Foreign Exchange

[#1]

Hello all, I've been having an issue with exchange rates where mine has remained the same for a long period of time 94.7578 per dollar while the actual value is above 105 per dollar. I'm very sure the currencies keep on changing each minute but why is mine just like that? I have been contacting Upwork regarding the same issue but said they are not able to change anything due to privacy reasons.

In my M-Pesa statement (Mobile Money transfer service provided by Safaricom in East Africa), I usually get this message "Receive International Transfer From 593400 - UPESI MONEY TRANSFER LIMITED BULK PAYMENT" This means Upesi money transfer is involved maybe to send my payments to my Mpesa from where I'm to sure! In my email, I also get a message from Upwork saying "We have processed your payment request submitted on 01-Apr-2020 through our payment processor, Transfast." The message that comes to my phone says that I have received payments from Upwork Global inc xus via on 'date' at...." Despite all my efforts to reach out to all parties, they said they are not involved in any way with foreign exchange rates!!!

I tried changing my payment method to my local bank account but the results were the same. In this case, I did not see Upwork global inc or Upesi money transfer. So I think the problem is the Transfast Money transfer which is Upwork's payment processor! Since there are other payment processing agencies, is there anyone with any advice regarding this?

[#2]

Hi Nahashon,

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. Unfortunately, we won't be able to share more details about the payment processors used to process the transactions.

Thank you.

[#3]

Aleksandar, I understand what you are saying, but believe me, it is contrary to what is happening. The reason I'm not yet satisfied is, mine never changes even when it is supposed to! 94.7578 no change even by decimals! We work in a group of 4 but theirs keeps on changing and it is much higher than mine,100-105/$ all times!! Even how their messages come is different from mine as theirs come from different processers.

It is hard to understand as a forex specialist in this economy. Since I have understood that Upwork has no control over it, and at the same time it should not remain unchanged for that long, who should I contact? Suppose it reaches 150/$ and mine is still 94.7578, what I'm I going to do really? please advice! I'm worried maybe it will be worse in the future.

[#4]

Hi Nahashon, 

The information that may be found online where the exchange rates may be higher is based on the wholesale interbank rates and are commonly higher than actual rates banks can convert. Rates differ from bank to bank and foreign exchange processors, this is because it all depends on the current market. Upwork does not have any control when it comes to conversion rate as this is being supplied by the bank. Upwork is not converting the funds, the bank does the conversion on their end. 

I also checked your withdrawals for this quarter and can confirm that the rates fluctuated a bit last February. 

As for your friends, could you please confirm if they are also withdrawing to the same bank as yours?

[#5]

Hi Avery, thank you for the reply. I do know that the banks are the factor in exchange rates and also I know they do fluctuate every minute, but here are my concerns if you can advise, for 6 weeks, the rates have been the same with no even a slight change, should they change in the same spread/ percentage with what they are offering to me?

Secondly, I have tried to change the banks to which I'm withdrawing to but with no changes at all, I thought maybe those rates are offered by the banks which Upwork my have no control but it can make some changes in my profile. In this case, the message that comes to my mobile says, I have received money from UPWORK GLOBAL INC, while that of my colleagues comes from NCBA can I have some changes in my Upwork account or please advice me on what to do to receive the same way? I don't mean changing payment methods, but how my payments are processed!!

[#6]

Hi Nahashon,

As Avery already mentioned, 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.

You can also check out our available payment methods Here and choose the one that is the best fit for your needs. Thank you.

[#7]

Goran and Avery, please read what he actually wrote (that his rate is not changing over weeks while everyone else's is.)

[#8]

Hi Petra,

Yes I was consulting with our team about this until now, and they have reached out via ticket to assist further.

Nahashon,

Please refer to your ticket on this Link for more details. If you have any additional questions feel free to follow up directly there and our team will assist you further. Thank you.

[#9]

Ok Goran, but I have been raising this issue ever since the start of February. As I know, rates change with the response to economic factors! What I don't understand is, you advised me that, exchange rates do change every minute, but when I say mine never change, you seem not to understand my concern!!

If like Aleksandar said, "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." in this case, mine doesn't change, which part is not understandable really? If there was a slight change in February but the other weeks from January have the same value, don't you see something unusual? Why are my transactions only hit the same value at a specific time when your bank processes it??? 

Is it even rare for the exchange rate values to be the same every time I withdraw? Am I not making sense seriously?

[#10]

Hi Nahashon,

I understand your frustration and I'm sorry we haven't yet been able to address your concern. I checked and see that the ticket Goran was referring to has already been escalated to our Payment team for a review. Once they check and review everything on our end, we'll make sure to update you via the ticket as well.

[#11]

Thank you Valeria, please update! I will highly appreciate.

[#12]

Hi Nahashon,

I think I'm having the same issue. Did you get any reply as to what might be the cause of this?

Best,

Príamo

[#13]

Hi Príamo,

For withdrawal transactions, Upwork sends the funds in USD through our banking partner, and the banks are the ones that provide us the exchange rate at the time of the withdrawal. The visible exchange rate reflects the last exchange rate used to convert USD to the other currency. All banks and currency houses that do foreign exchange will take some spread to guard against volatility in the market. 

[#14]

Hi Valeria,

I understand what you're saying. Specially about the volatity. However, I never got the same exchange rate twice in row since I started on Upwork and now, from the week of March 18 onwards, the exchange rate simply doesn't change. It's the EXACT same. There's definitely something weird about that. As my fellow freelancer, I also changed banks to see if this was the case, but it stayed the same nonetheless. Please let me know what you think.

Best,

Príamo