Refer a Friend — Program Rules

What has been paid so far

Paid to referrers so far: $0. The first rewards are released 60 days after a friend's first payment.

CYDEO adds $25 to its scholarship seat fund for every enrollment through a personal link.

Who can refer

You can refer a friend if you have at least one CYDEO enrollment, either as a current student or as a graduate, and your account is in good standing. You are not eligible while you are opted out of the program, if your enrollment was ended for cause, or once you have reached the annual limit described below. CYDEO staff and mentors are welcome to send people to us and are tracked like anyone else, but they are not paid a cash reward.

Who counts as a referred friend

The person you refer has to be new to CYDEO: no prior CYDEO enrollment, no prior payment to CYDEO, and no previous count as a referred friend under any code, at any time. Their email address and phone number must also be different from yours. One reward is paid per referred person, for life, across every code and every program — so a friend who was already referred by someone else cannot be referred again.

Your friend's discount

Your friend's discount is applied at checkout when they open your link or type your code. On a plan paid monthly the discount is spread evenly across the installments rather than taken off the first payment, so a share of it comes off every payment of the plan. Your friend's discount and your reward are separate things with separate timing: they receive theirs the moment they enroll, and yours follows the release rule below.

When a reward is released

We release a referral reward 60 days after your friend's first successful payment, provided your friend is current on payments on that day and no refund, chargeback, dispute or withdrawal has been recorded against their enrollment. We check this daily against our own payment records rather than waiting to be told. Rewards are paid by hand after that check, so allow time for the payment run.

What voids a referral

A referral is voided by a refund, a chargeback, a dispute, or a withdrawal from the program, and by a failed installment that is not cured within 30 days. If the reward had already been released, the void is recorded as a reversal against it rather than by deleting the original record, so the history of what happened stays readable. A voided referral can be reinstated only if the underlying payment problem is resolved.

You cannot refer yourself

A referral is never paid to the person who redeemed it. We compare the friend's email address, phone number and payment account against the referrer's, and a match means the referral is rejected outright rather than held for review. Creating a second account, a second email address or a second payment method to use your own code does not work and costs you your eligibility.

How many referrals count in a year

There is no cap. Every qualified referral earns the reward, across every program and every code you hold, and nothing resets in January. The one thing that changes with volume is paperwork: United States tax law makes us report rewards once they pass the federal reporting threshold for one person in a calendar year, so we ask for a tax form before the first payout and issue the reporting form when that line is crossed.

Where you live changes the offer

The state you live in decides what we are allowed to give you, and we record it when your code is issued. In California we may thank you only with a non-cash gift of modest value, no more than one in a calendar year, so a referrer there receives a gift rather than cash. In New York we cannot pay a referral reward unless the referrer is a salaried employee, so no reward is issued there. Everywhere else the reward is cash. You are told which of these applies to you before you share your link, not after you claim.

We pay referrers, and we say so

CYDEO pays you a cash reward when a referral qualifies, and every page and message we write says so in plain words. Your friend is told, before they enroll, that you receive money from CYDEO if they do. We state it that way because the law requires the disclosure and because calling something an affiliate link tells a reader nothing. At payout you may send your reward to the CYDEO scholarship fund instead of taking it yourself; it costs us the same either way.