Questions people actually ask

When a client hires someone, they fund the contract — the money is charged to them and held by our payment provider. It is not ours and it is not the freelancer's. It is released when the client approves the delivered work, or when a dispute is decided. Neither party can move it on their own.

A flat 10% of the contract value, taken from the freelancer's side when the payment is released. Clients pay no fee at all — you fund the contract for exactly the amount you agreed. There is no subscription, no listing fee, and no charge to withdraw earnings. If a contract is refunded in full, we take nothing.

Payouts are released once the client approves the work. We usually send the transfer within one working day, and South African EFTs typically clear the same or next day — but transfers are executed by our payment provider and the banks, so we cannot guarantee a settlement time.

The usual reasons are that you have not added bank details yet, or you have added them but not confirmed the account number — we hold the first payout until you have typed the number a second time, because an EFT to a valid-but-wrong account cannot be reversed. Occasionally a payout is queued because our own float is short; if that happens you will get a notification and it goes out as soon as it clears.

Yes, and it is your own responsibility. Freelancers on Talent Bridge are independent contractors, not employees. We do not deduct PAYE, we are not your employer, and we do not issue an IRP5. Keep your own records and talk to a tax practitioner about provisional tax and whether you need to register for VAT.

No. Bidding is sealed — only the client sees the numbers. This is deliberate: an open board turns every job into a race to the bottom, and the freelancer who wins that race usually resents the job.

Request changes, with notes. The contract goes back to in-progress and the money stays in escrow. There is no fixed limit on rounds. If you genuinely cannot agree, raise a dispute.

Raise a dispute. The money is already in escrow, so it is not a question of whether they will pay — it is a question of who the amount belongs to. We read the brief, the delivery and the messages between you, and we decide: refund, release, or split it.

Reviews stay sealed until both sides have written one, or fourteen days pass — whichever comes first. If you could read yours before writing theirs, the second review would be a reply, and the ratings would stop meaning anything.

That we have seen a government-issued identity document and the name on it matched the name on the profile. It is a check on identity, not on skill, honesty or solvency — a verified freelancer can still do bad work. It is optional and free.

No. Escrow, the dispute process and every protection we offer exist only for work that happens on Talent Bridge. Off the platform there is no money held, no record of what was agreed, and nothing we can do to help. Saving 10% is not worth the rest of it, and in our experience the people keenest to pay off-platform are the ones least likely to pay at all.

There is a Report button on every job, profile and message. Choose a reason, add a sentence if you want to, and it goes into the moderation queue. A person reads every report.

Only in two situations: when the contract that thread belongs to is in dispute, and when a specific message has been reported. That limit is enforced by the database itself, not by an internal policy, and the access ends the moment the dispute is resolved.

Yes. One account can do both — plenty of people hire a designer one month and take on writing work the next. Turn the second role on from Settings.

From Privacy & data. It deletes your profile, portfolio, messages, identity document and bank details. Financial records of completed contracts are retained where the law requires, and reviews you wrote about other people stay on their profiles, anonymised. You cannot delete an account with money still in escrow.

You cannot post jobs, submit proposals or send messages, and you are told the reason. Suspension does not touch money already in escrow — if work has been approved, the payout is still released. Withholding earnings is a dispute outcome, never a punishment.