50% requested before accepting job

[53e8f50b]

The freelancer I extended an offer for a job is asking for upfront payment of 50%. Is this a common practice?

[AndreaG]

Hi Julia,

Usually, you deposit the funds for Fixed Price jobs into escrow and release them once you have received and reviewed the work. This way, the freelancer can see you are willing to pay the agreed amount while at the same time, you know you don't have to release the money until you are satisfied with the delivery. You can read more about Escrow for Fixed-Price Jobs here.

[prestonhunter]

re: "The freelancer I extended an offer for a job is asking for upfront payment of 50%. Is this a common practice?"

No.

It is not common on Upwork. It is not how Upwork intends for the fixed-price contract model to be used.

If you are new to Upwork, I strongly advise you not to participate in any upfront payments, or 50% advance payments. This is something I would never advise any client to participate in until they had a fairly advanced understanding of how fixed-price contracts work.

Also, you wouldn't want to get involved in something like this unless you know and trust the freelancer already. If you agreed to this with a stranger, how do you know he won't simply keep the 50% payment and disappear, without ever doing any work?

[resultsassoc]

Not on Upwork, but ...

If the job will require a significant investment on the part of the freelancer beforre receiving reimbursement, it can happen. For example, if you want the freelancer available 24/7 for an extended period but won't pay for his time until after two months have passed, he just might need to feed his kids during that period.

I've done it twice with online freelancers.