How escrow protects your money
Escrow holds the client’s payment safely and releases it to the expert only for approved work.
Escrow is the single mechanism that makes hiring a stranger on the internet workable. The client’s money leaves their card before work starts, so the expert knows it exists. It does not reach the expert until the client approves the work, so the client keeps control. Between those two points the money belongs to neither party, and that is exactly the property that makes it safe.
Client pays
Hosted checkout. We never see the card.
Whose money: Client
Held in escrow
Client has paid. Expert is not paid yet.
Whose money: Neither party
Client approves
Per milestone, or on completion.
Whose money: Neither party
Released
Platform fee deducted. Balance is the Expert’s.
Whose money: Expert
Withdrawn
~24h to settle, then bank transfer.
Whose money: Expert’s bank
Where the money actually is
AutoGineer is not a bank and does not hold your money in a bank account. Funded escrow sits with our regulated payment processor, on the platform account, until a release or refund instruction is issued. It earns no interest for you or for us, and it is tracked per milestone rather than as one pooled balance — so a five-milestone project has five separate amounts, each released or refunded on its own.
- 1
Unfunded
The contract exists and both parties agreed, but no money has moved.
Client opens checkout - 2
Funding
A hosted checkout session is open. It expires if unpaid, and nothing is reserved.
Payment succeeds - 3
Held
Money has left the client and is held against a milestone. The expert may start.
Expert submits work - 4
In review
The expert has submitted. The client approves, requests a revision, or disputes.
Client approves - 5
Released
The platform fee is deducted and the remainder becomes the expert’s balance.
Expert withdraws - 6
Refunded
Instead of releasing, held money returns to the client — by agreement or by a dispute decision.
Release happens for one of three reasons
- The client approves the submitted milestone. This is the normal path and is immediate.
- Auto-release: the client does not respond to a submission within the review window (7 days by default). Without this, an inattentive client could strand an expert’s payment forever.
- A dispute is decided in the expert’s favour, in whole or in part.
Auto-release is a deadline, not a formality
If you are a client and the work is wrong, do not let the review window lapse. Request a revision or open a dispute before it expires — those actions stop the clock, and silence does not.
What escrow does not do
Escrow guarantees that money is present and that its movement follows the rules above. It does not guarantee that work will be good, that a deadline will be met, or that either party will be pleasant to deal with. Those are what reviews, revisions, and the dispute process are for.
- It does not cover anything paid outside AutoGineer. There is no escrow record to act on, so there is nothing we can do.
- It does not cover work delivered outside the project workspace, because we cannot see it and so cannot weigh it in a dispute.
- It is not a credit line. A client cannot start work on a promise; funding is what starts the clock.
Protected — money stays on the Platform
- Client pays into escrow before work starts, so the Expert knows the money exists.
- Expert delivers in the Project, so there is a record of what was sent and when.
- Client approves; funds release. A dispute can be decided on the evidence.
- A card dispute can be answered with that same evidence.
Unprotected — taken off-Platform
- No escrow: the Expert may work unpaid, or the Client may pay for nothing.
- No record we can read, so we cannot help either party.
- No dispute process, and a chargeback is the only remedy left.
- Both accounts risk suspension for circumventing the Platform.
Chargebacks
A chargeback is a client asking their card issuer to reverse a payment, which is a separate process from a dispute on AutoGineer and is decided by the issuer, not by us. Because every action on a project is timestamped — funding, submissions, messages, approvals — we can answer a chargeback with an actual record. That record is only complete if the engagement stayed on the platform.
If you disagree with an outcome, open a dispute here first. It is faster, it can split funds proportionally, and unlike a chargeback it does not put either account at risk.
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