PPH Buyers Fees in the UK - Bank Transfers No Longer Accepted

In January 2018 PeoplePerHour (PPH) decided to stop free transfer-ins/deposits via bank transfer for buyers in the UK. As a result buyers now need to pay fees of over 10%; fees that were previously avoidable.

To help others I have published my full email thread with PPH.

Kind regards

Edmund

Thread (earliest post at the top):

Edmund Tuesday at 16:01

Hi, I am trying to deposit funds from my bank via faster payments. However you have removed the 'deposit funds' link?

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Margarita Wednesday at 08:48

Hello Edmund,

My name is Margarita and I am going to be helping you from now about your request.

Let me explain to you what those changes mean.

PeoplePerHour Ltd is committed to complying with all UK legislation and as a result we have made some changes to our operations with regards to bill payments and how funds are managed for our customers since we received this update. Hence, our users will not be able to deposit funds in their PPH accounts anymore via bank transfers.

PeoplePerHour will no longer be able to accept bank transfers, but, be aware, that the use of payment methods when accepting proposals, or paying invoices directly via the relevant Workstreams remains unchanged.

Please read our T&C's for further details.

Thank you for your understanding and have a lovely day,

Margarita

PPH Customer Support

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Edmund Wednesday at 08:50

How can I pay in whilst avoiding the 10% fee?

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Edmund Wednesday at 09:11

I've been using you guys for years but if I have to pay an additional 10% then I will go elsewhere. Please confirm either way.

How can I pay in whilst avoiding the 10% fee?

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Margarita Wednesday at 15:08

Hello again Edmund,

I hope you are doing great.

Thank you for contacting us again.

I can totally understand your concern and your point of view. Unfortunately since this is the law, we are not able to accept bank transfers anymore as also we are not able to make any exceptions.

There isn't any other payment or deposit method that you could use in order to avoid the 10% of the transaction fee.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

I am wishing you a nice day.

Margarita

PPH Customer Support

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Edmund Wednesday at 15:25

You can allow customers to prefund their account via bank transfer. It's not illegal.

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Margarita Yesterday at 10:18

Hi Edmund,

I hope you are fine.

Thank you for your message.

First of all I want to apologise for any inconvenience caused by this.

The issue is that bank transfers are not allowed anymore for platforms like ours due to this new law. Unfortunately, this is something we have to apply to our platform also.

Please let me know if I can help you with anything else.

Thank you for your understanding.

Have a nice day.

Margarita

PPH Customer Support

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Edmund Yesterday at 10:23

Hi, please show me the law saying you can accept bank transfers.

I have written to several news organisations to say you've increased costs for small businesses and they're asking for details.

Regards

Edmund

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Natalie Today at 08:55

Hello Edmund,

I hope this message finds you well. My name is Natalie and I am the Customer Support Manager. I will be taking over the case from now and I will do my best in order for us to resolve it.

Firstly we haven't increased costs for small businesses and we haven't changed our fees what so ever. As per our T&C's we are not a bank, therefore we can't have people adding funds into their PPH account and have them sitting there for a long period of time. In order to comply with the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) we needed to stop receiving bank transfers since they were not being added directly into a workstream for Proposal or Invoice approvals. We understand your concerns regarding the new laws that have been put into effect as of the 13th of January and I am not going against your opinion ; this change is inconvenient for the Buyers, but it's also inconvenient for us.

I apologise Edmund but we are unable to either add the deposit option back or the bank transfer.

Thank you for your patience and if you have any other inquiry please let me know.

Have a lovely day,

Natalie

PPH CS Manager

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Edmund Today at 09:06

Hi Natalie

Thank you for your email. I understand your sentiment but dispute the message that you haven't increased costs. Earlier this month I could pay 100% of an hourlie and complete the transaction. It now costs 110%. This is what I reported to the journalists that responded to me. It's correct, no?

I understand you cannot charge more for card payments and have therefore removed bank transfers entirely (you could do it against projects to avoid being a bank), rather than levy the same fee on bank transfers. The regulation was designed to reduce card charges, not make transactions more expensive.

Am I missing something?

Thank you

Edmund

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Natalie Today at 11:25

Hello Edmund,

Thank you for your message and your update.

I understand that the fees are changed for you, because you used to deposit funds from bank transfer, but all of our users were charged the service fee when paying/adding funds under our platform using either paypal/payoneer or credit/debit card, therefore those charges haven't changed.

For example if you add funds using PayPal you will be charged a service fee of 10% + 0.6GBP.

Thank you for your patience and if you have any other question regarding our case please let me know.

Kind Regards,

Natalie

PPH CS Manager

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Edmund Today at 11:30

Thanks Natalie. So I'm correct, costs have changed for all users that used to use bank transfers, because bank transfers are no longer allowed. The reason given originally was because of the payment regulation.

I think the bank argument is a red herring - bank transfers could still be used for live projects/transactions if you chose to allow them. But then again, you'd also have to charge for bank transfers, or reduce card fees.

I'm happy to publish this thread to make it clear for all, again please correct any errors.

Thank you

Edmund

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Natalie Today at 14:05

Hello Edmund,

Thank you for your message and your update.

The bank transfer as a deposit method was an option for all users, and a certain amount preferred using this method instead of depositing funds via PayPal or Card. This was a personal choice for each user and I am sure you can understand Edmund.

You are correct when you said we " could do it against projects to avoid being a bank " but this is not possible due to the bank deposits being an operation that is offline. We also don't know the purpose of the bank deposit before it reaches our platform.

Therefore if you understand that we are not a bank, and we do not wish to keep users funds on our platform for an indefinite amount of time, I apologize but you needs to respect the decision that needed to be taken from our end to withdraw the bank transfer as a deposit option.

The transactions on our site are not more expensive, they have always been the same for people using other payment methods, besides bank transfers.

Removing the bank transfer option was not a simple decision but it was necessary for us to comply with the new changes and to ensure that we are not considered a bank.

I hope this was clear.

Thank you for your patience and if you have any other question regarding our case please let me know.

Kind Regards,

Natalie

PPH CS Manager

January 24, 2018 10:38

I too am disappointed that PPH has done this. As a buyer of PPH freelance services you changed the fees on credit card payments up to 10% in approx Oct of last year and because of the new law in the UK where you cannot charge fees on card payments you have just changed the wording to service fee rather than card fee so you can get round this law. I think it is appalling that PPH has done this. As a long standing buyer of services 10% is a large amount on the invoice for a buyer of services to pay. I for one after the end of this month will not be using PPH again.

Qambar

February 24, 2018 14:10

I seriously think getting rid of the bank transfer is a crap decision, making this platform extremely unattractive to the buyers. I was about the start the same discussion with PPH as you did Edmund but it will end up with PPH staff throwing "legal" words at your face and saying that "we are not a bank"

10% buyer fees is extremely high plus this fees is very hidden you don't see it until you accept the proposal.

I am extremely pissed about this. I don't know if i would continue giving projects to freelancers on PPH anymore.

Joseph

February 25, 2018 14:35

I get the buyers' side of this, but can someone explain PPH's side to me?

How does "we're not a bank" mean they must charge fees?

This part is also very confusing:

"we can't have people adding funds into their PPH account and have them sitting there for a long period of time. In order to comply with the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) we needed to stop receiving bank transfers since they were not being added directly into a workstream for Proposal or Invoice approvals."

... So how do buyers pay in a deposit for a job? Surely deposits fit the definition of "people adding funds into their PPH account and have them sitting there for [however PPH defines] a long period of time."

Or is does what the PPH staff wrote not make sense because it's nonsense?

March 08, 2018 12:10

I've been with PPH for almost 10 years but today used Upwork for the first time because of this thread. Upwork charged me 2.75% and I've found someone perfect for the job.

Avi

May 10, 2018 10:26

PPH is a sinking ship just because they treat buyers and sellers like shit.

No value to the opinion or feedback.

Have started using other freelance platforms too.

PPH Buyers Fees in the UK - Bank Transfers No Longer Accepted

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