Refer a Friend Trading 101

I've played quite a bit of SWTOR over the years since beta, and the Refer a Friend program is essentially a Cartel Coin Printing Machine.
Why give EA money for microtransactions when you can use the referral system to bank millions upon millions of credits and thousands upon thousands of Cartel Coins?

Introduction

The purpose of this Guide

Among the SWTOR Community, RaF traders are nearly as disliked as gold sellers, and for good reason. The Refer a Friend system is a broken mess, and it is often used to scam new players.

Most experienced players know about Refer a Friend trading, but very few understand how it works.

The purpose of this guide is to take away the mystery surrounding the system and to explain how it can be used to turn a profit without resorting to scams and deception.

If you don't already know what the Refer a Friend system is, skip to the bottom and read one of the other guides linked below!

Setting Expectations

Just for reference, I have done ~400 of these trades over the years.
I'm lazy, so whenever I subscribe I usually spend a couple of afternoons watching netflix and posting referral adverts in chat.

I can do anywhere from 5-15 trades in the span of a few hours idling around.

I did a rough estimate a while back and iirc, I've pulled in ~ 3.7 billion credits since I started.
Since I pay out ~50% of that, my actual earnings are ~ 1.85 billion credits.

I don't tend to keep a lot of credits on-hand. I currently have maybe 200 mil in creds and hot GTN items stashed away and ~10k CC. I mostly log in to play space barbie these days, so I tend to spend a lot on cosmetics. I'm not always loaded, but if I ever find an item I want, I know that I can pull in the Credits or CC for it in 2 days max.

I'm not a GTN mogul. This is not an operation that requires skill beyond a willingness to talk to people. Even that is pretty easy because I use a script and copy/paste all the answers to the frequent questions I see.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle you will face is the constant, justifiable, distrust.
Players will assume the worst about you, and it'll be up to you to prove them wrong.

I do all my trades on my main. I like the transparency of a recognizable name. Unfortunately, I've had a bunch of cool people block me over the years because they saw me posting referral adverts.

The Basics

Be a Subscriber

Sorry to say, but you can't refer anyone unless you are currently subscribed.

You'll need to first subscribe to the game, and then navigate to the Refer a Friend[account.swtor.com] page on the SWTOR website.

Once you arrive, you will find a link to copy. Your referral link is unique to your account, and it never changes. Go ahead and Paste it into a notepad file or something so you'll always have it available.

Scrape together some starter credits

In order to pay a fair rate, you'll want to do dailies or something until you have ~10-15 mil.
Just make sure you have enough to pay for one or two trades.

Create your Advertisement

Mine looks like this:

• WTT credits to a Sub who uses my Refer a Friend link! ~You get +7 days Sub time, and a bunch of goodies! ~I pay 10 mil creds if this is your first time using a link, and 2 mil if you haven't used one in 90 days!

The details are important here. I tried to include the "terms and conditions" to avoid confusion or anger later on. The offer is for subscribers only because you don't actually get any rewards otherwise. The rewards you get are bigger for first timers, so thats why you pay more for them!

You'll want to update your prices! Mine are from nearly a year ago, and I doubt they reflect a fair market rate.

Post Your Advert in Chat!

• DO NOT SPAM CHAT
  
• DO NOT POST YOUR REFERRAL LINK IN THE PUBLIC CHAT

Both of the above are seen as rude and can get you into trouble. Keep your referral links to private chats with your interested clients.

Just to make sure I've been clear, you can post your advertisement in General or Trade chat, but you should NEVER directly post your referral link outside of private/group chats.

There are a few places to do your trades.

• Fleet - High Response Volume, mostly trolling, many old subscribers.
  
• Class Starter Worlds - High Response Volume, mostly from confused freemium players.
  
• Capital Worlds - Medium Response Volume, some trolling. many fresh subscribers.
  
• Other- Low Response Volume, waste of time.

In my experience, the best place to do trades is from your stronghold on one of the Capital worlds.
Dromund Kaas has a lively chat, and even at its most toxic, you'll see a decent number of responses to your adverts.

I've found that in my timezone, the early to mid afternoon has been the best time to advertise. from 3-6pm has always been my best business. After 9pm trades tend to slow down to nearly zero, and I get a lot more trolls. You'll need to experiment a bit to find what works for your server.

Someone Responded, now what?

This is a breakdown of a typical trade interaction from my stronghold. You may need to adjust a bit if you are trading elsewhere.

• Ask - "Are you currently Subscribed?"
  
• Ask - "Have you ever used a Referral Link before?"
  
• Send Party Invite
  
• Answer any questions - (Refer to Client FAQ below)
  
• Open your Cartel Shop - Check your CC total
  
• Send referral link privately via Whisper or Group Chat
  
• Say -"Type this into your browser, and accept my account as your referrer."
  
• Say - "Once I confirm, I'll send you a stronghold invite so we can trade."
  
• Confirm how many CC have arrived in your wallet
  
• Send Stronghold Invite
  
• Pay your Client based on how many Cartel Coins you received

Confirmation

If you receive 600cc - Pay the full offered amount (in this case 10 million credits)

If you receive 100cc - Pay the smaller amount (in this case 2 million credits)

If you do not see any new Cartel Coins, go through troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting

If your client has done everything correctly, the Cartel Coins should appear instantly.
These are the questions to ask your client if the Cartel Coins do not arrive as expected.

• "Did the website give you an error?"
  
• "Did you enter the link correctly? its case sensitive!"
  
• "Did you remember to log in on the SWTOR website?"
  
• "Did you hit accept on the referral screen?"
  
• "What was the account name it asked you to accept?"
  
• "What are the first 3 letters of your account name?"

Sometimes the website just won't cooperate for a few minutes. You can only ask the client to wait and try again in these instances.

If the client actually opened your link, they will have seen your account name. If they don't know it, or give the wrong name, then they probably typed your link wrong, or didn't type it at all.

You can log into the website and manually check to see if the user has accepted your link, by asking for their account name or a few letters from it. If you don't see them listed, then they haven't accepted your referral.

Even if you see the client's name listed on the website, don't payout any credits until you confirm the Cartel Coins are in your wallet. The website is buggy and usually can't tell you if the player is a subscriber, or if they have used a referral link before.

The GTN

Once you have some cartel coins you are going to want to turn those into credits so you can do more trades!

I usually just sell Cartel Packs and Hypercrates. These items are safe sellers.
You can earn more by playing the market, but that takes a lot more work, and you incur a lot more risk.

Buy whatever you can afford with your new Cartel Coins, and once the 36 hour timer runs out you can sell it all for a tidy profit.

Client FAQ

This is a list of common questions I get from clients and my usual answers

Q1: I'm not actively subscribed, can I still use your link?

A1: Yes, but you'll just get the 7 days of game time, and I can't offer any credits.

Q2: I'm a Free Player, can I still use your link?

A2: It won't do any good unless you subscribe.

Q3: What do you get out of this?

A3: I get cartel coins, which I generally spend on items I can auction for credits.

Q4: I've used a link before, do I still get the 7 days of premium?

A4: Yes, as long as it has been at least 90 days since you last used a link.

Q5: I saw a guy offering 400 billion credits, why are you so cheap?

A5: People can offer a lot more credits if they don't ever plan to pay you.

At my last calculation, I was pulling in about 20 million credits per 600cc I was awarded. My payout is 10 million. That means I'm splitting my profits 50/50 with each person who uses the link. Seems fair to me.

Ask yourself what the Cartel Coins are worth. If they are offering more than that, the chances are good that they don't plan to pay you.

Q6: Can you pay half upfront?

A6: Sorry, but no. I understand why you would ask. Its a reasonable request, but I do these trades a lot, and I can't afford that amount of risk accumulated across dozens of trades every day. To be blunt, If you get scammed, you still have 7 days of game time to show for it. If I get scammed, I get nothing.

Q7: Is this a scam?

A7: No. The system doesn't have a safety net though, so if you don't trust me I won't be offended.

Q8: How do I know this isn't a scam?

A8: You don't. Again, I understand if you don't want to trust me.

Calculating a Fair Payout

Ok, so I've told you that I was paying 10 million credits per click, but that was back around Christmas 2019!

So how do you find out what you should be paying now?

Cartel Item	Cartel Market Buy Price (CC)	GTN Sell Price (Creds)	Creds per Cartel Coin
Hypercrate: Ultimate Cartel Pack	5400 CC	220,000,000 Cr	40,740 Cr
Ultimate Cartel Pack	200 CC	8,700,000 Cr	43,500 Cr
Species Unlock: Nautolan	600 CC	40,000,000 Cr	66,666 Cr
Species Unlock: Cathar	600 CC	33,000,000 Cr	55,000 Cr
Master's Datacron	2000 CC	82,000,000 Cr	41,000 Cr

You can calculate the Credits per Cartel Coin Spent by dividing the Sell Price by the Buy Price.

For example, 220,000,000 / 5,400 = 40,740 Credits per Cartel Coin spent on the item.

So how do I pick what to sell?

Notice how the Nautolan unlock is the highest profit item on the table?

You might think that makes it the best item to sell, but you'd be mistaken!

The demand for that item is much lower than the Hypercrates, so you'll only be able to sell a very limited number of those Unlocks. Don't stockpile items that you'll need months to sell, because the faster you turn a profit, the sooner you can go back to your referrals!

TLDR: Unless you are comfortable with the markets, just sell Hypercrates. The demand is always good. Don't open them! This isn't a guide on how to gamble with 200 million credits.

You can sell race unlocks once in a while too and they'll earn you a good profit, but its important not to flood the GTN. I wouldn't bother trying to sell more than 1 or 2 per week, and I'd focus on Nautolan.

How much Can I make per Trade?

Once you know how many credits a single Cartel Coin is worth, you can calculate your payouts based on the CC you gain from each transaction!

I've calculated the payouts quickly below.

Cartel Coins Awarded	Estimated Credit Value	Minimum Payout (50% of lower bound)
600	24,444,000-39,999,600 Cr	12,222,000 Cr
100	4,074,000-6,666,600 Cr	2,370,000 Cr

Based on the raw data above, I would recommend paying around 12.5 Million credits for first time subscriber clicks, and 2.5 million credits for returning subscriber clicks.

Once you are comfortable with trading, and have enough credits stockpiled, I'd recommend increasing your payout!

For example, you'd still be earning ~9 million credits per click if you paid first timers 15 million.


If you have some experience with the GTN you can probably make a lot more from these Cartel Coins, but this isn't a GTN guide, and I'm not qualified to give that advice.

Securing a Sale

Sometimes I get a client on the hook who really doesn't trust me.
I do a few things to help make people more comfortable with me.

• I always do trades on Tix'ash'ara, a max level character on Star Forge.
  
• I always invite the client to a group, and answer EVERY SINGLE QUESTION they ask.
  
• I allow reluctant clients to observe me while I do trades with others!

It isn't bulletproof, but if you let a reluctant client sit in your stronghold, and they watch you complete several of these trades, they usually feel comfortable enough to go ahead with it.

Let them stay in the group so they can observe the entire interaction with your other clients.
Let them watch you troubleshoot problems.

I have too many Clients at once! What do I doooooooo?!?!?!

This happens to me pretty often, I'll fill my entire group with clients and some people will be forced to wait.

The most important thing to remember is this: Always wait for your first client to finish using the link before giving it out to another client.

You don't want to be confused about who used the link already, and who hasn't. PM the link to one person in the group, wait until the Cartel Coins show up, and then you can safely PM the next client.

Repeat Payouts

The referral system was intended to reward the referrer for every month that the referred player remained a subscriber, but due to some shoddy coding, the 7 days of free subscriber time usually prevents the new subscription from taking effect during the 14 day window.

However, If your client was on the last week of their previous subscription time, the free 7 days you award them can cause them to resubscribe *just* within the 14 day window for you to get additional rewards!

You don't really need to understand this, and it isn't very reliable, but it makes for a decent passive income once you have done as many trades as I have. Out of ~400 trades I've done, there are 5 players who have remained active since using my link, and each awards me 100cc per month.

At the start of the year when I was actively trading that number was much higher. (~50 iirc)

Some helpful tips

Pay your client in person

I always invite my client to my stronghold to trade. I NEVER use the mail system to pay clients unless they insist upon it.

The mail introduces a 1 hour delay when you send credits, and that hour is long enough for your client to get very angry and suspicious.

Be Generous

If you follow this guide you aren't taking big risks. You aren't promising payments upfront. You aren't gambling your earnings on the GTN. Since you aren't taking risks, you can afford to be generous!



Once you are on your feet, you should try to give back to the community when you can. I give out freebies to clients who ask me a lot of friendly questions. I offer smaller payouts for patient clients who try to use the link and have technical issues. I respond to reddit threads and purchase cosmetics for new players.

I don't promise these things to everyone. That sets unreasonable expectations. If your client angrily complains the link didn't work and starts calling you a crook, don't just pay them out of pity. If the client is cool about it and works with you, go ahead and surprise them with a million credits just for trying!

If you are friendly, sometimes your clients will put in a good word in chat.

Fight Inflation

Credits suffer a lot of devaluation over time due to inflation, but Cartel Coins hold their value very well. Try to keep most of your wealth in the form of Cartel Coins.

I always do a bunch of referral trades before letting my subscription lapse because I want to get rid of my credits so I'm not getting poorer over time!

Cross Server Potential

Cartel Coins are account wide currency.

This means you can do your trades on multiple servers, and transfer your wealth wherever you need it.

A Request for those Reading

Please don't use this guide for evil.

To the best of my knowledge, referral trading does not break any rules. I have had many people threaten to report me for scamming over the years, and I have never had any action taken on my account in response. I have received no official warnings over it either.

I've been using this system for a long time now, and Bioware and EA don't seem to care to change it.

All of that being said, I have ALWAYS paid people what we agreed upon in a timely fashion.

You can get stupid rich doing these trades exactly as I have described them, so please don't mess it up for everyone else by pulling scams.

If you fail to heed my warning and get greedy, I will have no sympathy for you in the event that your account is suspended. Scamming is against the ToS.

Don't do it.

Other useful Guides

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2174228465

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2173660361

super duper secret bonus: If you see me in-game, say hello! If you send me a whisper with the codephrase "bananabread" I'll toss you 1 million credits.

[ᗪ🝗⼕ㄖ丫]

I just subbed. Can you message me?

[Kragore]

Ah, ok thank you for clarifying.

[|VIP-S| Agr]

@Kragore,

If you don't understand the very basics, I'd recommend you check out the "Other Useful Guides" section at the bottom.

The person who clicks the link always gets the 7 days of game time, if they are eligible for it.

The person who offers the link may choose to offer payment to encourage people to click the link.

I outline how much to pay to make sure you still turn a healthy profit.

[Kragore]

I don't understand. The referral gets the Referer cartel coins but loses millions of credits? The Referee may get 7 days premium?

[LanynPichuse]

Hey I have read the guide and I have some questions, can you add me plase so I cant talk to you please?

[|VIP-S| Agr]

@Slim Shady,

I'm not subbed atm and don't have plans to sub for a while.

[Truck You]

@Agr,

Are you looking to sell your referral at DM server currently ?
II have send you an add in steam. do hit me up.

[|VIP-S| Agr]

@Tenacious D,

If he can afford to convert currencies at a loss, you can't do much about it, but those recurring CC are really unreliable. If I were to guess, I'd say less than 1 in 10 of my clicks leads to a repeat payout, and fewer still recur more than once.

I'd bet he really could just about break even with those prices, but its a pretty huge time commitment for nothing in return.

You won't find enough people willing to put up with that to stall business for very long.

[Tenacious D]

Hey man, thanks for the advice, Today was a lot better. Managed to get 4 referrals offering 14 mil and didn't get much shit from chat today.

I stood my ground in chat when I got accused of being a scammer, the offer to let other people observe really does help sway some of the scammer comments. Of course you can't convince everyone but it does help. Thanks for that.

Yeah there's a dude on DM who offers 25 - 30 mil just to spite people (his words). His structure is basically that he overpays and loses 2 million on each ref hoping that people stay subbed and he makes a profit eventually through the 100cc recurring thing from staying subbed. Claims that he makes 8000CC a month from just the recurring CC. Apparently he did 37 referrals on the day of the Steam launch so I guess his system works, but the amount of money you'd need to start like that is too much for me.

Gonna hope for days where I get 3 or 4 refs in a quick time frame like today then quit while I'm ahead. Cheers!

[|VIP-S| Agr]

@Tenacious D,

To answer points A and C, People will scream it all over chat. Its never stopped people from whispering me anyway.

I always tell people that I'm happy to answer questions and I try to be patient with the trolls and naysayers.

I've had rough days where I get absolutely torn apart in chat, but I'm persistent and I seem to get more PMs when I'm being criticized than I do when chat is dead.



For question B, In my experience, people offering more than what I've outlined fall into one of three catagories.

Many are scammers who can offer the moon because they won't pay.

A few are legit rich players who are willing to lose money to unlock the mount and pets.

I also once had a troll show up who offered double my payout, only to steal my business. He strung one guy along for half an hour and then blocked him without even sending a referral link.

Some people are just really petty.