Reward Hold Periods: How Long to Hold User Earnings

What is a hold period on a rewards site?

A hold period is the time between a reward being credited to a user and that reward becoming available to cash out. It exists because an offerwall can take back a credited result later, for example after fraud or a refund, and once the user has cashed out, that money is usually gone. A good hold is long enough to cover the window when most reversals arrive, and short enough that honest users do not feel cheated. Most sites tier it by account age, amount, and offer type rather than using one number for everyone.

Why hold rewards at all?

Two problems meet at the cashout button.

• Reversals arrive after the credit. A result can be credited today and reversed days or weeks later. On Sharklio, the offer lifecycle docs say a task is usually final within 3 days while proof is reviewed, a dispute can add a few more days, and an advertiser can reverse an offer step up to 30 days after it was credited. Other offer sources have their own windows. Publisher earnings and reversals explains how a reversal reaches you and your balance.
• Fraud tries to exit fast. Someone running several accounts or fake completions wants the money out before anyone notices. A hold gives your fraud checks and the offerwall’s checks time to work. Stop multi-accounting and VPN abuse covers the signals to look for.

Without a hold, every reversal on a reward that was already paid out is a direct loss. With a hold, the reversal simply cancels a reward that never left your site.

Pending at the offerwall vs on hold with you

Users see one word, “pending”, for two different things. Keep them apart in your own system:

Showing these three states answers most “where is my reward?” questions before they become tickets. Handling missing reward tickets covers the ones that still arrive.

Tiered holds: by trust, amount, and offer type

One long hold for everyone protects you, but it punishes your best users and makes new users wait for their first cashout. Tiers put the waiting where the risk is.

Set the length from your own reversal data

The right hold is a number you can measure. For every reversal, record how many days passed between the credit and the reversal. After a few hundred results you can see where reversals bunch up.

• Find the window that matters. If nearly all reversals for a type of offer arrive within 10 days, a 30-day hold on it mostly annoys users.
• Compare loss with friction. A day of hold that prevents almost no reversals is not worth the support tickets it creates.
• Review every quarter. Offer mix, traffic sources, and fraud patterns change, so the right hold changes too.

How postback statuses drive a hold

The cleanest way to run holds is to give every reward a row in a ledger with its own status and a release date, instead of adding straight to one balance number. Sharklio’s signed postbacks fit that model, because every event of one completion carries the same {transaction_id}:

Two more macros help with tiers. {offer_type} is task or offer, so you can apply a longer hold to offers that can be reversed later. {payout} is what you earn in US dollars, which is a steadier input for amount tiers than your own currency. A small job that runs every few minutes moves rows whose release date has passed from on hold to available.

reward_ledger
  transaction_id  primary key
  user_id
  reward          your currency
  offer_type      task or offer
  state           pending | held | available | rejected | reversed
  credited_at
  release_at      credited_at + hold from your rules

Credit only once per transaction and verify every postback signature. Postback security has a complete handler.

Tell users about holds before they earn

A hold users understand is a feature. A hold they discover at cashout is a broken promise. Make it visible in four places:

1. Your terms. State that new earnings may be held, the general length, and that reversed rewards are taken back.
2. The earn page. One line near the offerwall, such as “New rewards are usually available within 2 to 7 days.”
3. The balance screen. Separate pending, on hold, and available, and show a release date on every held reward.
4. A notification on release. “Your 500 points are now available to cash out” turns the wait into a reason to come back.

Explain why in plain words: holds protect honest users, because fraud that goes unchecked eventually means lower rewards for everyone. Avoid wording that promises a fixed date you cannot keep, and never move the goalposts for a reward already on hold.

Holds and cashouts work together

Holds decide when a reward can be withdrawn. Cashout rules decide how: minimums, a manual review of first cashouts, and checks on payout accounts shared between users. Rewards site payout methods covers those rules and the risk of each method, so you can set longer holds for methods that cannot be reversed, such as gift card codes, and shorter ones where you have more recourse. If you are still planning the whole site, How to start a rewards website shows where holds fit among the other launch steps.

Frequently asked questions