Apr 8, 2020 01:09:55 AM by Muhammad F
Hi,
I am from Pakistan, i withdrew a payment and got an exchange rate of 155.88 while today's conversion of USD to PKR is 167.65 that's almost 7% less while it should be around 1% or 2% at maximum.
I think this is not protection against volatility (as everything is going up since last two weeks) rather it's a steal from us, Upwork really needs to look into this matter or either change their banking partners.
I lost $30 in conversions, I paid $0.99 for withdrawal and I paid around $40 to Upwork in fees for this transaction, so i am short of $71 from this transaction.
To me, it's not acceptable, what do you guys think?
Apr 8, 2020 01:17:17 AM by Joost D
While I appreciate the sentiment and I agree that the exchange rate is not always optimal, we don't have to use Upwork. It's a privately owned company that can do whatever it wants. Also saying that you short 71 dollars on a transaction when you very clearly accepted the Upwork fees and percentages beforehand seems strange to me.
Do I wish they would offer the actual exchange rate? Sure. But then again, PayPal does the same thing. This is to guard against volatility and again remember - this is a money-making company. They are not offering a free service. And its a service we don't have to use.
Apr 8, 2020 01:25:36 AM by Muhammad F
Well, i did agree to Upwork fees and withdrawal fee, I certainly didn't agree to 7% stealing by their banking partner.
What you are saying is have no backing to support, you can't charge 7% in the name of volatility, PP doesn't do that much. Banks do this as well and what is the difference between Actual and banking exchange rates? 1 or a MAXIMUM of 2% not more than that.
Apr 8, 2020 01:23:39 AM by Goran V
Hi Muhammad,
I understand your frustration with this and would like to confirm that the difference in exchange rates is not something Upwork can control. When a bank converts a transaction, they will mark up the interbank rate to buy or sell a currency. Online calculators will not take into consideration the mark up that is applied. Since rates constantly change throughout any given day, the rate you received is the rate offered by our bank at the time your specific transaction was processed.
Apr 8, 2020 01:27:36 AM by Muhammad F
Upwork doesn't control, correct!
Upwork can't control, incorrect!
Your banking partner is chosen by none other but YOU. You can bring this matter up with them or change them at any given point.
There are partners that offer way better rates! You can simply switch to them?
Aug 16, 2020 10:36:30 AM by Muhammad F
No one from upwork bothered to respond after an eye opening statement from me over 8 months ago.
The situation is pretty much the same while I am writing this which means upwork simply doesn't care about this!
If this continued the way it is right now, i can see a picture where upwork would be advertising and begging people to sign up on their platform cause we (at least me) can't keep losing a good chunk of money because upwork simply don't want to look into sick practices.
Aug 16, 2020 10:42:14 AM Edited Aug 16, 2020 10:44:50 AM by Petra R
Muhammad F wrote:i can see a picture where upwork would be advertising and begging people to sign up on their platform
You can? At a time where Upwork is drowning in freelancers and turning most down?
If you don't like the exchange rate, you can use a different withdrawal method. That's what I do.
You're also free to establsh a US Dollar account and withdraw via wire transfer (at $ 30) - that way you can exchange at local rates if you find them better.
Aug 16, 2020 10:45:46 AM by Muhammad F
It appears you aren't very familiar with limitations freelancers of different countries have, we don't have many options and THANKS to upwork for that too!
And yes, i can see that picture, it's becoming crowded nowadays but those are newbies who are desperate for jobs 🙂 People who spent a fair amount of time here are leaving for other platforms and if you didn't know that, read different discussion forums and you will know.
Aug 27, 2020 05:30:28 PM by Mark J
Hey saw you post when I was figuring out how freelancers outside USA have to deal with exchange rates. Personally I've had success with Transferwise.com for USA<-->UK remitence. I checked, and they support PKR. Can you withdraw USD from upwork into transferwise and then use transferwise exchange to your bank in PKR? Below is an example of their fees, how does that compare for your case?
Aug 27, 2020 05:35:00 PM by Mark J
Hmm not sure this case could work for you, because I don't think Transferwise will open an account for a Pakistan address, I'm not sure? But is there a remitence service you can use?
Aug 28, 2020 02:32:55 AM by Muhammad F
We can open transferwise account but we can't get a USD bank account details to receive funds too. I have Payoneer, I am going to try that and see how does that work for me.
Oct 20, 2020 12:42:12 AM by Ibrahim J
Listen, there is a straightforward way to deal with it. Try to use Payoneer as a payment method. You will only pay $1 extra as a withdrawal fee, and you will get a better exchange rate. I'm doing it personally, and it saves me a good amount of money.
Thank you
Nov 6, 2020 05:02:46 PM by Salman N
Ibrahim will payoneer charge 3% fee when we transfer it to our payoneer account ?
May 21, 2021 04:11:17 AM by Khadeejah Z
Aug 9, 2021 07:30:38 AM by Khadeejah Z
Nov 25, 2020 04:00:20 AM Edited Nov 25, 2020 04:00:46 AM by Malik J
I am using Payoneer for my 1st Withdrawal from Upwork and then I transfer to my JazzCash account at an exchange rate of $1 = 163 Pkr - Jazz Cash only takes 1 Pakistani Rupee as their commission but the problem is their withdraw limit is only 15,000 PKR / Day ($100 USD).
If Jazz Cash increases their daily / monthly withdrawal limit then it's a Win-Win for us. But Upwork must look into this matter in the first place.
Apr 1, 2021 01:12:58 PM by David U
Hi,
I use Payoneer where I have an account in USD, and that's were I get the money from Upwork.
After Upwords sends the money free to the US account, I transfer it from Payonner to my Brazilian Bank account, in Brazilian Reais, so my Brazilian bank doesn't have to do any currency exchange.
For the whole process I am only charged the 2% that Payoneer charges for the withdraw in Brazilian Reais.
I think that's the way to go, and it helps to everyone here. Anyway, if anyone has a better (and cheaper) way to do it, I am all ears.
David
Nov 15, 2021 08:58:01 PM by Ahmad I
Jul 19, 2021 10:26:26 PM by Huzaifa Z
The same thing happened to me today. According to international reports, the dollar rate is 160 something dollars. The upwork rate is 154. This needs to be addressed. Would it be possible to do about this in some way?
Aug 18, 2020 01:52:54 PM by Muzammil A
Yes I agress too that upwork should take at max 1-2% change in exchange rate and not play with the freelancers hard earned money first it takes 20% of our hard earned work then it cuts a $.99 fee which good knows what exchange rate is applied .Upwork Team please work on this issue and dont play with freelancers hard earned money .I purchased 20 connect for $3 today and I got to know that my card is charged at 532.80 PKR which makes an exchange rate of 1$ = 177.6 PKR what kind of law is this please stop this wrong and rude attitude and provide and firm update on this and exchange rate issue that higher exchange rate is charged at time of purchase from upwork and lower is chanrged at time of withdrawal
Sep 23, 2020 02:24:57 AM by Ismail A
Yes it sounds strange that they use different rates while buying dollars they charge round 177 pkr and when giving us money the give roung 156.
This is not acceptable. Upwrok is service provider and they will never change this until we all Pakistani's have to move to some other platform.
Apr 28, 2021 03:01:50 AM Edited Apr 28, 2021 03:02:35 AM by Peter V
I agree:
Right now there are options:
- Direct to Local Bank (My Currency)
- Direct to Local Bank (EUR)
There should be an option Direct to Local Bank (USD) My bank would offer a lot better exchange rate from USD to my currency.
I've just lost 50$ in exchange rates...
Seeing how long have this been discussed and not addressed I'm discouraged.
I've went to see payoneer, but all I get is a blank page. Maybe I'll try paypal at least they offer the option to let my bank do the exchange rate
Apr 28, 2021 03:33:25 AM by Petra R
Peter V wrote:There should be an option Direct to Local Bank (USD) My bank would offer a lot better exchange rate from USD to my currency.
"to local bank" is always in local currency. That's the whole point.
If you have a US Dollar account, you can use Wire transfer, which sends the money in US Dollars. It costs $30 but if you withdraw $700-$750 at a time it becomes profitable.
Apr 28, 2021 03:49:22 AM Edited Apr 28, 2021 03:52:47 AM by Peter V
"to local bank" is always in local currency. That's the whole point.
That's not true, I might have multiple currency accounts in my local bank, and also Upwork is already presenting me with more than one "local bank" options in different currencies
It's not a problem to send money to a local bank in a different currency - the bank will handle the conversion if you don't have a USD account