Is there any way to me as client to use funds I received as a provider to pay freelancers.

[Ivan S]

Hi,

A quick question -

I am both the freelancer and the client. I have accumulated quite a bit of funds on my account as the freelancer and I am wondering if I can use them to pay other freelancers as a client. This should make sence now as Upwork charges 2.75% fee, which I can avoid and which I am sure Upwork does not keep (or at least does not keep bulk of it).

[Preston H · Accepted solution]

Ivan: Upwork does not allow this. Sorry.

[Ivan S]

Thank you, I thought so as well. Though it would be a good idea. 

[Vladimir G]

Hi Ivan,

I can confirm Preston's reply that the account balance on your Freelancer profile can't be used for making payments as a Client.

[Preston H]

re: "Though it would be a good idea."

There are many Upwork users who have asked about this. It would indeed be a feature that many would welcome. But Upwork representatives have already discussed this many times in previous threads and have confirmed that this is not something they plan to do.

The barrier in place between freelancer funds and client funds is intentional and permanent on Upwork. It is not a technical issue or a matter of not having had enough time or resources to implement this functionality.

[Jennifer D]

Upwork have stated that for legal (presumably anti-trust) reasons these funds are separate and cannot be combined, unfortunately.

[Preston H]

re: "Upwork have stated that for.... reasons these funds are separate and cannot be combined"

You can't buy a hamburger at KFC. You can't order garden hoses from LinkedIn.

There are conceivably useful features that Upwork doesn't provide and is not going to provide.

The reasons don't matter.

[Petra R]

Up until 2013 (if I recall correctly) it was possible. There was only one financial account.

Then, one morning, we woke up and it was different.

Everyone who had both a freelancer- and a client account woke up to a $ 0 balance in their freelancer account as someone somewhere thought it would be a super-cute idea to put any balance on the "all together" account into the client side. Somehow it had been forgotten to inform all those freelancers (who had a balance and a client account and had hired in the previous 30 days) of that fact. So those people (including me) had no idea where their money had gone and no way of accessing it.

That was a fun day.....