In 2008 when I was first starting to play around with affiliate marketing I had ran into ClickBank.com and started promoting some products and services. I had sold a couple things but then lost interest in the service.
I did get a paper check for around $30 and then had a couple smaller sales after that point but just figured they would send me a check.
Fast forward to today and I thought about promoting a couple things from ClickBank again. Expecting to see my $44 still in my account because I never got a check, I was surprised to arrive in my account and find my balance at $0.00 .
So I did a little digging to see if maybe they sent the check and I never got it. Nope. ClickBank has this bullshit "policy" in place that if your account goes "Dormant" for 90 days and you stop making them money, they start charging you $1 every two weeks! WHAT?
To top that off… if your account is dormant for 180 days, they start charging you $5 every two weeks. If you let the account go dormant for 365 days, the charge is $15 every two weeks.
Well, my account was still in the 180 day range and they were popping $5 every two weeks from my $44 balance that was owed to me that I earned.
As the money in my account started getting lower then the $5, they charged all the way down to the pennies until the money was gone. They do not charge you past what your balance is.
So now the $44 that I thought was just sitting around in my account is in some jackasses pocket that likely owns ClickBank. I can promise that I am not the only one this has happened to and not the last. When companies pull shit like this (even if it is in a "policy") it is not the right thing to do IMO!
So if you are or were considering to use ClickBank.com, Be Aware of what I stated above and I would simply suggest NOT TO USE CLICKBANK because this is bad business!
Viqi
Thanks for the heads up Jamie. This policy is highway robbery!
John
Oh yea, they are unreal. I had that happen once… go a bit longer and they also close your account. No warning, no notice (unless that has changed over the years?) your account is just closed. I tried to login once years ago and it wouldn’t work. I requested my password and nothing happened. I finally setup a new account, that’s your only option. The funny thing is I looked up where they were located and I was surprised to see it was the city I grew up in. I was going back home that week and let me tell you, I almost stopped by to give them a piece of my mind in person! : )
Johnny
ClickBank.com are thieves IMO.
I became aware of this theft policy and stopped doing business with them.
I sent them a nasty email also.
ClickBank.com = Theft
They are as bad as Commission Junction, which just does not report your sales. You send them 50,000 uniques and make $13.51 .
John Humphrey
I know I had to earn $100 before they’d issue the first check. By the time I had $100 in my account they’d taken @ $50 in penalties. Very frustrating. But exactly! Without transparency how do you know you’re even actually getting paid for a sale? I feel the same about parking though when I see the 4 page spreads in Domaining or read that a parking company is sponsoring this or that- what’s to stop them from just keeping more of the money? I think my next experiment will be selling hard products off a niche product domain.
Erik
Yeah, same thing happened to me as well… Makes me wonder who gets the money? Clickbank or the vendor?
And if the money stays with Clickbank, how much money have they made on this? …hmmm.
BTW: Thanks for great blog, Jamie. I like your new theme
Spike
ClickBanks sucks because of this. They did it to my account as well. If you are an affiliate of Commission Junction (cj.com), beware as they also do the same for non-active accounts. Crooks!
Spike
Hey Jamie,
How about firing off an e-mail to both companies with a link to this thread and see what they say? When I asked about the fees, they said something lame about account maintenance. What’s the maintenance on an electronic account? Post their reply on your blog here.
Johnny
Clickbank is a bunch of scumbags.
Sorry….just had to say it again.
Patrick McDermott
“When I asked about the fees, they said something lame about account maintenance.”
Right, what a bunch of bull.
If you’re inactive but have earned some $, Clickbank should cut you a check no matter the amount and then close the account.
But that would be the right thing to do.
Jamie Zoch
@Spike,
so it would be a waste of time. I would rather have people that were thinking of using the service see my posting and NOT use the company because of the BS they pull with this “dormant account” stuff. 
I could send them an email, but as with everything.. Nothing Ever Happens!
Cedrick Reese
Thanks for the heads up! I have not used my account in a while. The last I checked it had about $250. My account at CJ.com has also been closed for inactivity. Which of my other accounts will be closed next?
Helder
A short while after starting to use CB i was warned aboout this policy, and as soon as sales started to slow down, i’ve requested my check and also requested my account to be closed, and never had anything to do with them again. If you search a little more in the internet you’ll find out more horrible things about both CB and CJ.
A lot of people selling their products through CB are real crooks who have ways of stealing the sales made by their affiliates, you might sell their products through your affiliate links and never know about it, some people are very famous in CB for doing that, and CB doesn’t care about, other similar things happen in CJ, and God know what more they do to take money from people.
A few cents here, another dollar there, from thousands and thousands of affiliates, makes a lot of money
Scott
I’m off to close both my accounts now !!!
teddy
I have some toughts to excange with you!
When you create a new web site in any niche, you face one BIG problem. It’s not your design, not your hosting, or affiliate program software. The problem is how to get people and buy the products from your web site.
I hope to wake up my dormant clickbank account. I am frustrated, no one helps you. Now I have a real way to use the method that proved its effect. No magic solution, no cheating, no spamming – a 100% legal way to to receive traffic for your web sites in any niche and do that with people, who are looking for the same thing.
The solution: Affiliates help afilliates! The idea is to create a powerful plattform, which informs people about the possibility of exchanging their affiliate programs. Often there are many affiliates, who cannot get their payments because they haven’t fulfilled all the requirements
For example Clickbankaffiliates: A member doesn’t have access to his money until he finds 5 different people (with 5 different credit card numbers), who order something. The solution is simple and a win-win solution. For ex. I order from your link (Affiliate, Clickbank, CJ, Amazon, Ebay, MLM….) when you do the same with my link! Very simple and an absolutely win-win solution!
So you can exchange your product links here for the same price categories (e.g. my product costs $49 and your product costs $49) and build your business without the worry about spam letters or stressfull searches for traffic or people. We all have the same goal – we want to build a business and we need to help each other.
What do you think about this new idea? I start with my project at oriena.com (just a beta version to get the idea)
Thanks for your comments!
Teddy
Amy
Thanks for the heads up. I happened to find out this today after seeing my balance downsizing. Well, in 2008 when you had that experience, it was $15 charge – Guess what, now it is $50 per day. I had a few sales and then lost interest, come back today to find out they are going to eat it till it goes down to $0. Enough with promoting their products!