PoDLancer Fees and Charges

Projects

PoDLancer is free to sign up, post a project, receive bids from PoDLancers, review the PoDLancer's portfolio and discuss the project requirements. If you choose to award the project, and the PoDLancer accepts, we charge you a small project fee relative to the value of the selected bid, as an introduction fee (as detailed in the table below).

The cost and how this fee is charged depends on the type of project and membership plan

Hourly Projects are only charged the percentage rates shown above, not the Naira/Dollar amount. Full-time Projects are only charged the above fees once the project value exceeds N200k ($1,000).

For fixed price projects, the fee is levied at the time a project that has been awarded by you has been accepted by each PoDLancer you award. If you subsequently pay the PoDLancer more than the original bid amount we will also charge the project fee on any overage payments.

For hourly projects, the fee is levied on each payment as it is made to the PoDLancer.

You may cancel the project from your dashboard at any time for up to seven (7) days after the project has been accepted for a full refund of your fee.

Optional project upgrades may be purchased.

Contests

At the time of posting a contest, employers must provide funds equivalent to the total contest prize. We have a Money Back Guarantee for this prize money.

The Money Back Guarantee entitles you to get your money back for up to 30 days from contest closing if you are not happy with the submitted entries. You can get refunded simply by contacting support.

Note that refunds are not available on 'Guaranteed contests', and this refund does not include any upgrades that you may have selected for the contest. If you've already selected an entry as the winner and completed the contest handover, which has released the prize money to them, you are not eligible for a refund.

There is no contest fee for posting and awarding the contest for employers.

Each additional awarded entry will also require payment of the prize for that entry.

Optional contest upgrades may be purchased.

Services

At the time of ordering a service, employers must provide funds equivalent to the total service price. The payment is protected by the PoDLancer Milestone Escrow Payment System (MEPS). Only release the payment once you are 100% happy with the work that has been delivered.

For PoDLancers

PoDLancer is free to sign up, create a profile, select skills of projects you are interested in, upload a portfolio, receive project notifications, discuss project details with the employer, bid on projects (free members receive initially 10 bids per month) and enter contests.

Optional bid upgrades may be purchased to promote a bid.

Projects

For fixed price projects, if you are awarded a project, and you accept, we charge you a small project fee relative to the value of the selected bid, as an introduction fee. If you are subsequently paid more than the original bid amount, we will also charge the project fee on any overage payments.

For hourly projects, the fee is levied on each payment as it is made by the employer to you.

Hourly Projects are only charged the percentage rates shown above, not the Naira/Dollar amount. Full-time Projects are only charged the above fees once the project value exceeds N200k ($1,000).

Contests

Submitting entries to a contest is free. Contest fees applies for being awarded a contest prize. This fee is charged when the prize is released, which is after contest has been awarded to you and the handover of entry materials has been completed to the contest poster's satisfaction.

Services

Submitting a listing to PoDLancer Service is free. If you are subsequently hired to perform that Service a fee of 20% of the total service price is charged. This is charged when the service is ordered by way of a deduction from the payment you receive.

Preferred PoDLancer Program

If you are in the Preferred PoDLancer Program, you will be charged 15% project fee when you are awarded and accept a Recruiter project. This will not be charged upfront, like on regular projects, but rather when the milestones are released to you.

Refunds as Bonus Credit

In some instances, refund of fees may be done as bonus tokens. This bonus may only be used on site, and cannot be withdrawn or transferred. The bonus will expire in 90 days from the date of receipt.

Membership Plans

Select from a range of membership plans to determine the fees you pay for our service. You can work on the site as either an employer or PoDLancer as a free member, or gain additional benefits as a paid member by upgrading to a paid plan.

Memberships will recur on a monthly basis on the anniversary of your subscription, unless cancelled. If funds are insufficient we will try to renew your membership for up to 30 days, until funds are made available.

You may cancel your membership at any time from the membership upgrade page, which will cease billing at the end of your subscription period without additional costs.

* You will be charged whichever is greater.

Other Fees

Projects

The following fees are optionally charged for additional services. Unless otherwise specified according to the benefits of a paid membership plan:

Contests

The following fees are optionally charged for additional services. Unless otherwise specified according to the benefits of a paid membership plan:

Bid Fees

Contest Entry Fees

Directory Fees

Exams

Transaction Fees

Arbitration Fees

The arbitration fee for a milestone dispute is $5.00 USD or 5%, whichever is greater.

Our dispute resolution system is designed to allow both parties to resolve issues regarding milestone payments amongst themselves without arbitration.

After 4 days of a dispute being filed (or 7 days if the dispute is filed by the Freelancer) either party may elect to move the dispute to paid arbitration. The other party will then have a further 4 days to agree to pay this fee and for both parties to submit any final evidence. If the other party fails to pay within time, they will lose the dispute.

The arbitration fee will then be refunded to the winner of the dispute.

Withdrawal Fees

Fees may be optionally levied depending on the method of withdrawal. Additional fees may be levied by the third party offering the withdrawal method.

We impose a minimum withdrawal, after fees, of N10,000 or USD $50.

Maintenance Fee

User Accounts that have not logged in for six months will incur a maintenance fee of up to N2,500 ($10) per month until either the account is terminated or reactivated for storage, bandwidth, support and management costs of providing hosting of the user's profile, portfolio storage, listing in directories, provision of the EngageMe service, file storage and message storage. These fees will be refunded upon request by users on subsequent reactivation.

Taxes

Nigerian residents are subject to VAT of 5%. Other government taxes may apply, depending on your region.

User Agreement

The fees and charges summarised on this page are governed by the terms of the PoDLancer User Agreement and related site policies. The User Agreement includes other important terms and should be read in full. In particular the User Agreement specifies the consequences of termination for violations of the User Agreement. Those consequences can include fines for damages that PoDLancer will sustain as a result of actions that breach the User Agreement.