Hello!!
Today we celebrate our 10th anniversary! It has been 10 years already since the first release of Yclas (formerly Open Classifieds).
Wow, a lot has happened and I could never have imagined how far things would go.
Today we have a great announcement that probably should have happened a lot earlier. ;)
We introduce Escrow.com payments!!
With Escrow payments, you will be adding a lot of extra security for the buyers and sellers of your marketplace platform by delegating this task to Escrow.com.
How does it work?
1. A seller posts an item. Like a guitar. The seller needs to have an Escrow.com account.
2. Buyer buys the guitar by paying to Escrow.com.
3. The buyer receives the item and marks the item as received.
4. The funds go from escrow.com to the seller.
Escrow.com payments on a Yclas site in 2026: setup, real costs and scam checks
The self-hosted 3.7.0 release mentioned below no longer exists, because Yclas is now a hosted platform only. Escrow.com payments did ship, and they are a built-in integration of every hosted Yclas site (see the features page). Here is how it works today and when it makes sense.
How to turn it on
- In your admin panel, go to Integrations > Escrow, tick Enable Escrow and save. A Sandbox option lets you test against Escrow.com's test environment first.
- Make sure the Price field is active for listings. Listings with a price then show a Buy Now button with a Pay with Escrow option.
- Every seller needs their own Escrow.com account and connects it from their profile. Buyers must be registered members of your site and also need an Escrow.com account.
- Transactions are always created in US dollars, whatever your site's currency, with a 3-day inspection period for the buyer, and the seller pays the Escrow.com fee. Full details are in the Yclas escrow guide.
What it costs your sellers
These are the general merchandise fees in US dollars on Escrow.com's fee calculator (checked October 2026):
| Transaction amount | Escrow.com fee |
|---|---|
| $0 - $5,000 | 2.6% ($50 minimum) |
| $5,000 - $50,000 | 2.4% ($130 minimum) |
| $50,000 - $200,000 | 1.9% ($1,200 minimum) |
| Paid by card or PayPal (under $5,000) | an extra 3.05% on top |
| Wire transfer to a buyer outside the US | an extra $25 for intermediary bank fees |
The minimum matters most. On a $1,000 guitar, 2.6% would be $26, but the seller pays the $50 minimum, which is 5% of the price. The percentage only beats the minimum from about $1,920 upwards. Escrow therefore fits marketplaces for high-value items such as vehicles, machinery, boats, musical instruments, domains and collectibles. For cheap items, a featured-listing or membership model with ordinary card payments is usually a better fit.
Teach your users to spot fake escrow sites
Scammers often send buyers to fake escrow websites. Escrow.com's fraud prevention page lists the warning signs, including:
- a site that claims to be affiliated with Escrow.com, or claims recommendations from eBay, eBay Motors or Yahoo! Auctions
- a domain registered only weeks or months ago
- requests to pay by Western Union or another person-to-person transfer
- unusually low fees, poor spelling and grammar, or no way to reach support by phone
The real company is Internet Escrow Services, Inc., which holds California escrow licence #9631867 from the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, among its state licences. Add one rule to your site's safety page: buyers should only pay through the escrow checkout started from your site, or by typing escrow.com into the browser themselves, and never through a link sent by a seller.
This feature will be available for Yclas Self-hosted 3.7.0 soon! so... wait for it ;)
