Finalising early throws away your shield
Finalising early, often shortened to FE, means releasing escrow to the vendor before your order arrives. It is occasionally requested for legitimate reasons, and it is also the single most common way buyers lose money.
Why vendors ask
Escrow ties up a vendor's cash flow until every order confirms. Established vendors sometimes ask trusted repeat buyers to FE to ease that. That is a real, if one-sided, reason.
Why you should almost never do it
The instant you finalise, the money is the vendor's and your dispute path is gone. If the order never arrives, you have no recourse. On an unproven vendor, FE converts a protected purchase into an unsecured gift.
Never finalise early on a new or unproven vendor, no matter the discount offered. The discount is the bait. Let escrow do the job it exists to do.
Last reviewed 2026-07-13.