oDesk holds money for a week?

Actually, it would be oDesk that would get stiffed, as they pay the providers, not the buyers directly paying.

But yes that is probably why - though these days it is very difficult to do a charge back, especially in a situation where your method of payment is pre-verified. Try phoning your credit card company and denying a charge and see!

So?

I can still ask why they do it!
 

The provider is actually charged on monday; it's then held for 5 business days to ensure that buyers cannot do a credit card chargeback.  After the 5 day period, there is an additional 48 hour wait period.  Not sure why that one is, but I assume it's due to internal auditing and accounting purposes.  The delay is reasonable, as I have had employers delay my pay for up to a month due to beaurocratic nonsense.  This way, I know their credit card will be charged as soon as I do the work.

And I hate to tell you, but oDesk wouldn't be stiffed, they work as an intermediary.  If there is no money to pay, they won't pay us.  Simple as that.

Thanks...

I am a buyer too and I can tell you that I am pretty sure I get charged on Wednesdays... 

This five days is interesting, because as far as I know, there is no limit like that in the banking system, as people have to wait for their CC statements that arrive monthly . So at that point I could then phone up and say I received no such service and do a charge back. In that case would oDesk charge the provider back the amount? obviously it would be long gone into the providers pockets

I think you've hit it though - they hold it for five days (for whatever reason - cynically to get the interest, optimistically to ensure the funds). 

Not that any of this matters - I was just curious. As a provider it would be nice to get the money faster (what happens elsewhere is irrelevant) and there isn't really a technical reason to delay it. 

This statement is incorrect I believe.   If you read the Billing and Payment policies the only time this is accurate is if the buyers payment method is unverified.  This may also be accurate regarding
fixed payments as they are not guaranteed until the buyer actually pays them.

Doreen

Yes, you can ask them  about  their corporate internals publicly, but is not it a bit unethical?

Unethical? I am not quite sure why asking why it takes an extra week to get my money (or for the people I pay to get theirs) is an ethical question.

Besides, it was publicly answered in a doc that someone kindly posted a snippet of.

Gotta love lawyers!

To make things faster they introduce a 6 day delay 

Thanks for posting that though, I knew it was somewhere.

The security period is an extremely important security measure to allow oDesk to pay providers as quickly as we do.

First, to clarify the schedule...

The hourly work week ends Sunday night at midnight GMT. Providers have until Monday at noon GMT to finalize their Work Diary, at which point the buyer is invoiced for the amount due. There is then a three-day window in which buyers may review their timelogs and dispute any inappropriate time.

The buyer is charged on Thursday morning GMT (Wednesday evening in the US) for the amount due. We hold the funds until Wednesday at 12:01am GMT.

Why the hold period?

Believe me, a few days of interest is not our goal here. The hold period is important to protect against fraud, lost or stolen cards, disputes, etc. A lot of money is transferred internationally via oDesk and it is our fiduciary responsibility to make sure we have all safeguards in place to protect against thieves, and fraudsters. Most oDesk users are honest, hard-working entrepreneurs, and we don't want a few bad apples to ruin the platform for everyone, and force us to raise fees or introduce new restrictions.

In addition, please note a couple of realities about credit card billing:

(1) While we charge on Thursday morning, we don't actually get the money for a few days, sometimes almost a week

(2) In order to fund a multitude of payment methods (Payoneer, Moneybookers, PayPal, plus ACH and Wire) we transfer large sums to our payment partners a couple of days in advance of provider payday.

Between the delay in receiving funds and our need to fund our payment accounts in advance, there is essentially no delay here at all, from a cash flow point of view.

How "slow" is oDesk? Not slow.

Working through oDesk lets you get paid much faster than a typical contracting relationship. Typically, if you work as a contractor for a company, you are lucky to be paid more than once a month, and then often companies will take another month (or more!) to pay the bill. oDesk significant accelerates that process, and pays its providers weekly for hourly work.

Feedback is always welcome, but please know that we go to great lengths to make sure our providers get paid as safely, efficiently, and expeditiously as possible.

Michael

Director of Product

Thanks Michael!

That kind of answer and transparency is exactly why I stick around with oDesk. 

I like it.

As long as I work every week I get paid every week.  It's just like the one-week holdback I've had at just about every offline job I've ever worked at.

Sure I would love to get paid sooner, but this works just fine for all my needs.

I did a freelance writing project for a very esteemed publishing house, in June this year. And I am still to receive my payments due, in another couple of days. It's not that the company is trying to delay the payment deliberately, but that's how the things work. For me, a week is prompt enough for making the payments, and that too after the verifications and everything.