New to upwork/tos

[602b0bfb]

Hey everyone I'm new to upwork. As long as I do payments through upwork, am I allowed to contact someone I want to hire via personal cell phone?

[NikolaS]

Hi Eric,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I would like to clarify that sharing contact information before a contract has started is against Upwork's Terms of Service. All communications prior to the contract starting must take place on Upwork. You can find more information in this help artcle. 

Let us know if you have further questions. 

[prestonhunter]

After an official Upwork contract is in place, you may talk to the freelancer via personal cell phone. You may use ANY communication tool that you want to use.

You can even do interviews using personal cell phone if you hire them first using an hourly contract.

Many clients will hire freelancers to do a consultation call, with little or no conversation beforehand.

Because they have hired the freelancer, they can use any tool they want to communicate. And the contents of the convesation belongs to the client.

After having a consultation call (which can replace an "interview"), the client may or may not decide to move forward with hiring the freelancer to do further work.