Just found out my platform fees are way higher than I thought

I was looking over my earnings from a project I did back in October for a local bakery in Nashville. I used one of those big freelance platforms to find the gig, and I figured the fee was around 10 percent. Turns out I was wrong. I actually sat down and did the math on my last 5 jobs, and the fee averaged closer to 18 percent after all the hidden charges. That's almost 2 grand I left on the table over the last 6 months. I found the breakdown in their payment policy under a section called 'transaction costs.' Has anyone else noticed this sneaking up on them?

3 comments

3 Comments

faith277d ago

Those "transaction costs" are usually the platform payment processor fee. You probably opted into a premium payment method without realizing it.

oliver_baker497d ago

The 3.5% I got charged last week on a $487 sale works out to about $17, which feels steep for just passing money through. Are those premium payment methods actually showing up as a separate line item on the checkout screen, or are they hidden somewhere in the account settings that I might have missed? I went back through my account pages twice and couldnt find any toggle for it.

pat_harris6d ago

I read somewhere that some platforms quietly enable "seller protection" features that add a percent to the fee. Might be worth checking your account settings under payments.