Ordering Your Free Gift - Account Verification.

Once you have accumulated the required number of credits for your free gift, you can then order your gift from your referrals site. Before your free gift is sent out to you however, your account must first go through a process of verification. This is to ensure that all offers successfully completed by yourself, and by your referrals, were done so according to the terms and conditions of the offer and also the terms and conditions of your referrals site.

Your account may be checked for such things as improperly completed offers; duplicate names/email addresses/home addresses; more than one account registered at the same address; or for any other signs of fraudulent activity (see the Terms and Conditions of your referrals site). This process usually takes about a week, although this is dependent on your referrals site, and in some cases it can take up to a month.

If you, or any of your referrals, are found to have broken any of the rules at this stage, then your offer may be reversed, your account may be put on hold, or your account may be removed from the site altogether. If any of these things happen, on many sites you will see one of the following symbols appear next the offending email address, once the verification process is complete:

Or the following, in the case of an offer reversal:

Why Credits Are Reversed And How To Avoid It.

In most instances of credit reverals, it is the case that you, or some of your referrals have not completed the offer according to the terms and conditions. This happens most commonly with the Lovefilm free trial, since it is the most popular offer completed on referrals sites. In many instances, people do not realise that they are required to start receiving DVDs as a condition of the offer, and simply sign up for the free trial then cancel it, without receiving DVDs. The credit is granted initially, however Lovefilm are very strict with the conditions of their offer and report back to the referrals sites with lists of people who have not completed the trial properly. When the referrals site receives these lists, they then take action to reverse the credit originally assigned. It is important therefore, to fully explain the conditions of the offer to your referral before they sign up.

In most cases, improper completion of an offer will simply result in having the credit reversed, requiring another offer to be completed. On some sites however, e.g. Consolegrab, the account will be removed if the offer is not completed according to the conditions of the offer.

When ordering your gift, therefore, it is not uncommon to build the exact number of credits required for your free gift, then to have a couple of credits reversed, resulting in a shortfall in the required number of credits for your free gift. We would suggest to aim at least a couple of credits higher than your target to avoid any disappointment when it comes to ordering your gift. Otherwise, you could simply wait to see if any offers are reversed, then top up your credits accordingly.

What Happens Once You Place Your Order?

Once you have met all of the requirements of your referrals site (i.e. your account has been successfully verified and you have the required number of credits), you can then go about placing your order. Before you do this, you will be given the opportunity to confirm/change your postal address. Once you have confirmed your details, you can then submit your order.

Your order will go through a 'processing' stage, the length of which varies from site to site, but this usually takes around a week on average.

Once this is complete, your item will be despatched, and your account status will change to show that your free gift is on it's way. At this stage, your gift should reach you within a week, though it may be with you as soon as the next day, depending on the courier used by your referrals site. Consolegrab, for example, ship using Royal Mail Special Delivery, which guarantees your item will arrive the next day.