The Offer
- Refer 6 or more people and earn a $150 Amazon gift card
The Fine Print
Update: They have updated the terms for this referral bonus to remove the first 100 customers aspect, it also looks like this is recurring offer that happens every month.
This offer is valid to the first 100 customers only- Gift cards will be awarded one week after the end of October
- Unsure if this is a recurring promotion or regularly runs
Our Verdict
Considering it’s now the 25th of October, this promotion is almost certainly over for this month. I’m not sure if this is a one off promotion or it’s offered every month. Personally I hate promotions like this, because there is no way to tell if the company is actually paying anything or not. It could be very easy for Credit Sesame to say they are giving out $15,000 in gift cards but very hard for consumers to check.
This promotion would be a lot better and I’d encourage people to try and refer their friends and family if the promotion updated after 100 participants had referred 6 or more people. I think Credit Sesame is a pretty good product offering, you can view my full review by clicking here. They are also the only free credit monitoring site currently offering free identity theft protection and insurance. It’s also important to remember that Credit Sesame offers a FAKO score rather than a FICO score (which is what the majority of lenders).
That being said, this promo wrecks of sleazy marketing (they know the majority of consumers won’t read the fine print) and misleads consumers. Let’s hope Credit Sesame ups their game and decides to run a more honest and open promotion in the future. It’ll be interesting to see if any of the other credit monitoring sites follow suit and offer similar referral programs.
What are your thoughts? Will you try to be one of the first 100? Are you somebody who always reads the fine print or would you be easily mislead by a promotion such as this?
Disclaimer: I receive a very small commission if somebody uses my Credit Sesame link. I have not included it in this post as I think the company is being misleading. I’ve reached out to Credit Sesame with my concerns and depending on their response I will update my review according and remove the affiliate links.
This looks to be done with. From the website:
Invite Your Friends to Credit Sesame
Our November Invite a Friend promotion has ended. Thanks to everybody that participated!
If you got 6 successful referrals in November, you will receive your gift card
within 14 days of getting the 6th referral.
Seems to be valid all month with no limits… Here is the FINE PRINT from2 minutes ago….
* Invite a Friend promotion rules:
If 6 or more of your referrals complete registration with Credit Sesame, then you will receive a $150 Amazon gift card which will be sent to your registered email address within 7 days. You are eligible for one $150 Amazon gift card a month. Your referrals must register using the referral link provided, as we are unable to count a referral if it’s not made through your referral link.
This promotion is valid for the month of November, 2014.
Yup, they changed the terms.
This does work. I know people that got the gift code, it’s now good till November 30th and I don’t think there is a limit.
This month’s offer does not seem to have a limit.
Although I got the offer by email, so I don’t know if it is targeted.
Limited quantity promotions is the name of the game these days. Amex Sync, which bloggers love, is a perfect example. Attractive limited quantity offers drive customer mind share but they are capped thereby making them affordable highly effective marketing campaigns. I agree though that this is very nontransparent and first 100 is a pretty low number, making it pretty unattainable. It’s also very unethical if they continue to publicize the offer to drive business even if it’s become clear it can no longer be met.
The difference with AmEx offers is that it doesn’t let you enroll unless you’ll actually receive the reward. I don’t mind capped offers as long as they are transparent.