1. How credits work
This policy is part of the Pro Agreement. It applies to pros.
- You buy credits in advance through Stripe. One credit is one dollar. A house cleaning, carpet cleaning or handyman lead costs $10 (10 credits). A lead in every other trade costs $30 (30 credits). The size of the job does not change the price. Current prices are on the pricing page. Founding pros enrolled before October 15, 2026 pay less on these leads until their founding period ends, as the Pro Agreement explains.
- Telling a homeowner you are interested is free, but you need a balance that covers the lead. Each lead shows its price first. You pay only when the homeowner taps Share my number for you: that amount comes from your balance at once (this is the unlock), you receive their contact details, and a later price change does not alter what you paid. If your balance is too low at that moment, nothing is shared or charged and we tell you to add credits.
- Your first pack is priced to cover one lead in your trade, and is never less than $10. Larger packs, some with bonus credit, are shown at checkout. There is no welcome credit for new pros.
- A lead is shared by default. A homeowner can share their details with up to 6 pros for the same request.
- Exclusive leads: when you say you are interested you may ask for the request exclusively, for $250 (250 credits). You can ask only while the homeowner has not shared their number with any pro, and your balance must cover that price. The homeowner still decides. If they tap Share my number for you, you are charged $250 and the request closes to every other pro at once. If they share with another pro first, your exclusive request can no longer be accepted and you are charged nothing. The founding discount does not apply to an exclusive lead.
- Bonus and referral credits are described below. Your credits page lists every purchase, unlock, and credit.
- Credits do not expire. They are not money: they cannot be transferred to another account, earn no interest, and are not redeemable for cash except as the refunds section below says.
We do not promise that a lead will reply to you, hire anyone, or become a job. The price of a lead pays for access to the request, not for a result. That is why the reasons below are about whether the lead was real and usable, not about whether you won the job.
2. Bonus and referral credits
These credits are credits and not cash. They are added to the same balance, they do not expire, and they have no cash value.
- First lead bonus: 2 credits, once, when you unlock your first lead within 48 hours of creating your pro account.
- Insurance bonus: 5 credits, once, when your insurance certificate is approved for the first time.
- Referral: when a pro you referred makes their first paid purchase, you and that pro each receive 5 credits. A pro can earn referral credits for up to 50 referrals.
Each bonus is given once, even if a payment is repeated or an event is processed twice. We do not give referral credits for a referral of yourself, of an account that shares your email address once variations such as dots and plus signs are ignored, or of an account created from the same network address as yours. We may withhold or take back bonus credits that were earned by misuse, and we may close accounts that abuse them. Bonus credits that were taken back or already spent on leads are not repaid.
3. Fake or unreachable leads
If a lead is fake or spam, or you tried the homeowner's phone number and email address and could not reach them, flag it within 72 hours of unlocking it by choosing "Fake or spam lead" or "Homeowner cannot be reached".
A person reviews every flag and decides it as the "How we decide" section explains. If it is approved, the price you paid for the lead goes back into your balance as credits.
After 72 hours you can still ask for a credit for these and the other reasons below, within 30 days of unlocking the lead.
4. When we will credit a lead
You can ask for a credit when you unlocked a lead and one of these is true:
| Reason | What it means |
|---|---|
| Contact details do not work | The email address bounced or is clearly not real, or the phone number is disconnected or not a working number, and you tried them. |
| Outside my service area | The job is in a place outside the service area on your profile. |
| Not the service I offer | The work asked for is not in the category you unlocked it under, or is not a service you offer. |
| Duplicate of another request | The same homeowner posted the same kind of job for the same ZIP code again, and you already unlocked or were charged for the other one. |
| Spam or fraud | The request is fake, abusive, or looks like a scam, for example a request made only to collect payment or personal details from pros. |
| A HireHelpers error | We made a mistake, for example the lead was unlocked after the homeowner had already closed the request, or you were charged the wrong amount. |
| Homeowner did not respond | You tried to reach the homeowner at least 3 times over at least 48 hours, by phone, text or email, and got no reply. You confirm this when you ask, and a person reviews the request. |
| Fake or spam lead | The request is clearly fake or spam. Flag it within 72 hours of unlocking. A person reviews the flag, and if it is approved the price goes back into your balance as credits. |
| Homeowner cannot be reached | You tried the phone number and email and could not reach the homeowner. Flag it within 72 hours of unlocking. A person reviews the flag, and if it is approved the price goes back into your balance as credits. |
For the duplicate reason we compare requests from the same homeowner, for the same kind of service and the same ZIP code, posted within 45 days of each other.
For the reason that the homeowner did not respond, you tell us that you made at least 3 attempts to reach the homeowner over at least 48 hours. We take your word for the attempts and a person decides the request.
5. What is not covered
We do not credit a lead because:
- the homeowner did not reply, changed their mind, is comparing several pros, or hired someone else;
- you gave a quote and did not win the job, or the homeowner disagreed with your price;
- the job was smaller, larger, or different from what you hoped, but still in the service and area you chose;
- the budget range the homeowner chose was a guide and not a promise of what they will spend;
- you did not try to contact the homeowner.
6. How to ask
Open the lead in your pro dashboard and choose "Request a credit" within 30 days of unlocking it. Pick one reason, add a short note of up to 1,000 characters saying what happened, and tell us whether you tried to contact the homeowner. For contact problems, say which phone number and email address you tried and what happened. We also ask you to contact the homeowner promptly after you unlock a lead. We send reminders, and how quickly pros respond can affect how soon we alert them to new requests.
You can ask once for each lead. Only the pro who unlocked a lead can ask about it, and you must have accepted the current Pro Agreement.
7. How we decide
When you send a request we run automatic checks. They look at whether the same homeowner posted a similar request within 45 days, whether the job is outside your service area, whether the homeowner had already closed the request or hired someone before you unlocked it, and whether the email address or phone number looks invalid.
A person decides every request, using your note and the results of the checks. A check that agrees with you does not approve a request by itself.
There is one exception. When 6 pros unlocked a lead and every one of them flagged it as spam or fraud (by choosing "Spam or fraud" or "Fake or spam lead"), all of their requests for that lead are approved at once. If we already turned down one of those requests, the exception does not apply and a person decides the rest.
We email you the decision. If we say no, we give the reason. We decide each request once. If you think we missed something, write to us and say what.
When we approve a request for spam or fraud, we may block that phone number from posting new requests. We keep only a one-way fingerprint of the number for that purpose.
8. What you receive
An approved request puts the price you paid for that lead back into your credit balance. It does not expire and is not cash. The credit and the reason are recorded in your credits page.
9. Refunds of money
A credited lead (above) goes back into your balance as credits, not money. Credit purchases are final, with these exceptions:
- if we end your account without cause, or you close your account, we refund on request the unspent credits you bought with money, as the Pro Agreement explains. Bonus credit, referral credit, and credits from approved requests have no cash value;
- if we charged you wrongly or made an error in a purchase, we will correct it;
- where the law requires a refund.
If a purchase is refunded or disputed with your card issuer, the matching credits are taken back from your balance, and a dispute also suspends your account while we review it.
10. Suspicious leads and misuse
If a lead looks like spam, a scam, or a request made only to collect payments or personal details from pros, choose "Spam or fraud" so we can look at it and help protect other pros. Tell us at once if someone asks you for money in advance or to pay through an unusual method.
Requests that are false or made in bad faith are denied and may lead to suspension under the Pro Agreement.
11. Changes
We may update this policy with the same notice as the Pro Agreement. A change does not apply to a credit request you made before it took effect. Questions: [email protected].