Escrow Terms

Videoster offers two different ways a brand deal is paid, and which one applies is decided entirely by the creator's own account country — not by choice, and not negotiable per project.

Escrow (payment held, then released) is available only when the creator's account country is the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, or a European Economic Area country (the EU's 27 member states, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway).

Every other country — including most of Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world — is direct pay, not escrow. For those creators, the brand's payment goes straight to the creator's own account at the time of payment. Videoster never holds, and never has custody of, that money at any point. This is a real limit of the underlying payment infrastructure we use, not a preference — we state it here plainly rather than leave it to be discovered mid-deal.

Which of the two applies to a specific creator is shown on that creator's own page and in the brief form before a brand ever sends a brief — never only after a deal is agreed.

For an escrow-eligible creator, the brand's payment is captured into Videoster's own account balance, not the creator's. The creator cannot withdraw that money yet — it genuinely is not in their account.

Once the creator marks the work delivered, the brand can review and approve it. Payment is released to the creator when either: the brand approves, or 7 days pass from the delivery notice with no objection from the brand. If the brand raises a concern before either of those happens, release is paused and the matter is reviewed manually before any money moves — it is not decided automatically.

For every other creator, the brand's payment is charged directly to the creator's own connected account at the moment of payment. Our commission (see Terms) is deducted from that same charge. There is no holding period and nothing for Videoster to release, because the money never passed through us in the first place.

Escrow deals: because the initial charge lands in Videoster's own account balance, a chargeback filed with the brand's card issuer during the holding period is a dispute against Videoster's own account, and we handle it directly using the real project record (messages, delivery timestamps, approval status) as evidence. If a chargeback is filed after the money has already been released to the creator, Videoster may seek reimbursement of the released amount from that creator.

Direct-pay deals: because payment goes straight to the creator's own account, the creator is the seller of record for that charge and is responsible for handling any refund request or chargeback related to it, the same as they would be for any other charge to their own account.

Escrow is not a guarantee that a creator's work meets a brand's expectations, and it is not insurance against every possible dispute. It controls one specific thing: when money moves from Videoster's balance to the creator's. Everything else about a deal — scope, revisions, the working relationship — is between the creator and the brand, conducted through the workspace we provide.

This page was written directly by Videoster to describe, plainly and specifically, what our payment system actually does — including where it does not apply. It is not drafted by outside counsel, and it deliberately avoids promising protection we cannot actually deliver for the majority of our creators, who are outside the escrow-eligible countries listed above.

support@videoster.com