Pay freelancers with account balance

[simonasb]

Hello, As developer i earn money via oDesk and sometimes i need help from other developers. I would like to be able to pay them with my account balance. If account funds are insufficient, bill the credit card. Thank you.

[ffonollera]

Paying freelancers with account balance was removed by oDesk in order to comply with US banking regulations.

[dazzl]

I have same question. I would like to pay other freelancers from my earnings.

It worked fine on elance.com. Why did it become a problem for oDesk?

Currently I have to withdraw earnings to my bank. I have to pay some currency exchange commision and then when I pay from bank card and have to pay exchange commisions again.

[aocumen]

Hi Andrey, 

Clients can not use the amount earned to pay his hired freelancers because your freelancer and client accounts are different accounts. We can not transfer the funds earned as a freelancer to your client account. You will need to withdraw the funds and fund your payment method.

I hope this helps!
Avery

[dazzl]

Hello Avery, 

thank you for your answer.

ofcourse I understand that this is the current restriction of Upwork.

My suggestion is to change this in future. I suppose many other freelancers agree with me. That it is comfortable to pay other freelancers from earnings.

Andrey

[vladag]

Hi Andrey,

Due to legal and security regulations, financial accounts for different account contexts were separated in 2013 and I don't expect this will change in the future.

[hwasiti]

I have discovered a way that you can pay a freelancer with avoiding currency exchange rates.

1.  Setup your Paypal account to accept USD also beside your local currency to keep the received USD as it is in your PayPal balance.    (You should add USD to your PayPal wallet currencies.)

2. Setup an Upwork freelancer withdrawal method to use Paypal.

3. Setup your Upwork client account to use the Paypal paying method.

4. Withdraw your freelancer balance from Upwork to your Paypal.

5. Pay the freelancer with your PayPal. This will use the USD balance of your PayPal account.

This method will cost you 1 USD more since upwork charges  2 USD with every withdraw if you use paypal rather than the 1 USD if you use your local bank.

[vishalzanzrukia]

I also had a same requirement, I feel that I should be able to pay to freelancers from account balance. I am avoiding to hire other due to this limitation. 

[cupidmedia]

As Vladimir said, for legal and security reasons this can't be done, despite how you may feel about the matter.

[suzalssi]

Yes we need to follow upwork s compliance