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robbinvs
Community Member

Upwork disables TransferWise Borderless

Like many other freelancers, I have been using TransferWise Borderless to withdraw my Upwork earnings. In my case, as I am located in Czech Republic, this is very convenient: I can directly convert USD to CZK without any unnecessary fees.

 

Today, Upwork support informed me that this would no longer be possible, as Upwork is discontinuing support for withdrawals via TransferWise. Their official reasoning is that it would be difficult for freelancers to track any missing payments, as they do not officially own said accounts. Instead, they recommend using the locally available withdrawal methods.

 

However, I think we all know that the real reason for disabling this withdrawal method is that Upwork is not making any money this way.

 

Just to illustrate, I am about to withdraw USD 4k to CZK. Via TransferWise, this would have net CZK 89.750 after fees. Choosing withdrawal in EUR to local bank account would net CZK 86.750 after fees and converting USD > EUR > CZK. PayPal is even worse, netting CZK 83.100 after all fees.

 

This means that the difference between TransferWise and the most expensive alternative is CZK 6.650 (nearly USD 300); the other alternative will cost me approximately USD 130 in fees and bad rates. These are costs I am forced to pay on top of Upwork's already high fees.

 

The worst is that Upwork absolutely refuses to consider re-enabling withdrawals via TransferWise. I have withdrawn thousands of dollars without ever having a single issue. And if the need arose, their support was always outstanding.

 

Many times, freelancers have requested official support for TransferWise or alternative services that do not cost an arm and a leg. And every time, Upwork answered something along the lines of that it will be shared with the team.

 

For me, it is fairly simple: the more I am being squeezed as a freelancer, the more I will take my business elsewhere and will advise other freelancers to do the same. Or for Upwork to simply let us withdraw via TransferWise, which was first suggested in 2015.

 

I usually cannot be bothered to publicly voice my complaints, but for me, this was the proverbial last straw. Hopefully Upwork can provide a better answer this time as to if or when we can finally expect support for TransferWise.

40 REPLIES 40
g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Robbin,

 

I understand your frustration with this and I would like to confirm that Upwork does not profit from on your earnings.

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.

I would also like to confirm that our team is constantly looking for new options about withdrawals, thank you. 

~ Goran
Upwork

Goran, thank you for your reply but you are missing the point.

 

We had a perfectly good withdrawal method that worked and offered good rates to freelancers. You do not need to explain the mechanics of exchange rate calculators, thank you.

 

The point of my message is that Upwork is forcing us into a position where we have no choice but to accept the disadvantageous rates it can offer us, whether it can influence these or not, while there was no issue with using TransferWise Borderless in the first place. Conveniently, you choose to ignore addressing this.

 


Goran V wrote:

I would also like to confirm that our team is constantly looking for new options about withdrawals, thank you. 


You understand the irony of this reply, right?

I wonder why this message was not send to all freelancers using Transferwise. Did you check if TransferWise was removed from your payment methods?

I found out when I had to update my bank account details. After submitting my new account information, it was manually reviewed and found 'not to be in compliance' with Upwork's policies. After messaging support and escalating the issue, this is the reply I received:

 

"This is X, the supervisor of Y. I understand that you are requesting for the manual approval of your bank account. We have escalated this issue to our Specialist who can manually approve the bank however, the request was declined as Transferwise is no longer supported."

Hi Robbin,

 

Could you please pm me a screenshot of the message you referenced here? I checked and it doesn't seem to have been shared by our Support team, which confirmed on your support ticket, among other information, that Transferwise is a third party vendor which Upwork doesn't currently support. I can also confirm TransferWise was never offered as a withdrawal method on Upwork.

~ Vladimir
Upwork


Vladimir G wrote:

I can also confirm TransferWise was never offered as a withdrawal method on Upwork.


It actually "sort of" was, in the form of their virtual bank account function which people use(d?) to withdraw to.

 

Interestingly, I received the two verification payments on my new TransferWise account yesterday. Support, however, still isn't willing to verify the name of my bank account.

Is there any update about this? I experienced the same problem

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Bayu, 

Please know that Transferwise is currently not supported as a Payment Method on Upwork. You can check other available options by going to your Get Paid page (Settings > Get Paid), and clicking on the "Add method" button. 

You may also refer to this help article for more information on what payment methods are supported on Upwork. 


~ Avery
Upwork

upwork guy's, good day, 

I'm working with you for years and years, much earlier then you changed your name to upwork .

top employer , 5 stars and all that , 

today i was traying to find if you are using transferwise as my freelancers ask for it 46 in the past and 11 active today, this and some other changes you made make me look for alternatives, 

not sure if it's ok by me that reports are not part of the regular account, I pay every month and my freelancers benefit from much less, as PayPal is costly, please enable this payment method and you'll benefit from happy users 

Thank you for your feedback Miki, I will share it with our team.

~ Goran
Upwork
l_laroco
Community Member

Hi, is this confirmed that Upwork no longer supports Transferwise? I just joined last month and got my 1st project and withdrew last august 7 the payment. I received the test payment to my Transferwise account because I used my US Borderless account. now I am a bit worried because I read in the community that Transferwise is no longer supported by Upwork. If this is the case, then what should I do to get my payment as it is already deducted from my balance

Hi Loverlie,

 

I can confirm that your withdrawal was successful. It can take between 2 to 5 business days for the funds to be loaded on your bank account. If you have not received the funds after 8 business days let us know, and our team will initiate a trace on your transaction.


I would also like to confirm that Trannsferwise is not an available option under payment methods. To learn more about our payment methods, check out this Help Article. Thank you!

~ Goran
Upwork

Please less generic corporative answer and more solutions.
Transferwise works amazing and we want it back.

Please consider adding TransferWise as a payment method. We the folks from Bangladesh will really benefit from this.

________________________

"I'm silently judging your font choice."

britishwriter101
Community Member

Hi Robbin,

 

I'm also located in Czech Republic, and started using a TransferWise borderless account in February to avoid the extortionate conversion rates of PayPal. I've been withdrawing to my TW borderless bank account in USD since then, and I never received a message from Upwork telling me I couldn't do this. I use ACH transfers, and it's always taken one working day to withdraw money from my Upwork account before it appears in my TW account. I'm still waiting on yesterday's confirmed withdrawal to arrive. If it turns out that my only option will be to go back to PayPal, I simply won't be using Upwork any more.

re: "Please know that Transferwise is currently not supported as a Payment Method on Upwork."

 

Upwork should add it as an option.

Charles, I likewise never had any issues withdrawing to TransferWise Borderless using exactly the same method you describe. Only when I had to update my bank account details because the name of my company had changed, did Upwork decide not to approve said change citing TransferWise is not a supported withdrawal method.

I will second the opinion sharply pointed out by Robbin on the OP. I'm unable to verify my TransferWise USD account as Upwork will not make the two automatic deposits on it neither confirm it manually, even when I provide them with statements and proof of ownerships.

 

I'm being extorted by bad fees, and Upwork has been confederate to that. I've been creating several support requests but all come with nonsense responses such as "my own security", when I explicitly allowed them to make a normal deposit at the expense of my balance and my own responsibility, so that I will confirm it and the account will be verified, in place of using these micro deposits which aren't working.

 

This is very severe from Upwork and they continue on this. I must find a way to file a complaint to Upwork administration. CONFIRM MY USD ACCOUNT!

Sadly no attention from Upwork...

Hi Robbin,

Are there any news regarding Transferwise withdraws - still not working or is there a way to make it work now?

ardin-ifad
Community Member

I'm keen to use TransferWise for my payment. The Upwork rates is so bad. USD to IDR on Upwork is 12.920 while in TransferWise is 13.300. That's almost 3% different. 

This should be taken up again.

The worst thing about Upwork Community is the moderators (who all been equipped with what looks like a fake picture/artificial picture) standard answers. "I will notice the team", "we will use that in our feedback".

I can confirm that my bank (Denmark) does not charge any kind of fee for transfering money. Still Upwork transfer an amount which is not the same as the amount that figure on my Upwork account - always around 3-4% lower than expected. I wonder where those money end...

Andreas,

 

Upwork Community moderators aren't fake and you can read more about who we are here. Most of us are freelancers like yourself, some are based in Europe, and we are quite familiar with the benefits and challenges that come with freelancing.

 

We are here to help, answer questions and pass feedback to the teams that work to improve various aspects of the platform including payments. I see that our team members addressed your posts, took a note of your feedback and you've also discussed this with our Customer Support team via the ticket where all the available information was provided. 

 

Thanks. 

~ Valeria
Upwork

That's ok, Valeria.

Yet, the main issue here remains unaddressed. UpWork keeps rejecting perfectly operational and legal-binding TransferWise USD accounts (via ACH direct transfer) -- that is done in a way that the automatic confirmation microdeposits won't ever take effect, no matter how many times you delete and re-add the account. Then, if you'd contact support for a manual account confirmation, they'd simply enforce that TransferWise USD accounts are not accepted.

It's sad to see even more money is being made on hardworking freelancers on these expensive third party withdrawal methods. Transferwise was my last hope. As a European, I cannot withdraw my money without conversion. I have to pay that when I send my money directly to my bank account because my currency or Euro are the only options UpWork offers. I specifically opened an account in US currency but Upwork doesn't give me the option to use it. 😞

It's sad to hear it's no longer possible to withdraw via TransferWise, thanks for saving me the trouble (I was about to add my TW USD account to UpWork).

Yeah, Upwork should allow us to Withdraw on Transferwise Bank accounts. Right now Payoneer having issue and every time you withdraw to Payoneer US Bank account you will be charged 1$ from Upwork and 1% from Payoneer. Then when you withdraw from Payoneer to your bank they will charge 3%. Overall 4% to 5% lost just to withdraw.

 

Otherway is Upwork DIrect withdraw and for this Upwork charge 0.99$ and rate is sucks! Like in Bangladesh Government never charge for any foreign transaction instead they award a 2% reward for the transaction. Where Upwork rate is around 78BDT to 80BDT for 1$, while Bank rate is 84-85BDT per 1$.

 

We already Pay UpWork 20% to 10% per contract and they making money from our withdraw, this is not good at all.

csaulnier
Community Member

Actually, it's probably for the best that UpWork doesn't allow TransferWise. I tried to open a TransferWise business account -- the one they specifically market to freelancers getting paid on UpWork -- and they deactivated both my business and personal account with $500 in UpWork payments in it!

 

It sounds like instead of asking for verification documents up front, they lure you in with catchy marketing, send you a debit card, and then ask for identification while holding your money hostage. I've sent in my ID and hope they will verify it soon, but their support team won't give me more details into the process.

 

I've asked UpWork to request a return ACH payments from TransferWise, but I'm not holding out much hope. I've probably lost $500 because I trusted a sketchy payment provider.

This sounds a bit biased thing to publish, unless you actually got your perfectly regular documents already checked and not approved and lost your money or got no response after a bunch of days, which is unusual, their support is very responsive and attentive. Personally I continue to use TransferWise and I can only recommend it to everyone.

Hello, can somebody confirm that TW euro account numbers works in Upwork?

Upwork transfer rate from USD to TL is very bad, I want to transfer my money to TW Euro account. is it possible in Upwork?

This sucks man!

 

It's 2020 and it's still the same! 

 

They should really consider letting Transferwise be a payment option. Freelancers who don't use USD pay an extra fee for converting their upwork earnings to their native currency. I would've thought Upwork would do something about this considering the huge fees they charge freelancers. 

 

 

Hi All:
you can see my document
I hope I can help you.
**Edited for Community Guidelines** 

thanks!

Hi anyone got an update with whether they can withdraw to transferwise through the local bank payment option? It looks like one of the few options I can use since transferring directly to my actual local bank hasn't worked yet. Thanks

6f6e397d
Community Member

Hİ,

 

I create additional payment way. 

I firstly failed. Because I didn't understand to How to do

But when ı understand how to do, I delete and re-create

My transfer was came, When I wake up

But this time, I saw " verification failed" 

 

What Can I do :(((

Hi Ilbey,

 

Please know that Transferwise is currently not supported as a Payment Method on Upwork. You can check the available options by going to your Get Paid page (Settings > Get Paid), and clicking on the "Add method" button. You may also refer to this help article for more information on payment methods available on Upwork. 

~ Joanne
Upwork
jimi008
Community Member

Hi Joanne,

 

Thanks for letting us know that we can not add Transferwise(Global currency account - USD ACH) to withdraw payments from Upwork. In the meantime, I see that we can add Payoneer (Global payment service) - USD ACH) account to withdraw the payments into our virtual USD account.

Can you let us know what is the reason that you are not allowing the Transferwise (Multi-Currency) accounts but allowing the Payoneer (Multi-Currency) accounts?

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Jamil,

 

While we are not able to confirm why the option is not available, we will make sure to inform the Community if new options become available soon. However, thank you for your feedback I will share it with our team.

~ Goran
Upwork

I think it is not so much a matter of not being able to confirm why the option is not available, because there is no legal difference between a virtual bank account from Payoneer, TransferWise or other providers, but rather that you do not want to confirm why you are trying to block every attempt at using TransferWise.

 

To all freelancers and without going into detail: yes, it is possible to use TransferWise's virtual USD bank account to withdraw your earnings from Upwork, despite what staff is saying.

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