Q:

What’s the highest amount of $$ you’ve had in your Preply or Italki account before withdrawing it to your PayPal, Stripe, Payoneer or bank account? I’m asking because I always let it accumulate before withdrawing my payment. I wonder if anyone has ever had any issues with ‘saving money’ in their Preply or iTalki account?

The most I have ever stored on a teaching platform is $1600. In hindsight I wouldn’t do that again. I now ALWAYS schedule to transferring money out sooner because Preply and iTalki are teaching platform service providers not insured banking institutions. 

In the event that any teaching platform will abruptly cease business there isn’t a guarantee that they would still be able to pay out all outstanding payments. Teaching platforms aren’t an insured bank. Your money is always going to be safer stored in a bank. Don’t even leave it on a platform or on PayPal or Venmo or other payment service provider either: bank it where it is insured. Borderless banks without brick and mortar are also an option. I use three Transferwise / Wise, Revolut and N26. I have another article comparing them and why I currently regularly use Wise to receive payments in multiple currencies and to save money on transfer fees. And why I use Revolut for daily purchases and how Revolut compares to using my credit card for purchases.

In summary: transfer your money out of the teaching platform and to your bank (traditional or borderless) at the end of a set period of time that you decide. Every 10 lessons, every week, every 2 weeks, monthly. It depends on your income as well as risk tolerance.

Only store on Preply (or elsewhere) what you can afford to lose.