The whole policy in six lines. Ten per cent of every payment a referral makes, for twelve months from their first payment. Held thirty days in case the payment is refunded. Then payable. Paid once a month if you are at fifty dollars or more; under that it carries forward and is never lost. If a payment behind a commission is refunded, the commission goes with it. If it had already been paid to you, the amount is netted against your next payout rather than invoiced back to you.
1. How a commission is calculated
1.1 Ten per cent of the amount actually received from the referred member for their subscription, unless a different rate is shown on your own account page.
1.2 The base is what they paid after any discount or coupon, and excluding tax collected on the payment.
1.3 Each commission records the rate it was calculated at. If we change the programme rate, commissions already earned are untouched.
1.4 Amounts are calculated in whole cents and rounded to the nearest cent.
2. The twelve months
2.1 The earning window opens on the referred member’s first payment and runs for twelve months from that date.
2.2 Every qualifying payment inside the window earns. That includes renewals, and it includes an upgrade to a more expensive plan.
2.3 A payment after the window closes earns nothing, even if the member is still with us. Your account page shows the closing date for every referral.
2.4 If a referred member cancels and later resubscribes inside the window, payments after they come back earn again. If they resubscribe after the window has closed, they do not.
3. The thirty-day hold
3.1 A commission is created the moment the payment behind it is received, and is held for thirty days.
3.2 During the hold it appears on your account page marked on hold, with the date it clears. It is part of your balance and it is not yet payable.
3.3 At the end of the hold, if the payment has not been refunded, disputed or reversed, the commission becomes payable.
3.4 The hold exists because a refund a fortnight after a payment is ordinary, and paying commission on money we then give back would mean asking you for it later. Holding for thirty days means we almost never have to.
4. Reversals — inside the hold
4.1 If the payment is refunded, charged back, disputed or credited while the commission is still on hold, the commission is marked reversed and never becomes payable.
4.2 Nothing is taken from you, because nothing had become yours. Your balance simply does not include it.
4.3 You are told by email, with the reason.
5. Reversals — after the hold, or after payment
5.1 If the payment is refunded, charged back, disputed or credited after the hold has cleared — including after the commission has been paid to you — the commission is reversed and a negative entry for the same amount is written to your ledger.
5.2 That negative entry nets against your next payout. We do not invoice you, we do not ask you to send money back, and we do not take it from a bank account.
5.3 If the negative entry is larger than your next payout, the shortfall carries forward against the payout after that, and so on. It does not accrue interest and there is no penalty.
5.4 If your affiliate account closes while a negative balance is outstanding, we write it off. We do not pursue affiliates for reversed commission.
5.5 Every reversal stays on your ledger, marked as one. Reversed entries are never deleted, so the figures you were shown last month still add up this month.
6. Commission that is void rather than reversed
6.1 Commission on a referral that was not genuine — a signup through your own link, an account created to generate commission, a referral obtained in breach of the conduct rules — is void.
6.2 Void commission is recoverable whether or not it has been paid, and is netted the same way as a reversal.
6.3 We will tell you which referrals and why, before we void anything, and you may reply.
7. The fifty-dollar minimum
7.1 We pay an affiliate whose payable balance is fifty dollars or more on the pay date.
7.2 Below fifty dollars, the whole balance carries to the next month, and to every month after it, until it clears. It is never reduced, never expires and is never forfeited for inactivity.
7.3 Your account page always shows how far short you are, and you are emailed two days before a pay date you will not clear, so that the silence is not a mystery.
7.4 The minimum exists because a bank transfer of four dollars costs more to make than it is worth to receive. If your balance is genuinely stuck under the minimum and you want it out, write to support and we will pay it.
7.5 If the programme ends, or your affiliate account is closed by us other than for cause, the minimum is waived and everything payable is paid.
8. Pay dates
8.1 Payouts run on one nominated day of each month. The date is on your account page and in the email you get before it.
8.2 The run covers everything that was payable on the pay date. Commission that clears its hold the day after a pay date goes out on the next one.
8.3 ACH payments normally arrive one to three business days after the run. Credit against your own subscription is applied immediately.
8.4 A pay date falling on a weekend or a bank holiday may run on the next business day.
9. What holds a payout up
9.1 No payout details on file. Nothing can be paid to an account we do not have.
9.2 A required Form W-9 not received, where payment is by bank. Credit against your own subscription is not affected by this.
9.3 Your affiliate account paused while a question under the affiliate agreement is resolved.
9.4 In every one of these cases: the balance keeps accruing, you are told by email two days before the pay date which of them applies, and the money goes out on the next run once it is resolved.
10. Failed and returned payments
10.1 If an ACH payment fails or is returned, the amount goes straight back to your payable balance and the commissions behind it return to payable. Nothing is lost.
10.2 You are asked to check your details, and it goes out on the next run.
10.3 Where a bank charges us for a return caused by wrong details, that charge may be deducted from the balance. Where the failure was not your fault, it is not.
11. Statements
11.1 Every payout has a statement, on your account page, listing each commission it settled: the date, the masked referral, the payment it was taken from, the rate and the amount.
11.2 Statements print, and they do not change afterwards.
11.3 A statement is a record of commission paid. It is not a tax document; where US reporting applies, a Form 1099-NEC is issued separately for the calendar year.
12. Disputes
12.1 If a figure looks wrong, write to support with the date and the amount. We hold the click, the signup, the payment and the calculation behind every commission and will show you how the number was reached.
12.2 Raise it within ninety days of the commission appearing on your ledger. After that the records behind a disputed figure may no longer be available in the detail needed to settle it.
12.3 Where we have got it wrong, we correct it with an adjustment on your ledger that says what happened, and it goes out on the next run.