Learn why you’re seeing a “financial transactions are limited” message on Upwork and how to quickly fix billing issues, update payment methods, and remove account holds.
In this article
Why am I seeing a "financial transactions are limited" error message?
At times, we need to place a temporary hold on your account. We know this can be alarming, but rest assured in most cases it’s easy to resolve the issue quickly. If you’ve received the following error message, it means we need you to make an update to your account:
Financial transactions for Account Name (8-Digit #) have been limited
Usually, this hold happens when we try to charge your billing method but it fails. The quickest way to fix this is by adding a new billing method and paying any outstanding balance on your account.
Note:
When a contract is paused due to a hold on a company's account (like a temporary suspension for a failed credit card), the system may automatically add the company owner to the contract message room and post a “Contract Paused” message. You might see a note saying another team member added the owner and that the owner paused the contract — but both are system-generated actions. This is expected behavior.
Additional troubleshooting
If we placed a hold on your account, we also sent you an email to explain all the details and how to fix the issue. This email is likely sent from donotreply@upwork.com. Check your spam folder if you didn’t see it come in.
- If your card failed because it's expired, you can find more tips on fixing and preventing that here
- If you've read still uncertain as to why the charge failed, get more troubleshooting tips here
Tip: Consider adding an alternative billing method to your Upwork account — it works like a backup in case something happens to your preferred billing method. This way, you’ll have two sources of funds, which can help prevent future account issues like this one.