Glossary
Plain terms, explained.
Escrow has a small vocabulary of its own. Here is what each word means the way FairBank Escrow uses it, so nothing on the site is a mystery.
- Submission
- Your side of a deal. You fill out the form with your details, the deal type, a description, the value, and the counterparty's email. Submitting does not cost anything and does not commit any funds.
- Matching
- How two submissions become one deal. When both parties submit and name each other, taking opposite sides as one buyer and one seller, we link them into a single deal.
- Reference number
- The code you get when you submit, for example FB.4002. Your reference number plus the email you submitted with is how you look up a deal and prove you are a party to it. Keep it somewhere safe.
- Counterparty
- The other party in your deal. If you are the buyer, the seller is your counterparty, and the other way around. You name their email when you submit.
- Escrow
- Holding funds with a neutral third party until the terms of a deal are met. FairBank Escrow is that third party; the money sits apart from the deal and only moves when the deal calls for it.
- Funded
- The status once the buyer has sent the funds and FairBank Escrow has confirmed they arrived. From this point the money is held in escrow, visible to both parties but not withdrawable by either.
- Verified
- The status once the terms both parties described have been met and FairBank Escrow has confirmed it. The deal is cleared for release, but the money has not moved yet.
- Pending review
- The status while a reviewer gives a cleared deal a final check before any funds move. It is a deliberate gate, so nothing is released by accident.
- Release
- Sending the held funds to the seller once a reviewer approves. A release settles a normal deal and is recorded in the deal history with the time it happened.
- Refund
- Returning the held funds to the buyer instead of releasing to the seller. A refund is one of the two outcomes a reviewer can decide when a dispute is settled.
- Dispute
- A formal disagreement raised by either party while funds are held. Opening a dispute pauses the deal; both sides add evidence, and a reviewer decides a release or a refund.
- Reviewer
- A member of FairBank Escrow staff who checks a deal before a release and who settles a dispute. A real person is accountable for every release and every dispute outcome.