FreePay (formerly Gratis Network & freeipod.com) was a great service. Basically being one of the only free iPod sites that actually worked. The concept was simple: Complete one offer, get 5 other people to start the same process (by completing one offer) and bam, you got your free iPod.

It was so much better than most the other sites, as all those others make it impossibly difficult to fully complete. In those cases you have to go though 4 separate pages of offers. Complete 2 on this page, complete 2 on this page, complete 2 on this page, complete 6 on this page. This is where they nailed you, as each page shared many of the same offer, so if you completed the offer on the first page, you couldn't complete the same offer on the second page. And by the time you get to the 4th page, there are only 10 or so total offers, and most likely you have already completed 4 or 5 of those offers already, and most the other offers are hard to qualify for.

FreePay was so much better because you could actually achieve the requirements. So much so that to date they have given out over $20 million in free products (though the main page says over $14 million, there is a more current FAQ page that lists over $19 million).


However, you may have noticed this post in relation to FreePay uses past tense. That's because as of March 1st, the requirements have been increased in such a way that it will drastically cut the number of free iPods (and other products) given out. You see, as of March 1st, FreePay requires you to meet ALL requirements within 90 days from (assumably) the first day you meet the first requirement (ie the day you are credited for completing your first offer). I had no doubt when I started the process I would be able to reach the goal. Now I have nothing but doubt.

As of now you can see (assuming my deadline hasn't passed at the time you read this) that there are free iPod ads on many pages on this site. Those are here solely because I am trying to fulfill my requirements. Needing 5 people to complete offers by the end of the year would require less than 1% of my visitors to click my ads and start the process. Now I require about 5% to do so within the next two months or so. So far nobody has even signed up under my ad links (as of now they have been up for about a week)...


Unfortunetly, some of their offers can take literally up to 75 days to fulfill. This is because credit card offers say they can take up to a month (some more) to run a credit check and send you your card. Then the offer states you (or your referral) has 30 days to complete a purchase. THEN their rules state it can take up to 15 days to process the offer.

This 75 days assumes there are no problems or other time factors in this process. You see, it assumes the credit card company processes the payback at the time the customer's first purchase is completed. It also assumes the referral doesn't encounter a problem with the offer. If either of these things come into play, and if either (or both) these things add more than 2 weeks to the day count, it literally would become IMPOSSIBLE for that referral to meet the 90 day requirement. This would mean that even if the referral signed up and applied the same day you posted the link, they would not fulfill one of your requirements.

Besides that, even the best case scenario, it will take at least 30 days for the requirements to be met. So if you have a referral sign up 60 days after you start your process, and they choose the credit card, you will NOT meet the requirements in time.

The above scenario doesn't in fact take into account that FreePay may use their own rules to their advantage. You see, if I get someone to sign up and complete an offer 2 weeks before my deadline, FreePay can actively decide to take the full 15 days to credit the referral (since their rules clearly state not to contact them if 15 days has not passed). This means if they credit the referral on the 15th day, oh well, I'm out everything I've done.


All of this leaves out 2 points. Their rules do state it can take "AT LEAST" 15 days (their words). So I can take more. Once more it does state 15 "BUSINESS" days. Meaning the days work out to a total of 21 days or 3 WEEKS (not the 2 weeks I used in the scenarios above).


In other words, the requirements have now become extremely difficult to fulfill. And now FreePay (without question) will drastically cut the number of free products they will ship.


Now it's interesting to note: The iPod I'm going for requires 5 offers to be completed. Some of their other offers require many more, as many as 12 I believe. So 5 in 90 days is difficult. 12 is beyond difficult...


Why would they do this. I have a theory. It's safe to assume (as I said above) they have surpassed the $20 million dollars worth of free products shipped. I'm assuming they had a target goal of around this value, after which they would choose to implement the cutoff that would reduce the number of free products shipped to increase profits... Oh well is about all I can say...

They would state that I signed up for an offer and that if all I got was what I applied for, it should have been something I wanted anyway. But the thing they leave out of this is that you do take another hit. You see, according to an article linked from FreePay (which I can't seem to find now), upon signing up for the service the media outlet reported getting massive amounts of spam. Granted they would have gotten some anyway, but it's safe to assume the information you submit to FreePay is likely sold. And even if you use a throw away email address, remember they also get your address. So in reality if you complete a deal for a service you do want, and you knew you couldn't fulfill the requirements for the iPod, you would be better off not going to the site directly...

Now, is it still possible? Sure... No longer likely though. I'm still hoping I can fulfill the requirements in time. And if you're reading this, please use my link and try for your free iPod.