (which is as simple as letting business account owners pay for services they order on Upwork as customers, from their agency financial accounts, i.e. joining agency and client financial accounts into one), and issue cards. With arrangements like that, there will be no need for anything else, and KYC will be a no brainer since origin of all funds is known to Upwork already and it already does very good identity checks on both contractors and their clients.

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I love your sense of humour...

[naeem s]

I am also having the same issue and when I am going to withdraw to account it gives an error. When this issue resolved and when we get paid? I have the only payoneer as my funds withdraw solution and this issue can be a big issue for many of us. 

[Petra R]

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naeem s wrote:

I am also having the same issue and when I am going to withdraw to account it gives an error. When this issue resolved and when we get paid? I have the only payoneer as my funds withdraw solution and this issue can be a big issue for many of us. 

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This is not an Upwork issue, even though it affects us. It's not even a Payoneer issue, although it affects all Payoneer customers.

It's a Wirecard issue. Wirecard Card Solutions Ltd are the card issuer and they are restricted by the British FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) 

[Velin S]

Quite jesuit view since a lot of people here are using Payoneer that was recommended by Upwork, and the same Payoneer switched from offshore bank to Wirecard few years ago and now we see that they even didn't keep the money in their accounts but place them in Wirecard accounts. So now all the people who have money in Payoneer actually have them blocked at third party wondering if FCA will lift the measures for card holders to do withdraw, or we are f..d. And there is a third option thaty the money might be back to Payoneer but until they don't send new cards, well, it is a long wait.

Since it occures that it is known for a week for the coming problems, it is a shame that neither Upwork, nor Payoneer warned people for the incoming disaster. I'm pretty sure they knew what's comming and the missing warning is giving me bad ideas why they did it. 

Time will show what will happen. I hope that next week we might have more info.

[Rameez S]

seems upwork will need to improve the exchange rates on its payment partners for Local funds transfer because the rates really suck right now and Payoneer was only alternative for better rates provided Paypal does not work in some countries. 

[Nelly A]

Hello, I am livng in côte d'ivoire. With the problem we are all having with Payoneer, seeing our earnings sent on Payonner being frozen since yesterday due to wirecard issues, could Upwork please allow us (freelancer from côte d'ivoire) to have the option of making a direct bank account withdrawal through Upwork directly as Senegal or Togo do ? Thank you in advance, Nell