The phrase people rely on most and read most broadly. What it covers is real and narrower than the word suggests.
- What it literally says
- Your money is being held against this order rather than sitting with the vendor or with you.
- What it actually means
- The funding key is split across buyer, vendor and platform, and funds move when two of the three sign. In normal completion the buyer and vendor sign and the platform key never appears.
- What it does not mean
- That your money is safe. It means the platform cannot move it alone. A vendor who does not ship, a compromised account of yours, anything paid outside it, and any balance not committed to an order are all untouched.
- What to do
- Nothing, while the delivery window is open. This state is the normal one.
- If it looks different
- A suggestion to settle outside escrow, for any reason, is the one message that removes every protection on this page at once.
CommonEvery order
Needs actionNone
Warning signAny offer to bypass it
What it covers and what it does not
| Situation | Covered? |
|---|---|
| The platform vanishing with escrowed funds | Yes. Doing that needs a majority of vendors to sign away their own money, which is the point of the arrangement. |
| A vendor who does not ship | No. That is a dispute, decided on evidence. |
| Your own account compromised | No. Whoever holds it signs as you. |
| Anything paid outside escrow | No. There is no mechanism, and this is the only unrecoverable case here. |
| A balance not committed to an order | No. Escrow governs orders, and a balance has no order attached. |
| What you actually receive | No. It decides when money moves and has no opinion on goods. |
Five of six rows say no. The one that says yes covers the risk people worry about most and encounter least, which is why the phrase feels broader than it is. The mechanism itself is covered in two of three.
The phrase used against you
Escrow is having problems, so pay direct. That sentence pairs a reason to hurry with a reason to bypass, which is the whole method in one line. It is covered on its own page in pay direct, because it is the single most expensive phrase in this book.