What is an escrow?

[LxiR]

Hi everyone, could you explain to me what is an escrow and in which situations I should use it? I'm french and I never heard this word before. Thanks for anybody's answers

[rikkie]

An escrow is someone who helps you to do a sell or buy of coins.
The one who sells for example BTC, send these BTC to the escrow.
The one who sells his LTC, send these LTC as well to the escrow.
And the escrow send them then to the other person.
It is to be sure that the deal betwoon two persons is correct.
It's best to use this service, when you know the other person not at all. What mostly is so.
There is a list on this forum with escrow with good reputation.

[MAsterV]

Escrow is referred to something that is held by a third party!

So imagine you get a loan, you will offer a collateral. If you don't want to give the directly collateral to the person, you can do a escrow. So a third person will hold the collateral. If u fulfill to pay back he will give back the collateral to you. If not then the person who gave you the loan will get the collateral.   

It is to be sure that the deal between two persons is secured and used when you don't trust/ know they person..

[LxiR]

Ok thanks guys. So I should use it when I'm loaning my coins to secure the transactions. I guess there are fees? Anyway thank you I'll look for this list.

[rikkie]

Ok thanks guys. So I should use it when I'm loaning my coins to secure the transactions. I guess there are fees? Anyway thank you I'll look for this list.

That depends of the escrow.
The fee is something you have to negotiate with the escrow you want the use.

[Amph]

an escrow, is a third trusted part(could be a trusted user on this forum, check them there are many that offer escrow service), that hold the funds until you want to release them

[specgamer]

When I first got into this, I didn't understand it either. So an escrow is essentially what happens when money is deposited by one person with a neutral third party so that it can be delivered to another party upon completion of an event. In the homebuying process, escrow opens when the buyer and seller sign a purchase agreement and the buyer puts down a deposit.
Hope this helps xD

[shorena]

Ok thanks guys. So I should use it when I'm loaning my coins to secure the transactions. I guess there are fees? Anyway thank you I'll look for this list.

In case of loans an escrow would usually hold the collateral for you. Since not only those that ask for loans could scam, but also those that appear to give loans.

Lets say you loan to Alice and use Bob as Escrow.

Alice would send the collateral to Bob.
Bob secures the collateral and informs you that they have received it.
You send the BTC to Alice.

scenario #1
After Alice paid her debt, you inform Bob and he returns the collateral to Alice.

scenario #2
Time passes but Alice does not paid her debt, Bob sends the collateral to you which is now yours to sell or keep, etc.

[uki]

Ok thanks guys. So I should use it when I'm loaning my coins to secure the transactions. I guess there are fees? Anyway thank you I'll look for this list.

Using an escrow is always a very good option, and worth few extra cents, especially when trading coins. Happened many times that people were scammed and having someone in the middle between buyer and seller, helps to mitigate that risk.

[LxiR]

Ok thanks everyone. Would you tell me to either go with a forum member or a specialized website?

[Reynaldo]

Ok thanks everyone. Would you tell me to either go with a forum member or a specialized website?

Forum member is the best chance, there's a trusted escrow list https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=108716.0

[CrackedLogic]

Ok thanks everyone. Would you tell me to either go with a forum member or a specialized website?

Forum is the ideal choice since members are more trusted than majority of the websites. Also look at this list by marcotheminer https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=855778.0