Ashlin Snell was struggling with high bank fees and inconvenient payment cut-off dates when withdrawing his earnings from Upwork to Kotak Mahindra Bank. Since switching to Karbon Business, he’s enjoying better conversion rates, faster payouts, and a completely reliable payment process.
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Ashlin Snell was struggling with high bank fees and inconvenient payment cut-off dates when withdrawing his earnings from Upwork to Kotak Mahindra Bank. Since switching to Karbon Business, he’s enjoying better conversion rates, faster payouts, and a completely reliable payment process.
Ashlin has over 6 years of experience in customer service and has completed multiple long-term projects on Upwork. He specializes in building relationships, resolving issues efficiently, and managing customer interactions using tools like Zendesk, Salesforce CRM, Twak.to, Shopify, and Google Sheets.
He has successfully delivered 250+ projects across platforms including Upwork and Fiverr, with project fees ranging from $1,000 to $2,000.
Ashlin was facing two major problems with Kotak Bank:
1. Cut-off time
Ashlin said Kotak’s strict payment cut-off times often delayed his withdrawals. The cut-off is the bank’s daily deadline—anything that comes after gets pushed to the next working day.
He usually withdrew funds from Upwork at the end of the month and expected them to arrive in 2–3 days.
That timing was critical for planning both personal and business expenses and for paying tools and subscriptions he needed to deliver client projects. But since Upwork controlled the release, his funds often missed the cut-off.
As a result, he couldn’t pay for tools on time, and service interruptions sometimes hurt his client work.
Even when he planned properly to withdraw a week earlier, too many unpredictable factors got in the way: Upwork’s schedule, intermediary banks, weekends, and Kotak’s deadlines. At times, the bank even rejected transfers, and he had to reinitiate them and wait longer.
2. High fees
Along with delays, Ashlin also lost a big part of his hard-earned money to fees. Kotak charged him for both currency conversion and transfer costs (roughly 0.5–1% plus $50–$100 in SWIFT fees per payout).
For a freelancer who worked day and night to deliver quality projects, giving away such a significant amount on every withdrawal felt unfair.
Ashlin has over 6 years of experience in customer service and has completed multiple long-term projects on Upwork. He specializes in building relationships, resolving issues efficiently, and managing customer interactions using tools like Zendesk, Salesforce CRM, Twak.to, Shopify, and Google Sheets.
He has successfully delivered 250+ projects across platforms including Upwork and Fiverr, with project fees ranging from $1,000 to $2,000.
Ashlin was facing two major problems with Kotak Bank:
1. Cut-off time
Ashlin said Kotak’s strict payment cut-off times often delayed his withdrawals. The cut-off is the bank’s daily deadline—anything that comes after gets pushed to the next working day.
He usually withdrew funds from Upwork at the end of the month and expected them to arrive in 2–3 days.
That timing was critical for planning both personal and business expenses and for paying tools and subscriptions he needed to deliver client projects. But since Upwork controlled the release, his funds often missed the cut-off.
As a result, he couldn’t pay for tools on time, and service interruptions sometimes hurt his client work.
Even when he planned properly to withdraw a week earlier, too many unpredictable factors got in the way: Upwork’s schedule, intermediary banks, weekends, and Kotak’s deadlines. At times, the bank even rejected transfers, and he had to reinitiate them and wait longer.
2. High fees
Along with delays, Ashlin also lost a big part of his hard-earned money to fees. Kotak charged him for both currency conversion and transfer costs (roughly 0.5–1% plus $50–$100 in SWIFT fees per payout).
For a freelancer who worked day and night to deliver quality projects, giving away such a significant amount on every withdrawal felt unfair.
Discovering Karbon
Ashlin wanted a solution to both problems—the delays from cut-off times and the high fees. He found Karbon Business through Google and got in touch with our Business Development Manager.The team explained that Karbon solved both problems by providing a virtual multicurrency account that receives payments directly from Upwork, so Ashlin no longer had to worry about bank cut-off delays.
The platform also offered a transparent flat 1% fee with mid-market exchange rates, which reduced costs compared to traditional banks, letting him retain more of his earnings.After speaking with our team, Ashlin set up his virtual multicurrency account.
Karbon shared an account number with him, which he linked directly to Upwork (just like he had done earlier with his Kotak account).
What Ashlin has to say:
“Everything has been working well so far. There are no significant issues to report. The overall experience has been smooth and reliable.”
Since switching to Karbon, he never had to wait more than two days for a payment. All his transfers went through without the repeated rejections and unclear delays he faced earlier.
Ashlin has experienced measurable improvements:
Looking Ahead
With Karbon, Ashlin can focus on delivering excellent customer service on Upwork without worrying about bank fees or delayed payments. The platform has given him confidence that his earnings are secure, timely, and maximized.