Payments to Colombia temporarily unavailable?

[flizca25]

I received this message by e-mail

Our banking partners are currently working to resolve the issue, and we’ll be sure to let you know when we learn more. In the meantime, we’re working to keep your payments as quick and easy as possible. We will be in touch within 48 hours with more information.

Also, I've contacted support and they don't have an estimated time to solve it yet.

[will_sm94]

Hi guys! 

I just wanted to inform that I was checking some stuff  on my account and saw the following message:

"Direct to Local Bank service to Colombia (COP) is currently unavailable. Any new COP payments will be returned to your Upwork account – please choose another payment method." 

An alternative at this moment seems to be PayPal, nevertheless, their fees are not that good! Could you please clarify what's going on? Did something change with Bancolombia? and if so do you think this will be fixed soon? :'(

Thanks a lot and by the way you guys rock!  : ) 

[francisco0303]

I would like to have an explanation as well, it's seems is not only bancolombia the issue is with all Colombia's banks. Can you give us an explanation you know just to be in calm

[JoanneP]

Hi everyone,

I checked, and it looks like you already have an open ticket regarding this issue. Our team will be updating your ticket to assit you directly. Thank you. 

[0055162f]

direct transfer to local banks in Colombia is not working and I need help deciding the best option to receive my money, if papal or pioneer, having in mind fees and location (Colombia)

[VladimirG]

Hi Angie, William, Fernando and Francisco,

Thanks for your questions, I realise that this situation is difficult for you.

Don’t worry, your payment is safe! The Direct to Bank transfer service to Colombia is unavailable right now, so your payment will be returned to your Upwork account. 

If you withdrew a payment before Friday, 02/12/2021, you’ll see no changes. If you withdrew a payment after Friday, 02/12/2021, your money will be returned to your Upwork account.

We are working to learn more from our partners, and will be sure to let you know as soon as we have information to share. You can still access the funds from your Upwork account via any of our other payment methods. Learn more about your choices here, or check your account settings here. 

[francisco0303]

Hi Vladimir G,

If this is happening since Friday 02/12/2021 you should know what is the reason or issue. I think we as community should know the reason.

Also, I would like to know if "local bank" deposit isn't available why the platform still allowing me to get paid through "local bank"

This is confusing and a little bit frustrating

I hope to hear back from you, thanks

[angelkanday]

Hey guys,
Did you all get the message from Upwork saying we can have our funds send to our bank via transfer in US dollars? But Bancolombia won’t take it like this and it’s a $30.00 fee from Upwork plus the percentage I get already taken out from my pay in my case is just too much for me, I’m going to wait until they can hopefully resolve this issue because no other payment method works for me unfortunately, 🥺 but you guys may be able to check it out, if so let me know what worked.
Good luck

[will_sm94]

Hi guys!

The solution in the message doesn't work for me either, it is just too much. We hope to get some additional answers soon if possible. This would affect our profits.

Best regards and thanks for your quick responses,

[francisco0303]

Hi guys, 

I believe the best solution for the moment will be, associate a Paypal account as a payment method and if you are from Colombia, link PayPal with Nequi and thus be able to have the money.

Pro: they will get the money the same day.
Cons: the fee is 2 dollars

I haven't tried this due to I'm waiting for the refund. Also, I recommend stopping trying to get paid by the "local bank" option while this issue isn't fixed. due to each time you try, Upwork will charge you 0.99$ is not too much but your funds will decrease.

I hope Upwork finds a solution as soon as possible.

[VladimirG]

Hi Francisco and others,

While we're working to gather and provide more information, we want you to have a quick, easy access to your funds. We’re happy to provide a credit to help cover the USD Wire fee during this service disruption. If you choose to use the Wire option to withdraw your Upwork earnings, feel free to follow up with our Customer Support team in order to receive further assistance and credit. Thank you.

[francisco0303]

Thanks for reaching out to us Vladimir G.

Thank you so much for this alternative it will really help. Also, I tried the workaround process with Paypal I mentioned early and it works. So guys while this being fix ( I really hope it gets fix) we have both options. 

• The Wire USD option (with the cover credit)
• Paypal payment link with nequi and then transferred to your bank account (2$ fee)

It would be cool to know the cover credit Upwork will provide us, can you guys try this method? 

[angelkanday]

Francisco.
Hello there I know PayPal doesn’t work here in Colombia so how does linking the account with the Nequi thing work I think in my case I just have to wait for Upwork to resolve this issue everything else is so complicated to me lol
Thanks guys

[francisco0303]

Angie P

Weird, I'm in Colombia, and Paypal and Nequi have a partnership. In fact, inside Nequi app is the option to link your Paypal account and that's it. Actually, today I realized it's faster of that way the only bad it's the 2$ fee instead of 0.99 

[angelkanday]

Fernando thank you but I don’t have a PayPal because I was told that didn’t work here in Colombia that the only PayPal service here is Xoom so how do I add that plus I’m not familiar with nequi where is that option please help so I can find out and won’t bother anyone else.
Thank you

[will_sm94]

Hey Francisco, Angie and others,

Besides the $2 fee mentioned by Fran, I have seen that PayPal typically charges a 5% fee, isn't that happening to you? Nequi may charge 1-10 USD max to receive funds from Paypal. As a summary, Upwork pays through PayPal, in order for you to move any funds from Paypal to Nequi, they will charge 5% (Paypal does this)  + Nequi can go between 1-10 USD.

If we have a client with just 10% fee (After exceeding $500 USD) + just 2 USD it doesn't look that bad (If only if the 5% isn't being charged by PayPal folks)

By the way, thanks a lot! Wish you a great Thursday!

Best wishes,

[flizca25]

That's Right, Paypal could charge additional fees to receive the money, and then through Nequi they charge additional fees to withdraw the money from Paypal, and an additional 4*1000 when you transfer the amount from Nequi to Bancolombia, I've not used Paypal in a long time but I think you need to verify the account @angie if you want to link Paypal to Nequi.

[angelkanday]

Fernando.
Hello and thank you for your response, yes I’ve verified all of the things mentioned, and yes they charge for everything for taking out the money then transferring to PayPal, then nequi and finally Bancolombia, so to be honest it’s best for me in my case to see if Upwork will resolve the bank transfer issue with their partner, and get all my money together there at once because really this is too many fees now and I feel is not fair, so I will just wait hopefully they will resolve this issue soon🙏. Even if I wanted to do the PayPal way I still have to wait 3 days for method to be verified so I’ll just wait .
Thank you all for your responses and hopefully this will be solved for all soon. 😬

[petra_r]

PayPal do NOT charge any money for receiving the Upwork money, because those payments are not sent as payments for Goods and Services (which is how you end up with a percentage charge) but as MassPay, which means that the Dollar amount you send is the Dollar amount you receive in your PayPal account. The only deduction is the Upwork withdrawal fee. I also find the exchange rate (to Euro at east) far better than "direct to local bank".

[angelkanday]

Thank You William !

[andresjp777]

Hey everyone, today I received an email from upwork saying: "We’re sorry to inform you that Direct to Local Bank payments to Colombia (COP) are unavailable until further notice. Our banking partners are still working to bring service back online.".. I can´t open Nequi, because the app ask me if I have C.C. or C.E., but my foreign ID it doesn not count as C.E. on the platform; it does not let me open the account. So, there is a way to associate bancolombia directly with paypal? To transfer money directly from paypal to bancolombia without needing Nequi? Thanks.

[francisco0303]

Hi Anderson,

I'm sorry to hear about your issue.

I'm checking in paypal and there is an option to associate a bank account. So I think it's possible, you should try. Keep in mind, you need to know your bank SWIFT code.

[andresjp777]

Hi Francisco, I will try that option you mentioned before. Thanks !!

[laxiraga]

Hi guys,
I was able to link my Bancolombia account with my PayPal and it says it was successful.
I'm now waiting for the 3 days to pass to be able to transfer my funds and I will check if paypal charge anything and post it here for you to know.

Although, I really hope this issue get fixed because it is the easiest for most of us.

[francisco0303]

Awesome! Laura,

Let us know when you transfer your balance to your bancolombia account. Just to check which option is best based on fees, time, transfer limit, etc.

Also, you can send a message to Paypal support to check your account faster, I had the same situation and I sent a message and my account got 100% active just in a couple of hours. 

[laxiraga]

I was referring to the 3 days we have to wait until upwork approves a new payment method.
It already passed and I did the transfer from UpWork to paypal which cost 2 USD then I had the option to transfer direct to my Bancolombia account but it takes 3-5 business days, instead I chose from PayPal to Nequi because you get the money immediately but they charge the 5% of the transfer but it cannot be more than 10 USD.
It seems to be more expensive but it is not because when you make the transfer from Upwork to the local bank account upwork pays the dollar at less value...

[andresjp777]

Hi Laura, May I ask you something? How could you associated your paypal account with Bancolombia, from Bancolombia account or from paypal account? Because I´ve been trying hard to do that from paypal, but always when when I´m doing it in my paypal account appears: "Asociar una cuenta bancaria de EE.UU" and ask me about a "numero ruta"; my Bancolombia account is debit/ahorros, I dont have such number. So, I dont know if this happen because my paypal is not colombian or I have to contact to Bancolombia to help me linked both accounts.

[nicozetta]

Is Upwork still refunding the $30 fee for wire transfers?

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Nicolas,

I see you've chatted with one of our agents and they've provided more information about the availability of payment methods in Colombia. Unfortunately, we don't have any additional updates at this time.

[nicozetta]

Yes, and it's really unfortunate that you only refund the fee once. Paypal is currently the only option (an expensive one), as Payoneer no longer works for Colombia either (oddly enough, the local bank transfer option ceased to be available around the same date). It's been almost a whole year and I honestly don't think this will ever be resolved, as the issue is obviously surrounded by an aura of mistery which you guys don't seem to have an interested in clarifying, but quite the opposite.

[pemanchola]

Hello,

Since Direct to Local Bank payments to Colombia (COP) are unavailable until further notice, will Upwork still provide a credit to cover the wire transfer fee?

Please advise. Thank you.

[b310b022]

I just spoke to them today, and they told me they would cover the $30 fee.

[will_sm94]

Hey guys,

Does anyone know how long does it take through the Wire Transfer? Do we get a good exchange rate? I wish we could know if this will take a while to be fixed or what the problem is.

Thanks a lot!

[rmag84]

Hi Vladimir, Is there any news about this issue, it's still the direct payment unavailable? 

[juansierrac]

Hi, Vladimir, thanks. I just want to know if tranactions to colombians banks are definitely closed and we just have to transfer with other methods? We could´t expect this issue is going to be fixed?

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi All,

Unfortunately, Direct to Local Bank payments in Colombia (COP) are still unavailable. We will be updating freelancers in Colombia about the status via email shortly. Thank you for your patience.

[b310b022]

Long story short from the email,

It isn't coming back so get your paypal setup.

[francisco0303]

Correct, we could see it coming since the first announcement was made.

[angelkanday]

Exactly guys, I’ve withdrawn through PayPal and Nequi charged 5% of the amount being transferred and the money it’s available right away! Not sure how the direct bank deposit works as far as the fee goes, only thing is that with Nequi you have a limit of $700.00 dollars every month so if you reach the limit you have to wait until the next month to start withdrawing funds again, hope this helps if anyone uses the direct bank deposit please post the fees to be aware of them.
Good luck guys 🤩