When you get your free year from referrals, and what happens after

When your card is full, you get an email saying so, and the card waits for you. Nothing starts by itself. You turn it in on the Subscription page, for any plan you choose, monthly or yearly. That plan is what your free year is, and it is also the plan your billing carries on with when the year ends, which is why the choice is yours.

There is no limit: every card you fill is another free year. You turn cards in one at a time, and each new year follows the one before it.

When does the card count as full?

Stamps only count when they are permanent, which takes a month by default after the person you referred pays (see how the referral punch card works). Your first card has 8 slots with 2 already stamped, so it fills when you have earned 6 stamps. A yearly plan is worth 3 stamps and a monthly plan 1.

Stamps are made permanent by a check that runs hourly. The email saying your card is full goes out as soon as the last stamp is permanent.

How do I turn in a card?

Open the Subscription page. While a card is waiting, it says so at the top, and each plan offers "Turn in your card: a year of" followed by the plan name. Pick monthly or yearly with the switch on the plan, then press it. Any plan is allowed: the one you are on, a smaller one, or a bigger one.

• You are not paying for a plan (the Free plan, the 14-day trial, or a plan that has ended). Turning in the card takes you to checkout, where you add a card. You pay nothing that day. Your free year starts straight away, and the first bill comes a year later, on the plan you picked. A running trial ends at checkout. You get an email about 30 days before the first bill, and if you cancel before then you are never charged.
• You are paying for a plan. You confirm, and nothing you have paid for is lost: your free year starts when your current paid period ends. If you picked the plan you are on, the year is simply added after that period. If you picked a different plan, your current plan carries on as it is until the period ends, then the plan you picked starts, free for the year. Until it starts, other plan changes wait, and the Subscription page says when it begins.
• You are already in a free year. The new year follows the one that is running.
• Your subscription is being cancelled, or a payment is overdue. Sort that out first, by keeping your plan or updating your card, then turn in the card.
• Your plan is paid for by an organization. The card can't be turned in while that lasts. It stays waiting.
• You have Premium free as a Microsoft MVP. A year of Premium or less would give you nothing new, so while you are an MVP a card can be turned in only for a bigger plan, such as Pro. Or keep it: if your MVP status ends, every plan is offered again.

It is not a credit or a voucher. It is your own subscription with the billing waived for those months.

Does a card expire?

No. A card waits for as long as you like. If you have not turned it in, we remind you by email 30 days and 90 days after it filled, and that is all.

What emails do I get?

• When a card fills: "Yay! You filled a punch card", with a link to turn it in.
• If you have not turned it in: a reminder 30 days after it filled, and another at 90 days.
• When your free year starts: "Your free year has started. Billing resumes" followed by the date. If you are paying and picked a different plan, it is "Your free year of" the plan, "starts" and the date, instead. Both name the plan and what will be charged when billing resumes.
• About 30 days before it ends: one email. It says what will be charged, and to which card, or tells you to add a card if there is none. If your card will expire before the date billing resumes, that notice is the "your card expires before billing resumes" one instead.
• If your card expires before billing resumes: a separate email asking you to update your card so your calendars keep syncing.

These are sent to the email address on your account. On the Refer & Earn page, under "Free years earned", a waiting card reads "Waiting: turn it in on the Subscription page", and one on your subscription reads "Billing resumes" followed by the date.

What happens when the year ends?

• A card on file: billing resumes on the date in your email, on the plan you picked when you turned the card in, at its normal price. During the year you can still choose a different plan to start on instead, or move to Free, from the Subscription page.
• No card on file: add one before the date, or your plan ends that day.

You can open your billing from the link in the emails. See how to upgrade, downgrade or cancel and what happens if your card expires.

What to know

• The free year is for the person who pays for the plan, so accounts added to someone else's subscription do not earn it.
• A canceled subscription does not take back a stamp that is already permanent.
• If you cancel before a free year you turned in has started, the card comes back to you, waiting to be turned in again.

Related: the 14-day trial and the Free plan, your referral link and QR code.