Stop sending your bank details in DMs.

The short answer.

Your payment details don't belong in chat threads because chats are permanent, forwardable and readable by whoever compromises either inbox later. The fix isn't typing more carefully, it's giving your details one access-controlled home: a password-gated page you share at the moment of payment. That's free to set up with Folio's Pay-Me and it takes about two minutes.

You know the moment.

The project's done, the client's happy, and now there's this pause. You type the IBAN, double-check two digits that always look wrong, add "no rush!" against your own interest and hit send. A twenty-something string of characters, floating in a thread between a meme and a logo revision. It works, technically. It also feels off, and that feeling has three good reasons behind it.

Reason one: chats leak.

A DM feels private because it's quiet, not because it's secure. Threads get screenshotted and forwarded. Old accounts get compromised years later with every conversation intact. Group chats grow members who were never meant to see the finance part. Once your details are in a chat, you don't control where they go next, and unlike a password you can't rotate your IBAN.

Reason two: threads get hijacked.

The most expensive fraud in freelancing isn't hacking, it's editing. A scammer gets into an email account, watches a payment conversation and swaps the bank details at the last moment. The client pays the "updated" account in good faith and the money is gone. It works precisely because payment details routinely travel through chat, so one more message with an account number surprises nobody. Details living on a gated page you control, instead of loose in threads, removes the surface this scam needs.

Reason three: it undercuts you.

This one's about money you don't get. You quoted confidently, delivered professionally, and then the payment step arrives as a bare string pasted into chat, the visual equivalent of a crumpled receipt. Clients notice the seams. When the ask looks improvised, following up feels like begging, which is a big part of why around 85% of freelancers report getting paid late. The ask should happen by design, not by awkward message.

The two-minute fix.

1. 1

   Put your details behind a password

   Add your methods, bank, PayPal, Wise, Revolut, to Pay-Me on your Folio page. They're encrypted and never shown publicly.

2. 2

   Send the link, not the details

   When it's time to get paid, the client gets your folio.link and the password. The same link that showed them your work now handles the money moment.

3. 3

   They pay you directly

   The client unlocks the page, picks a method and pays you. No processor, no fee, you keep 100%, and nothing sensitive sits in the thread afterwards.

The side effect nobody expects: the money conversation stops feeling cringe. "Details are on my page, password is bloom" reads like a business process. An IBAN in a bubble reads like a favor.

Questions