What's an escrow account?
Here's what we mean by "escrow account" on Malt.
To ensure that freelancers get paid quickly after a project has been completed, Malt requires most clients (with the exception of Malt Corporate customers) to pre-pay project fees before work begins. This also gives freelancers added peace of mind, knowing that they'll be guaranteed payment at a project's completion.
Therefore, once a project's fees have been prepaid, those funds are placed in a secure escrow account and do not ever leave that account until the project has been marked complete (by the client)—at which point the funds are released to the freelancer's bank account.
Freeze and un-freeze funds
Here's another way of looking at how our escrow account works.
Our payment partner, MangoPay, takes the prepaid project fees and "freezes" them in a neutral account—neither belonging to Malt nor the freelancer—until the project has been marked complete by the client.
Marking the project complete automatically "un-freezes" the funds, allowing our payment partner to release them to the freelancer's bank account.