payment

[colettelewis]

---

Danny B wrote:

What does Earnings are automatically withdrawn mean?

Why would up work withdraw from my account if I'm the one who's supposed to be paid?

---

_____________________________

It simply means that Upwork has withdrawn the amount in  your account and sent it to whatever outside account you have specified - PayPal, your bank etc. 

ETA: For example, I have specified that Upwork should automatically send money in my Upwork account to my PayPal account  when my earnings reach $1000. 

[bstojadinovic]

Hi Danny,

After setting a payment schedule, your earnings will automatically be released based on the schedule you have set and the balance limit (i.e withdraw earnings after they reach $100). However, you can withdraw your earnings whenever you choose by clicking the 'Get Paid Now' option. Please check out this article for more information.

Thank you!

[bstojadinovic]

Hi Danny,

Unfortunately, because Upwork is not a bank or payment transfer agency, we cannot maintain balances for more than 180 days, per our Terms of Service.

Thank you!

[colettelewis]

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Danny B wrote:
Yeah that seems crooked. This is why I **bleep**ing hate freelance and why I
never even wanted to try to do it in the first place.

---

____________________

It is not crooked. But you don't  have to freelance either off or on any online platform. Freelancing is not for everyone. 

[colettelewis]

---

Danny B wrote:
I don’t know the way things are now out here you kind of have to do
freelance or you don’t get to work in the industry. And I don’t know where
else to go to get work but online platforms.

---

_________________________________

OK so stop with the accusations and read all the help pages on this site. Start here: https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork/Getting-Started-on-Upwork/m-p/264214#M2460

And then once you have grasped the basics start applying for jobs. 

[alexis-arinze]

---

Danny B wrote:
I already did both of those things. I mean obviously that’s why I’m here. I
read those pages and applied for jobs and still am unclear why I would have
money taken out of my account when I’m the one that should be receiving the
payment.

---

Are you even trying to listen to what they're telling you? NO money is being taken. It's only being transferred to your bank. You ARE the one recieveing payment. 

[alexis-arinze]

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Danny B wrote:
It says “earnings will be withdrawn to your primary payment method“
How can you withdraw things to something?
If I’m being paid why is anything being withdrawn?
If you’re not interested in helping me understand this why are you even
responding?
And if it’s just to be insulting and condescending to me whatever that’s
not helpful it’s just toxic.

---

The earnings are being withdrawn from UpWork and being transerred to your primary payment method, i.e the bank you listed. Don't let the word 'withdraw' confuse you. Nothing's being taken away. I am interested in helping but it doesn't seem like you're interested in listening. (Also, I hate condescedning people and never wish to be one.)

[alexis-arinze]

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Danny B wrote:
I mean why do they use the word withdraw then if it’s not a withdrawal?

---

Because it technically is a withdrawl. Money is being withdrawn from your Upwork account and being deposited to your bank. So there's no money lost, only $2 for the withdrawl fee.

[alexis-arinze]

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Danny B wrote:
I don’t have any money in an up work account and I don’t understand why
they would have to take my money away to pay me. That seems scammy and A
means for me to make a mistake for them to capitalize off of.

---

Check your bank statements. I'm sure you'll find that UpWork hasn't taken any money. They only charge you if you purchase connects or sign up for a Freelancer Plus membership.

[alexis-arinze]

---

Danny B wrote:
I haven't even had a contract yet so there be no money for them to take.

---

Exactly.. So what case are you trying to make? 

[a_lipsey]

---

Danny B wrote:
I don’t have any money in an up work account and I don’t understand why
they would have to take my money away to pay me. That seems scammy and A
means for me to make a mistake for them to capitalize off of.

---

Please explain how you intend to get your money from your Upwork account to use to pay your bills. It has to make it to your bank account, correct? So your money is automatically TRANSFERRED from your Upwork account to your bank or your PayPal account. A "transfer" is a set of two actions: a withdrawal from one account and a deposit into another. Upwork is not withdrawing anything. YOU are withdrawing the money from Upwork and depositing it into your bank or PayPal. It is an automatic process after a certain amount of time because legally Upwork cannot hold the money in your account over a certain period of time. 

Why do you feel there is something scammy about Upwork giving you your money? 

[feed_my_eyes]

---

Danny B wrote:
Usually when I pay bills I just use my credit card or have it automatically
deducted from my account or “withdrawn” I don’t know why I have to have
Upwork hold my money In the first place. I don’t know why the people that
are paying me can’t just send the money to my bank account.

Like what happens if I go under $100 are they gonna send me a fee like the
bank would?

Furthermore your condescending tone and hyperbolic responses aren’t helping
anything so I don’t really understand why you continue to berate me when
you could just tell me what I need to know . if you know.

---

Clients can't send money directly to your bank account because all payments have to go via Upwork; they deduct a service charge in order to cover their advertising costs and all of the other services that they provide. If you want to find clients via Upwork, you'll need to follow their terms of service or your account will be banned. If you want clients to pay you directly, then you'll need to find your own clients. 

But no, you won't be penalised if your account is below $100. Where did you get that idea?

[a_lipsey]

---

Danny B wrote:
Usually when I pay bills I just use my credit card or have it automatically
deducted from my account or “withdrawn” I don’t know why I have to have
Upwork hold my money In the first place. I don’t know why the people that
are paying me can’t just send the money to my bank account.

Like what happens if I go under $100 are they gonna send me a fee like the
bank would?

Furthermore your condescending tone and hyperbolic responses aren’t helping
anything so I don’t really understand why you continue to berate me when
you could just tell me what I need to know . if you know.

---

No one is being condescending. You are being unclear on what your question actually is, so we are trying to understand why you are missing what is really a quite simple concept. No one is being hyperbolic either - except you, unfortunately, as you cannot see that many people are trying to help you understand how Upwork works. 

Let me break this down for you further. Yes, clients that you find on your own, not through Upwork can pay you directly. However, if you sign up for Upwork and agree to their TOS, which you did, you agreed that you will not take direct payment from clients that you met on Upwork outside of Upwork. You agreed when you signed the TOS to take all payments through Upwork. Upwork does this because it is the only way they can ensure that their fees are paid. The fees you pay when you do get a job on Upwork are to pay Upwork for giving you access to their diverse client base and their contracting/invoicing services. 

If you do not want to use Upwork's services, that is perfectly fine; however, you cannot use Upwork to find clients, then take them off platform to contract outside of Upwork and receive payment outside of Upwork. You can only do that with clients you meet organically on your own, and not through the job bidding process on Upwork - since that is what you agreed to when you signed up. 

The reason Upwork does not allow you to do this - directly get paid outside their system, is because they would never get paid their fees that as freelancers we agree to pay when we sign up.  They would go bankrupt very fast, and then none of us would have jobs. 

I hope this explanation helps you understand what you agreed to when you signed up, the service you actually signed up for when you created an account on Upwork, and why you cannot directly get paid by clients. 

[researchediting]

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Danny B wrote:
I don’t know why I have to have Upwork hold my money In the first place.

---

You don't.

• When the client approves your work on fixed price jobs and releases escrow, there is a short "security" (stop loss) hold of 5 days, after which you can withdraw the money to whatever bank accounts you've registered with Upwork, or to PayPal or some other payment method.
• For hourly jobs, your money becomes available in the second week after you've completed the work, much like a paycheck. (The client is given a week to review your work diary [time sheet].)

I'm not sure, but you seem to be focused on the backup provision for how you want Upwork to handle any funds you haven't already actively withdrawn yourself.

[martina_plaschka]

---

Danny B wrote:
Usually when I pay bills I just use my credit card or have it automatically
deducted from my account or “withdrawn” I don’t know why I have to have
Upwork hold my money In the first place. I don’t know why the people that
are paying me can’t just send the money to my bank account.

Like what happens if I go under $100 are they gonna send me a fee like the
bank would?

Furthermore your condescending tone and hyperbolic responses aren’t helping
anything so I don’t really understand why you continue to berate me when
you could just tell me what I need to know . if you know.

---

This thread is just too funny, thank you for that!

And yes, you are right. This is a huge scam. No freelancer has ever been paid, many have not been paid for many many years, "earning" over half a million dollars in some cases. Never saw any of that money! Even the SEC hasn't caught on yet. Pretty slow, wouldn't you say? 

And that's not the only weird thing they do. They use hourly contracts, in which one hour is 6 segments of 10 minutes each. Now that's not how a clock works, right? Or does your clock jump in 10 minute increments? I didn't think so! 

(I'm just letting you guess if I am sarcastic or not.) 

[mtngigi]

---

Danny B wrote:
Usually when I pay bills I just use my credit card or have it automatically
deducted from my account or “withdrawn” I don’t know why I have to have
Upwork hold my money In the first place. I don’t know why the people that
are paying me can’t just send the money to my bank account.

Like what happens if I go under $100 are they gonna send me a fee like the
bank would?

Furthermore your condescending tone and hyperbolic responses aren’t helping
anything so I don’t really understand why you continue to berate me when
you could just tell me what I need to know . if you know.

---

Everyone is trying to help you out, no one is being condescending or berating you ... they're all just trying to explain how things work here. Now I'll try.

Perhaps you're not clear on what Upwork is? It is not a job/employment site. Clients post jobs, freelancers bid on those jobs. Upwork makes money by the fees they charge, that's why the money comes through the site.

You bid on jobs, and if you're hired, you do the work and get paid. For flat rate projects, clients fund milestones and their money is held in escrow until the job is completed. Hourly jobs mean you use a time tracker and are paid for your hours. Upwork is not holding your money, they are holding the client's money until clients receive what they've hired a freelancer to do. We don't get paid directly, because then Upwork makes no money. This system means everyone works smartly and safely. I'm simplifying things, because there is a learning curve.

Upwork cannot offer what this site does for free. The site gives you the opportunity to connect to clients all over the world. Is everything perfect? No. Many of us have complaints about some of the things Upwork does, but one thing we don't complain about is making money.

Many freelancers do very well here. Nichola, the first to respond to you, is a good example of a very successful Upwork freelancer. It's not easy ... the competition is fierce. You have to be willing to put in the time and effort. Some people make it, many do not. But there's no scam.

[danny-blessinger]

Thank you that has been repeated a few times now.

However I have to say that I have been replying though email and i did not
k ow I was speaking to different people. That is why I thought i was being
talked down to and why I became so defensive.
And I apologize. However that is probably another thing to as to the
evidence against using upwork.

Any way I know that up work charges a fee i just dont know why thay have to
holed 100 dollars and what thay mean by “withdrawal to my account”
especially if i dont have any money in my account. What would happen to
that 100 if i decide to leave upwork? What if it takes me a long time to
get a contract? Why do i have to give them money in the first place?

All these thing are hard signals of a Pyramid scheme. I am not saying this
is a for sure definitive proof that it’s a pyramid scheme I just don’t
understand why they would do with this especially when they already charge
a fee.

[g_vasilevski]

Hello Danny,

I would like to clarify that you can manually withdraw your funds at any time even if they are less then $100. You can do this simply by clicking on the Get Paid button. Thank you.

[danny-blessinger]

Thankyou

[petra_r]

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Danny B wrote:
Any way I know that up work charges a fee i just dont know why thay have to
holed 100 dollars and what thay mean by “withdrawal to my account”

---

You don't have to hold $ 100. When you earn some money from work you have done, your client pays Upwork and Upwork deposits that money in your Upwork account. You can then choose to withdraw (transfer) your money to your bank or you can leave it sitting in your Upwork balance. 

So, let's say you have $ 20 in your Upwork account. You can just take that out, or leave it until there is more.

When you set up a scheduled withdrawal, you can decide the threshold. I have mine set to $ 1000 every 3 months, because I don't want any scheduled withdrawals, I take my money out as and when it suits me.

"Withdraw to your account" just means transferring your earned money to the payment method you have chosen. Your bank account or PayPal for example.

---

Danny B wrote:
What would happen to
that 100 if i decide to leave upwork? What if it takes me a long time to
get a contract? Why do i have to give them money in the first place?

---

You don't have to give them money. That's the whole point. This isn't about giving Upwork money, it's about the way Upwork gives you the money you earn.

You seem to think you have to send Upwork $ 100 and that's just complete nonsense.