Google Pay was offering $21 for referring a friend and $21 to the new member. However, they’ve just lowered the referral bonus to just $1-$10 for the referrer and $1-$5 for the new member. They did remove the $10 spend requirement under the new referral offer – no minimum purchase/send now. Shows an expiration of 2/1/21 now. The referral limit remains at 3, as before. (Initially it had been 10, but was lowered down to 3 where it remains.)
Reader Caroline sent this in, and I’m seeing the same. Initially I was still seeing the $21 offer, but after closing out the app and reopening, I see it changed down.
Anyone who signed up before the moment of change (whenever exactly that was) should still get the $21/$21 bonus, even if you meet the requirement later. But if you signed up after the change I’d guess you’ll only get the $1-$10/$1-$5 bonus, even if you generated the link while it said $21. That’s just my guess. (Update: from reader comments it seems that those who are completing their qualification now are receiving the lower $1-$5 referral bonus for new member 🙁 )
Strangely, I can’t seem to find where they even say what the qualifications are to increase the bonus from $1 to $10 or from $1 to $5. I must be missing it in the terms somewhere.
No referral links in the comments
Google Pay referrals are back with new referral limit. Crappy referral offer though.
FEB 6-7 ONLY. $11 per referral when they spend (send) $10. Referral gets $5. Five referrals max.
I dunno wtf is going on but I received $10 cash back out of the blue today. It appears to be related to referrals but I shouldn’t be eligible. Whatever I’ll take it.
LOL received my $21 referral sign up bonus today. I already have 3x $21 from referrals under me.
Created account and sent $1 on December 15th
Stuck in forever processing.
Received $21 today on January 5th
Transaction history still shows processing but message history shows $1 sent.
So confused but I’m taking my $21 to the bank!
However this is not a good showing to send money via checking and Google Pay. Probably worst method ever.
A day or two later, everything is shown as sent/complete/paid.
WTF! I signed up when this was $21 and I just completed paying someone $10.02 and google pay only gave me $3, so same experience as people below.
yeah, I got $1.50 🙁
Any idea what is the customer care number? I didn’t find it on their site. All they have is email but they are not at all responding on emails. TIA.
That being said, don’t hold your breath on getting any actual help once they do call you back.
thanks RM! that helped.
I activated the referral offer when it was $21 but I got $2 referral bonus… uninstalled the app after I transferred $2.
same thing my friend pay me the money on the 17th
i received the money today but the referral promotion expired
I referred P2 and although I think we initially screwed up by not enrolling her in rewards before she sent a payment to me, she subsequently enrolled and made a $10 payment on an Android phone. Unless I am missing something, this should qualify us for the bonus (which was $21 at the time), but we never received. I’ve reached out to Google support but based on DPs here, it sounds like they won’t be of any help. I am wondering, would CFPB be an option for those of us who qualified for the bonus but didn’t receive?
I think the biggest problem with this offer is it is from Google. Google is greedy, corrupt, and will take advantage of any opportunity to cheat you.
I signed up when the referral offer was $21, but could only send my first payment recently because Google made me send in a copy of my state ID card and a selfie to verify my account. They made me do this twice because apparently the first picture of my ID was too blurry. Now, I find that I only received $2 for my sign up rather than $21.
At least I was able to refer P2, who then referred P3 and we were able to get $21 for all those referrals and sign ups. Also, I was able to max out my referrals from the Doc thread, and we all took advantage of the Target deal. Thanks for the delay, Google! Not too confident in this app so far. They should have at least honored the $21 deal for those who signed up under it. Total bait and switch scam.
I’m in the same boat. Still hopeful that someone there will realize the issue and uplift the bonus for those who signed up while it was still $21.
Google is going to get sued over this. What a legal and marketing own goal!
Oh bummer, so it’s not an oversight, it’s an official decision