Help Centre

Escrow payments with Escrow.com

Protect buyers and sellers of expensive items. Escrow.com holds the buyer's money until the item has arrived and been accepted.

With Escrow.com, the buyer’s money is held by a licensed escrow company until the buyer has received the item and accepted it. Only then is the seller paid. It removes the biggest worry in high-value deals between strangers, which makes it popular on marketplaces for vehicles, machinery, boats and domain names.

Yclas connects each sale on your marketplace to an Escrow.com transaction. Buyers and sellers each use their own Escrow.com account. Escrow payments are part of the Marketplace plan.

If you want card payments with a hold on the money but without sending everyone to Escrow.com, look at the Stripe escrow flow instead.

Before you switch it on

  • Every member needs an Escrow.com account. While Escrow is on, members are sent to their profile to connect Escrow.com before they can post a listing, and buyers need it to confirm delivery.
  • Payments are in US dollars. Escrow transactions are always created in USD, whatever your site’s currency.
  • The seller pays the Escrow.com fee. It is taken from the seller’s side of each transaction.
  • Buyers must register on your site to pay with Escrow.

Switch it on

  1. Go to Add-ons and click Escrow.
  2. Tick Enable Escrow.
  3. To try it out first, tick Sandbox: transactions then go to Escrow.com’s test environment, and members must connect test accounts from escrow-sandbox.com.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Make sure the Price field is on in Listings › Settings › Form fields.

Listings with a price now show a Buy Now button, and checkout offers Pay with Escrow.

How members connect

  1. The member goes to Edit profile. An Escrow Pay box asks them to connect.
  2. They create an Escrow.com account (Create an Escrow account.) and an API key in Escrow.com’s API settings (Create an API key.).
  3. They enter their Escrow email and API Key and save.

Yclas checks the details with Escrow.com and shows Escrow connected.

How a sale works

  1. The buyer clicks Buy Now on a listing, then Pay with Escrow at checkout.
  2. They’re taken to Escrow.com to review the transaction, sign in and pay. Escrow.com secures the money.
  3. Back on your site, the order is confirmed once Escrow.com reports the payment as secured. If the buyer paid by wire transfer and the money arrives later, they click Mark as paid on the order in My Payments to check again.
  4. The seller ships the item and clicks Mark as shipped in My Sales.
  5. When it arrives, the buyer clicks Mark as received in My Payments.
  6. The buyer has an inspection period of three days to check the item and accept it on Escrow.com. Escrow.com then pays the seller.

On the Nova theme, My Sales appears in the account menu only when PayPal’s Buy Now button or Stripe Connect is also on. If you use Escrow alone, tell sellers they can open it at /oc-panel/profile/sales on your site.

The order appears in your Orders as Buy product with the payment method Escrow.

The money itself is handled by Escrow.com, under its own rules for disputes and returns. On your site, buyers can still report a problem with an Escrow order, and, if you switched returns on, ask for a return. Because the money is with Escrow.com, you can’t refund the buyer or pay the seller from the dispute: settle it on Escrow.com, then close the dispute without a payment change. For a return, the seller refunds the buyer through Escrow.com and then confirms it on your site.

Settings reference

Setting What it does
Enable Escrow Turns Escrow payments on for listings with a price, and asks every member to connect Escrow.com.
Sandbox Uses Escrow.com’s test environment. Untick it before going live.

Updated 20 October 2026 · Suggest an edit