Upwork is sending the payment in wrong currency

[kris_wondersond]

Hi everyone,

I am from Croatia (Europe) and I have a bank account that supports both local and foreign currency. Supported foreign currencies are euro, usd, and british pounds.

On Upwork, under "Get Paid", I have set that my preferred method is to receive payment to a local bank, in euro currency.

Yet, I keep receiving payments from Upwork in a local currency, Croatian kuna, and the exchange rate is really bad. I talked with Upwork, and they said that the problem is with my bank. But that doesn't make sense, because my bank doesn't convert the currency to another currency, from any other source, if they send the payment in USD, I will receive it in USD. My bank also says that Upwork sends the money in a local currency, and not in euros. 

Is there anything I can do about this? Thanks!

[petra_r]

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Kristian M wrote:

Is there anything I can do about this?

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To send it in Dollar, you need to send it as wire transfer, which costs $ 30 per withdrawal. It's worth it for withdrawals over about $ 600 or more.

[kris_wondersond]

Thanks, that's a great suggestion!

Still, I would love to hear why Upwork converts it to local currency since the setting clearly states that the payment should be received in euros.

[BojanS]

Thank you for following up, Kristian.

When direct to local bank account is the disbursement method, then the funds are converted automatically into local currency. You can check out this article for more information about fees and timing associated with the direct to local bank method.

If your wife needs any assistance, you can advise her to reach out to us directly and we'll be happy to assist you accordingly. 

[kris_wondersond]

My wife tells me now that she used to receive the money in euro currency from Upwork, in the same bank, but this was before she changed her location from the Philippines to Croatia, since she moved here to Croatia recently. 

She didn't change any other settings or payment methods, and the same bank is in question.

She already had few calls with Upwork agents, but we didn't receive a proper explanation. Even the advice we got from Petra was never mentioned by them. That's why we decided to ask on Community forums, and I am the one asking because my wife is too busy and a bit stressed about all this.

[kris_wondersond]

We already lost thousands of dollars because of this problem, we thought there is nothing we can do since Upwork agents kept telling us it is not possible. But a few days ago we met a person that is also living in Croatia and he doesn't have any problems with receiving payments in euro currency. So it is possible, but we just don't understand how. As I have said, it all used to work until her address was changed to Croatia, even though the bank stayed the same.

[kochubei_valeria]

Kristian,

We won't be able to speak specifically about another user's account settings here in the Community. However, I'd like to clarify a couple of things.

This help article contains the list of different currencies available for Direct to Local Bank Payment method. You'll see that for some countries more than one currency is available. When adding a payment method for an account based in those countries, the user will be able to see different options for different currencies as seen on this screenshot. There isn't a way to change the currency on the method that's already been added but it's possible to remove it and add a new one. 

[kris_wondersond]

Hi Valeria,

Thank you for your answer.

Looking at the screenshot, we already have that setup, for Croatia oth EUR and HRK are available, and we selected EUR. But as I said, Upwork doesn't send us EUR, but it converts it to the local currency HRK instead. It used to work, and now it doesn't anymore.

I guess we will have to contact the support again, but we tried it already a few times, and they always think the problem is about the local bank. It's not a problem in the local bank because we didn't change the bank, it used to work before the location was changed. Also, banks don't automatically convert from currency to currency, this should be something that Upwork agents should know about. If you send the currency in EUR to a bank, you will either receive the EUR or the transaction will be canceled.

Is it possible that you try to connect us with someone from Upwork that can truly help us? I would forward you my wife's account.

[kochubei_valeria]

Kristian,

Your wife can go to Settings> Get Paid (she'll need to make sure she's in the correct context if she has an agency account) and view the currency for the Direct to Local Bank Transfer method she has set. If she has any further questions, she'll have to contact us herself as we can't share any details about a specific account with anybody other than the account owner.

[BojanS]

Hi Kristian,

Could you please confirm if you're referring to the account you're reaching out to us from? Please be reminded that Upwork does not allow users to have multiple freelancer accounts. 

[kris_wondersond]

Hi Bojan,

I am actually asking on behalf of my wife, she is using another account that is having this problem.