Why deposits and withdrawals aren't available

Two things people often look for on the Wallet page do not exist, and are not coming back in their old form:

• You cannot add money to your wallet. There is no top-up by card, bank transfer or PayPal.
• You cannot withdraw money from your wallet. There are no payouts, to any destination, for anyone.

This article explains what that means in practice, because it changes how buying and selling work.

You do not need a balance to buy anything

This is the part that trips people up. You do not pre-fund your wallet before making a purchase. You pay at checkout, using the payment method agreed for that deal.

So if you are looking for the deposit button because you think you need a balance before you can buy, you do not — you can go straight to checkout. See Paying for Your Purchase.

What a balance can be used for

A balance you already hold can be:

• Spent on Silky Road, for example on a listing package or paying a seller for an agreed deal.
• Transferred to another Silky Road member. That is the only way balance moves off your own account, and it stays on the platform.

See Your wallet balance and transaction history.

Getting paid as a seller

If you sell something and are paid through your wallet, you receive Silky Road balance, which you can spend on Silky Road. Those proceeds do not reach a bank account, a PayPal account or a card, because no payout route exists.

It is worth agreeing with your buyer, before the deal, how you want to be paid — see Adding, changing and removing payment methods for what you can advertise on a listing.

Verification does not unlock withdrawals

If you are completing identity verification because you believe it will let you cash out, that is not the case. There is nothing to unlock — payouts do not exist for verified or unverified accounts alike. Verification is useful for other reasons, covered in the Trust & Safety articles.

Bank details

Silky Road does not collect bank account or routing numbers, and there is no place to add them. If anything or anyone asks you for bank details in connection with a Silky Road payout, treat it as fraudulent and report it.

Old pending deposits and withdrawals

If your transaction history shows an old deposit or withdrawal sitting on pending, it is left over from the removed features and will never complete. Do not keep waiting for it.

• An old pending deposit: no money was taken from you.
• An old pending withdrawal: contact support with the date and amount, as your balance may have been reduced. This one is worth raising rather than ignoring.

What happens to a balance in future

The wallet is a temporary feature that is being phased out. If you are holding a balance and want to know what will happen to it, contact support rather than relying on anything you read elsewhere — that is a policy question and the answer should come from us directly.