Referral programme rules

1. How it is calculated

Anyone who signs up with your referral code or referral link becomes one of your referred merchants. Every single location they activate for real from then on becomes one of your referred locations - a location whose referrer is you is your referred location. For each paid review at a referred location you receive a commission, for life. One level only. Section 4 explains how the commission is set. “For life” means that a location being your referred location never expires with time: for as long as that location keeps generating paid reviews on this service, the reward keeps coming to you. Commission is worked out at the rate published at the time the reward is earned; see “These rules may change” if the rules change, and rewards already added to your withdrawable balance are not affected.

2. Referred locations are tied to the Google location

A referred location is tied to the Google Business location, not to an account. Whose referred location it is, is fixed the moment a location is activated for real and normally does not change afterwards - whose account it later sits in, or whether the merchant switches accounts, makes no difference. We may adjust it where we find a mistake, a dispute or abuse. An existing account cannot be attached to an upline after the fact.

3. First top-up bonus

Every account may additionally receive bonus credits on its first top-up, once per account, whether or not anyone referred them; the exact rate is the one shown on the top-up page. If the account signed up through your link, you receive a first top-up reward as well, at the rate shown in the Promotion tab of the merchant centre, into your reward balance - that one takes 30 days before it becomes available to withdraw; clause 6 explains why. Refunds are calculated at the price you actually paid per credit; bonus credits have no cash value.

4. How the commission rate is set

Your rate is never below 30% and currently never above 40%. It is worked out each week from your contribution score: rate = 30% + contribution score × 0.1 percentage points. The score is out of 100, which currently puts the ceiling at 40%. 30% is a floor: whatever your score, and however these rules change later, your rate never falls below 30% for as long as this programme runs.

Two terms used below:
Active location - a location that spent at least US$15 in real credits last week.
Referred active promoter - a registered member who signed up with your referral code, became a promoter, and whose referred locations together spent at least US$90 in real credits last week. A promoter does not have to be a merchant and does not need any location of their own.

The score is worked out from last week’s figures and is the sum of three parts:
(a) Of your referred locations, those that were active last week: 2 points each, up to 30.
(b) Total real spending last week across all your referred locations: 1 point per US$20, up to 40.
(c) Referred active promoters last week: 5 points each, up to 30.

The rate is updated every Monday at 00:00 server time, and that week’s commission is worked out at the updated rate. Rewards already counted towards your withdrawable balance are not affected by the latest commission rate.

Your current rate and the three parts of your score are shown in the Promotion tab of the merchant centre.

5. Payouts

Apart from the first top-up bonus, rewards count towards your available balance as soon as they are earned. Once you reach the minimum balance you may request a payout, and we send the money within 3-5 business days of receiving the request. Payouts convert at US$0.10 per credit, so 1,000 credits = US$100. Transfer fees are borne by the payee: Zelle within the US is free, PayPal is deducted from that payout at cost.

6. When you get the money

Credits you earn from paid reviews at your referred locations can be withdrawn straight away, and we pay within 3-5 business days.

Credits from the first top-up bonus wait 30 days. The reason: if that top-up was paid with a stolen card, the cardholder usually only notices after the next statement, and once the money has gone out we cannot get it back. So what we are waiting for is the card statement cycle; we are not holding it back on purpose.

7. Chargebacks and refunds

If a referred merchant charges back or is refunded, the matching reward is deducted from your balance. The balance may go negative and is offset against your future rewards. If the account is closed while the balance is still negative, we reserve the right to recover it.

8. Tax

If your payouts from this site add up to no more than US$2,000 in a calendar year, you do not need to give us any tax paperwork. Above that, US tax law requires us to ask you to sign a separate Form W-9, and early the following year we send you a Form 1099 to help you file your taxes. The name on the payout account has to match the name on the form, and please keep your contact details up to date.

9. You are an independent promoter, not our employee

You take part in this programme as an independent individual. You are not an employee, agent or partner of this service. You have no authority to collect any payment on our behalf, and no authority to make promises on our behalf. Merchants top up by themselves, on this website, through Square - never take cash or a bank transfer on our behalf, under any circumstances.

How much anyone earns depends entirely on how much their referred merchants actually spend on this service, and we guarantee no income at all. You must also not make any income promise or earnings claim to anyone. Do not tell anyone that they are sure to earn a given amount or to make their money back within a given time, do not use your own earnings to recruit, and never use false claims.

If you break this section we will cancel the rewards involved and close your account, and any loss this causes the merchant is yours to bear.

10. What does not count

In any of the following cases we may withdraw your promoter status, zero out every reward you still hold and close the account; we are also entitled to recover anything already paid out and reserve the right to pursue legal remedies. Any loss caused to a merchant along the way is yours to bear:

1. Fabricated businesses, activating live locations with listings that are not yours, bulk account creation, and anything else plainly aimed at extracting rewards.

2. Posting reviews from a test location. A test location is there to show a merchant what the product does. A review posted from one has to come from a customer; if it comes from you it is a fake review, the terms of service forbid it, and the consequences land on the merchant’s own Google Business Profile.

11. These rules may change

We may change or end this programme, and the commission ceiling and the contribution score formula - the points, the caps and the thresholds - may change too, but your rate will never fall below the 30% floor in section 4. Any change that works against you will be announced in your merchant centre inbox in advance, with the date it takes effect, and applies only to rewards earned after that date; rewards already counted towards your available balance will still be paid. Continuing to take part once a change takes effect means you accept it, and you do not need to confirm again; if you do not accept it, you may leave the programme at any time.

12. Who may take part and receive rewards

By taking part in the programme, or by requesting a payout, you declare that you have reached the age at which, under the laws of the country or region where you live, you can enter into a contract on your own, and that those laws allow you to receive this reward. Laws differ from place to place; the ones that apply are your own. If we find, or have reasonable grounds to believe, that you do not meet them, we may stop paying out rewards not yet settled and close the account.