Making an upfront payment

[dce84fcc]

Hi, 

If a freelancer wants to split the job in say 3 payments with one being upfront (but I am happy to accept the risk on the upfront) can the other two payments still go through escrow?

Thanks.

P

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

Yes.

Techically all three payments will go through escrow. But the first payment will be in escrow only momentarily.

The actual mechanics of setting up and releasing the milestone escrow payments is identical, regardless of whether or not a payment is an upfront payment or not.

[prestonhunter]

Pro-tip for other people reading this thread:

Although Upwork does not encourage clients to release upfront payments, it is not against the rules to do so.

Just make sure that you understand that you will not get the upfront payment back, even if the freelancer does no work.

[martina_plaschka]

Don't agree to an upfront payment. There are too many stories of freelancers who never did any work. 

The correct way to use upwork is release the payment when you receive the work. 

[32db7e5c]

I am just starting out as freelancer. 
I have applied/proposal, for 1 job. 
the client is asking me to pay $30 upfront? This the norm ? 

[759e32fa]

Hi Miri,

Thank you for reaching out to us. Asking for an upfront fee from freelancers is against our Terms of Service and is a form of scam. 

Please check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.