Escrow terms

1Who holds the money

Milestone funds are held by Stripe, a regulated payment provider, using Stripe Connect, including its managed payouts and separate-charges flows. INFINITY ADSTARS GROUP LTD instructs movements; it never takes custody of client funds.

INFINITY ADSTARS GROUP LTD is not a bank and does not provide banking, credit, deposit-taking, payment-institution or investment services. Milestone funds are held by Stripe, our regulated payment provider. They are not bank deposits and are not covered by any deposit guarantee or compensation scheme.

This is also why funds cannot be released early as a favour to either side, and why a refund arrives on the provider's timetable rather than ours.

2The sequence

• —Fund — the client funds a milestone. The amount is held by the payment provider and is not available to the specialist.
• —Work — the specialist delivers against the scope in the signed contract. A specialist can see that a milestone is funded before starting.
• —Approve — the client reviews the deliverable against that scope and either approves it or requests changes.
• —Release — on approval, funds release to the specialist and the platform commission is deducted at that moment.

No milestone may begin before it is funded, and nothing releases on a timer without the client's review.

3Cancellation and refunds

• —A milestone that has been funded but not started may be cancelled by agreement, and the funds are returned to the client.
• —No commission is taken on a cancelled or refunded milestone.
• —Where work has begun, cancellation is agreed between the parties or determined through the dispute process; a partial release may be appropriate.
• —Refunds are instructed to the payment provider once the cancellation or dispute outcome is recorded. Arrival depends on the original payment method and the provider's processing times.

4Partial release

A milestone may be released in part where the parties agree, or where a dispute outcome determines it. The remainder is refunded or, by agreement, carried to a re-scoped milestone.

Commission is charged only on the amount actually released.

5While a dispute is open

• —The milestone is frozen immediately on filing. Funds neither release to the specialist nor return to the client until the outcome is recorded.
• —Both parties may submit evidence within the stated window. The project record — deliverables, chat, files, approvals — is itself evidence.
• —The decision is made against the signed milestone scope, and it may release, split or refund.
• —The decision and its reasoning are recorded on the project and are visible to both parties.

The full procedure is in the Dispute resolution section of the Complaints and disputes document.

6Chargebacks and reversals

• —A payment reversed by the client's card issuer or bank is handled by the payment provider under its rules, which sit outside these terms.
• —Where funds have already released, a reversal may be recovered from the specialist, and the account may be suspended pending resolution.
• —Initiating a chargeback in place of the dispute process is a breach of the Terms of service, because it removes the evidence-based decision both parties agreed to.

7Currency and availability

Escrow funding and payouts are available where our payment provider supports both the client and the specialist involved. Availability, currency and payout method are confirmed before a milestone is funded or accepted, not afterwards.

Currency conversion, where it applies, is performed by the payment provider at its rates and is shown before confirmation.

8Dormant and unclaimed funds

Where a specialist has not completed payout onboarding, released funds are held by the payment provider until they do. We will contact the specialist at the address on the account.

Funds that remain unclaimed are dealt with under the payment provider's rules and applicable law. They are not absorbed by INFINITY ADSTARS GROUP LTD.