Whether you’re new to Fiverr or if you’re a freelancing veteran, you’ve likely come across the pending clearance period. This stops you getting your earnings until 2 weeks have passed. But this may leave you wondering what Fiverr Early Payout is.
Fiverr Early Payout is a system for eligible sellers that allows you to withdraw your money immediately, rather than waiting the usual 14-day pending clearance period (7 days for Pro gigs and Top Rated Sellers). This lets you get your money faster than usual, but it does come with a 1% fee.
Below, we go into more detail about Fiverr Early Payout and discuss how you can get your money sooner. We’ll also discuss whether or not Early Payout is worth it, and we’ll talk about how it works.
How Does Fiverr Early Payout Work?
Fiverr Early Payout allows you to withdraw your earnings immediately, rather than having to wait 7-14 days depending on your seller level. You can only do this on a gig by gig basis rather than being able to withdraw all of your earnings through this method at once.
If your gig is eligible for Early Payout, you’ll see an option to withdraw your earnings immediately next to it on your earnings page. It’ll be marked with an “Early Payout” button, which you can click to see what fee you’ll need to pay to withdraw those earnings early.
If you’re happy with the fee, you can then click “Get Paid Now,” and you’ll make those funds available to withdraw.
5 Steps To Get Fiverr Payout
The 5 steps to get Fiverr Early Payout are:
- Go to your Earnings page on Fiverr
- Scroll down to the activities table
- Click the Early Payout button next to the earnings you want to withdraw
- If you’re happy with the fee, click Get Paid Now
- Withdraw your earnings using your chosen payment method
Who Is Eligible For Fiverr Payout?
Not everyone is eligible for Fiverr Early Payout, and Fiverr will determine eligibility based on how you perform on the platform and your history with buyers. Your eligibility is determined automatically, and it can change day to day.
Automatic vs Manual
Aside from whether you’re eligible for the Early Payout option as a freelancer, not all of your gigs will be eligible for the service either. If an order is automatically marked complete (i.e. if the buyer doesn’t manually mark it as complete within 3 days), that gig will not be eligible for Early Payout.
This is likely because the Early Payout option is designed to circumvent the usual pending clearance period, which itself is designed to protect buyers’ and sellers’ money while payments are processed. For example, if a buyer initiates a chargeback after paying for an order, Fiverr’s pending clearance period covers (Fiverr) for this by not releasing the money to the seller immediately.
If all orders were eligible for Early Payout, Fiverr would not have this cover, which for them as a business is clearly undesirable (regardless of how freelancers feel about waiting 2 weeks for their money). The assumption is that Fiverr feels more comfortable offering the Early Payout option on orders where a buyer has manually marked it as complete, as this suggests they’re happy with the order and unlikely to initiate a chargeback or request a refund.
Why These Gigs Aren’t Eligible
If an order is automatically marked complete, there’s a chance it’s because the buyer hasn’t yet looked at the work, and so the likelihood of them requesting a refund or chargeback after these three days have passed is higher than normal. So, not offering Early Payout on these orders essentially covers Fiverr on what they deem to be “riskier” orders.
Clearly this doesn’t mean that if a buyer lets an order mark as complete automatically it’s likely that they’ll try and cancel it. However, this is just the likely explanation for why Fiverr doesn’t allow Early Payout on all orders.
How Long Does Fiverr Early Payout Take?
Fiverr Early Payout takes as long as it takes your withdrawal method to add funds to your chosen account. Early Payout clears the earnings for withdrawal, but it won’t affect how long it takes PayPal or your bank to process the payment. It also won’t affect any fees these withdrawal methods enforce.
Note that this means you won’t always get your Fiverr earnings immediately when you use the Early Payout option.
For example, if you choose to withdraw your Fiverr earnings using a Fiverr Revenue Card, and you want to get your money within 2 hours, you will need to pay the extra $3 fee to get your money that fast, or you’ll need to wait the usual 2 days (which still comes with a $1 fee). You’ll also need to take into account the additional Fiverr Early Payout fee.
Fiverr Early Payout Fees
Fiverr Early Payout comes with a 1% fee per withdrawal. This means if you have an order worth $10 that you want to withdraw, you will pay a $0.10 fee. You’ll pay this fee on every Early Payout you initiate.
You also need to remember that Fiverr takes a 20% cut of your earnings before you can withdraw them, but this will already have been taken into account by the time your earnings are ready for withdrawal. You pay this 1% fee on every withdrawal before paying any extra fees through your chosen payment method.
Even though you can only use Early Payout on individual orders, you don’t pay any more in fees than you would if you applied it to them all at once. For example, using Early Payout on 10 orders that each earn you $10 would incur 10 individual $0.10 fees. This would total $1, which is the same as 1% multiplied by the sum of the 10 orders ($100).
Fiverr Early Payout Example
Let’s say you complete an order for which you charged $30. The fee structure for Early Payout combined with a withdrawal through Payoneer could look like this:
- Fiverr takes a 20% cut of the $30
- You are therefore able to withdraw $24
- You pay 1% to withdraw it early through Early Payout = $0.24
- You then pay a $3 fee to withdraw your earnings through Bank Transfer
- You receive $24 – ($0.24 + $3) = $20.76
The 1% fee would be the same if you did 10 small withdrawals or one big one, but what would begin to add up and cost you more in the long run would be your chosen payment method’s withdrawal fees. If you use Bank Transfer every time, you’ll pay a $3 withdrawal fee, whereas if you use PayPal, you won’t pay any additional fees.
Note that you may need to factor in exchange rates too if you’re not withdrawing into a USD account, which can take the amount you actually receive down further. PayPal generally doesn’t have as good exchange rates as Wise or other payment processors, but unfortunately these are not available for use with Fiverr.
Want to know more about how to get the most out of Fiverr? Check out my ebook here.
Is Fiverr Early Payout Worth It?
Fiverr Early Payout is worth it if you complete a few high-value orders from time to time. If you complete lots of small orders, the 1% fee plus any withdrawal fees will begin to add up and make it not worth using.
If you only handle a few larger orders every now and then and need your money sooner, Fiverr Early Payout may be worth using, rather than waiting for the 14-day pending clearance period to end. This can be useful for those that make most of their money through Fiverr and rely on the funds for daily use. This can take a lot of the stress away of waiting long periods to withdraw any money.
But if you complete consistent orders on the platform, you may get to the point where you have funds freed up every few days from previous orders, and so you may not be in such a hurry to withdraw other earnings.
The question to ask yourself is essentially:
Can I survive without withdrawing my Fiverr earnings for 2 weeks?
If the answer is yes, there’s no real point in paying a 1% fee on top of the cut Fiverr already takes and any fees you need to pay for your chosen withdrawal method.
Final Thoughts
Fiverr Early Payout allows you to withdraw your earnings sooner, rather than wait the 7 to 14-day pending clearance period. It’s only available to eligible freelancers, and it can only be used on orders that were manually marked as complete.
For more information, check out our article on how Fiverr pays you.
Chris is the creator of Freelance Ready. He originally started freelancing (on Fiverr) while at university, writing and editing website content. He created this website to share his freelancing experience and help others on their own self-employed journeys. He is now a freelance SEO consultant and content editor. You can learn more about Chris here.
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