Questions?
Real answers.

About 2 minutes. A quick wizard walks you through it: business name, the trades you work, your service area, and the fee you're willing to pay for a lead. No credit card to get in the door.

Yes — before you can send or receive leads, you verify your identity through Stripe. It's a couple of minutes: photo ID plus a selfie. You can skip it during sign-up and come back later, but you can't transact until it's done. This is what keeps the network clean for everybody.

Only if you want lead alerts by text. We send a 6-digit code to confirm the number. You can verify both your business line and a separate notification number if they're different. Prefer email-only alerts? That works too.

Every home-service trade: plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters, HVAC, landscapers, flooring, general contractors, and more — 125 categories in all. If you work for homeowners or commercial clients, you belong here.

Some categories — plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, general contracting, and the like — require you to submit your license number and state at onboarding. We verify it before you can receive leads in those categories. Unlicensed trades like painting and cleaning don't need one.

Stripe Connect is the rail every dollar on LeadChuck runs on. You set up a Stripe Express account during onboarding and link your bank — that same account both pays you out (when you send leads) and covers your payments (when you accept them). Manage your bank details anytime from the Stripe link in your settings.

No. Identity verification and a connected bank account through Stripe are both required before any lead comes your way. It protects both sides of every deal.

No — they're separate identities, and you pick one when you sign up. A contractor account has a business profile, trades, and a service area, and it both sends and receives leads. A Scout account only sends. There's no reason to want both: every contractor can already send referrals and earn on them, which is the whole of what a Scout does. If your work doesn't fit any of our trade categories, the Scout path is the one for you.

Every lead is a referral from another contractor in the network. A plumber's client needs a roofer, so the plumber hands that referral to a roofer they trust. These are warm introductions — not cold web forms.

Yes. Other platforms sell the same lead to 5–10 contractors and let you fight over it. LeadChuck leads are exclusive — accept one and you're the only contractor with that customer's contact info.

Yes. You see the job type, the city it's in, the scope, and the sender's trust signals — star rating, transaction history, verification status, close ratio. The client's contact info unlocks when you accept. You pay the fee you set in your profile, so there are no surprises.

Standard leads expire after 7 days. If you haven't answered and your payment method is good, the lead auto-accepts and you're charged — so the sender and their client aren't left hanging. You can always reject before the deadline if it isn't a fit.

Some leads flip the direction — the client reaches out to you instead. You 'soft accept' first to see the client's name (no charge yet). If they call and it's a fit, you confirm the lead and pay your fee. These carry a longer 90-day window.

Yes. In settings you set a weekly lead budget — once you've accepted enough leads to hit it for the week, no new leads come your way until the next week resets. Need a full stop? You can pause your account entirely. One exception: deal-email leads. Deals ride a performance-funded marketing program — once your offer has gone out in emails, those leads keep coming as homeowners respond, and there's no way to un-send the emails. The way to control deal volume is your per-lead bid: a higher bid puts your deal in more emails, a lower bid in fewer — so set it based on how many leads you actually want.

The minimum is $15 and the maximum is $1,000 per lead. Change it anytime in your profile. Most contractors land at $25, $50, $75, or $100 depending on their trade and market.

If a lead auto-accepts but the charge can't clear, we retry up to 3 times. If it still fails, the lead may be cancelled and we'll let you know. Keep your payment method current so you don't miss leads.

When you reject a lead you pick a reason, and reasons fall into two groups. 'Not a Good Fit' — outside your service area, not your type of work, already your customer, not worth your lead fee — says something about the lead and who it was sent to, so it counts against the sender's rejection rate. 'My Situation' — too busy right now, can't afford the lead fee — is about you, not the lead, and never touches the sender's trust level. Either way, every rejection you make counts toward your own receiver-side rate.

Every contractor posts what they're willing to pay for a lead. When you've got a referral, you browse who's paying what and pick your recipient on price plus trust signals. Typical fees run $25–$150 depending on the trade and the job size.

When someone accepts your referral, the fee is held for a trust-based window (7–30 days, depending on your trust level). Once it clears, it lands in your bank through Stripe. You can also flip on weekly auto-withdrawals every Friday.

No. Once you send it, the receiving contractor takes it from there. You get paid when they accept — whether or not they end up closing the job.

You'll get an email (you can turn those off). Think the contractor actually quoted the client or did the work but rejected the lead to dodge the fee? File a fraud challenge. We take it seriously — see Disputes & Fraud Protection below.

When a lead is accepted, the receiver pays their set lead fee plus a 10% platform fee. On a $50 lead, the receiver pays $55 total. You get the full $50 lead fee once the hold clears. That 10% is how LeadChuck keeps the lights on.

You can't blast the same phone number to multiple contractors inside 24 hours, and you can't send the same number to the same contractor inside 24 hours. It stops lead-shopping and protects the client.

Yes, if your company owner gives you the go-ahead. Team members can have caps on how many leads they send per week and may be limited to sending only to the company's favorites list.

The whole lead fee. The platform fee is added on top of what the receiving contractor pays — it never comes out of your side, so a $50 lead is $50 in your pocket. Nothing is skimmed on the way out either: standard withdrawals to your bank are free and land in 2–3 business days. The one optional cost is instant payout, if you don't want to wait: that's 1.75% of the withdrawal, with a $1 minimum. The only thing between you and the money is your trust level's hold period.

You set what you're willing to pay for a lead in your profile (minimum $15, maximum $1,000). Accept a lead someone sends you and you pay that set fee plus a 10% platform fee. Example: a $50 lead plus a $5 platform fee is $55 total.

No monthly fees. No contracts. No minimums. You pay per lead, only when you accept one. A few optional upgrades carry a small monthly fee if you want them: our advertising system, a private email domain with your own branded leads page (so client emails come from your company's name, not LeadChuck's), and the team-incentives upgrade for rewarding your team. Skip them all and LeadChuck stays completely free.

Everything runs through Stripe Connect. You link your bank account to both receive payouts (when you send referrals) and make payments (when you accept leads). Stripe Connect supports US bank accounts.

You're charged when you accept — or confirm — a lead. The amount is spelled out before you tap accept. If you've got platform credits, they're applied first, so you're only charged for whatever's left.

Credits are a balance on your account you can spend on leads. You earn them through dispute refunds, referral bonuses (for inviting other contractors), or promos. They apply automatically to your next lead purchase — oldest first (FIFO).

Yes — credits expire 6 months after they're issued. The good news: every time you complete a lead transaction (sending or receiving), the clock resets on all your remaining credits. Stay active and your credits stay fresh. We'll nudge you at 90 days, 30 days, and 7 days before any expire.

Invite other contractors by email or SMS. When one signs up on your link and completes their first successful lead transaction, you earn a credit: $10 for each of your first 4 invites, $15 for invites 5–9, and $25 for every invite after that. Invite links expire after 30 days.

Every contractor starts at New. Build a track record of sending quality leads and you climb to Verified, then Trusted. Higher trust means shorter holds on your earnings — you get paid faster. It also travels with every lead you send: contractors are more likely to accept leads from a higher-trust sender.

Three levels: New (default, 30-day hold on earnings); Verified (5+ leads sent with a rejection rate of 30% or less, 14-day hold); and Trusted (20+ leads sent, rejection rate 20% or less, and 90+ days on the platform, 7-day hold). Only fit-related rejections count against you — wrong service area, not their type of work, already their customer, or not worth their lead fee. If someone rejects because they're too busy or can't afford the fee, it doesn't ding your score, and the rate only starts applying once you've sent enough answered leads to be a fair sample.

When a lead is accepted, the fee is held for a set number of days before it's released to you — that window leaves room to sort out any issue with the lead. The hold shrinks as your trust level climbs: from 30 days for new users down to 7 days for Trusted contractors.

Yes. If your lead quality slides and your rejection rate creeps above your level's threshold, you can be demoted. Send quality referrals and you'll never think about it.

Once your hold period ends, the money is yours to withdraw — like cashing out any payment app. Withdraw manually from your dashboard anytime, or opt in to weekly auto-withdrawals in settings and we'll sweep your available earnings to your bank every week. Transfers run through Stripe by ACH and typically land in 2–3 business days.

An opt-in convenience: turn it on in settings and your available earnings sweep to your bank automatically once a week. Leave it off and your earnings simply build up until you withdraw them manually — whenever you want.

File a dispute within 7 days of accepting if something's wrong — wrong number, client already hired someone, whatever it is. We review and issue credits when it's warranted. If the sender doesn't respond within 7 days, the dispute is automatically approved in your favor.

File a dispute and the sender is notified with 7 days to respond. If they do, an admin reviews it. Approved disputes pay out as a platform credit — a full refund (lead fee plus platform fee) if we catch it during the hold, or the lead fee as a credit if the sender's already been paid out.

Send a lead, watch the contractor reject it, but you're sure they quoted the client or did the work? File a fraud challenge. The contractor has 48 hours to respond — agree (which puts a strike on their account) or deny it. If they deny, you can send back evidence — 'I talked to the client and they got a quote,' a photo of the estimate, anything — and the contractor gets one more chance to make the right call. Only if they still deny does a one-click survey go out to the client; we don't bother your client unless we have to. If the client confirms it, the ding lands on the contractor's record and they're scrutinized more closely from then on.

Penalties climb: a warning on the first offense, then progressively longer holds on their earnings (30, 60, then 90 extra days). After 5 strikes, the account is permanently banned. If a client survey confirms fraud, the contractor is suspended on the spot and has 48 hours to appeal.

You always get to deny the challenge and tell your side. If it escalates to the client and the client clears you, the full cost of that lead — the lead fee plus the platform fee — comes back to you as account credit for the hassle. Suspended and think it's unfair? You've got 48 hours to appeal with evidence, and our team reviews it.

If we approve a dispute but the sender's bank rejects the recovery, we auto-retry up to 3 times over 6 days. If those fail, the sender's account is suspended until they pay through a self-service page. You get your credit the moment the funds come back.

Yes — invite your team to your company account and they can send leads on behalf of the business. There are three roles: Owner (full control), Admin (manages most things), and Member (sends leads to other contractors; no access to incoming leads).

As owner, you set per-member permissions: cap weekly lead volume, restrict them to your favorites list, and control whether they can add new favorites, invite contractors, or view earnings. You can also track each member on the team leaderboard.

Yes — each one signs up with their own email. When they accept your invite, they're linked to your company profile. They skip the regular onboarding since they operate under your business identity.

Only the account owner and Admins. Incoming leads are the money side of the account — accepting one authorizes the bank charge for the lead fee plus the platform fee — so seeing them, accepting them and rejecting them all sit with the two roles that are meant to act on the company's behalf. Members send leads to other contractors and cannot view, accept or reject incoming leads. A Member gets no Received tab, and an incoming lead's page won't open for them at all; what they do keep is everything on the sending side — sending leads, and tracking the ones they sent and how those turned out. The per-member controls you set are all on that sending side too: how many leads someone can send per week, whether they're limited to your favorites, whether they can add favorites, invite contractors, or see earnings. The weekly lead limit caps only how many leads a member can send — it does not cap accepts, so it is not a spending control. One thing worth knowing: a lead nobody answers auto-accepts at 7 days (90 for a 'client will call' lead) and charges you anyway, so if your inbox is staffed by Members, an owner or admin still needs to be looking.

There's no separate enterprise tier — the pricing is the same at any size, and it doesn't get worse because you got bigger. If you're running several crews or want to talk through a bigger rollout, use the contact form on our Contact page or email support@leadchuck.com and you'll get a real person, not a sales sequence.

Yes. In your lead-filter settings you can block same-category leads on a per-trade basis. A roofer can block other roofers from sending them leads (so nobody fishes for your clients), and you can add exceptions for specific contractors you trust.

Yes. Set outbound filters per category too — block same-category contractors from receiving your leads, or set 'favorites only' so you only send to contractors you've personally vetted. You can also block individual contractors outright.

Favorites are the contractors you've saved and trust. Mark anyone a favorite and fire leads their way fast. Some filter settings — like 'favorites only' mode — lock lead activity to just that list.

An optional way to boost your visibility. You pick the categories and cities you want to show up in (say, 'Plumbing in Nashville'), and your profile gets a search boost and spotlight placement when contractors in those markets look for someone to send a lead to.

It starts at $15/month per slot and varies by category and market. Advertise in multiple markets and volume discounts kick in. Longer commitments — 6-month or annual — save you more.

Monthly plans cancel anytime. Commitment plans (6-month or annual) carry a billing commitment but no long-term lock on month-to-month billing. Prepaid plans are add-only during the term — you can add markets but not drop them until it ends.

When several contractors advertise in the same category and city, we rotate who shows using a "least-shown-first" algorithm — so everyone gets fair exposure proportional to what they put in.

Pick email, SMS, or both. Lead notifications (new lead received, lead accepted/rejected) always go out. You can mute the non-essential stuff — monthly summaries, milestone celebrations, platform updates — in your notification preferences.

RESPA (the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) bans referral fees between certain real-estate-related professionals. LeadChuck enforces those rules automatically — you simply can't send leads to blocked category pairs, so everyone stays on the right side of the law.

Yes. Pause from your settings for a set stretch (7–90 days). While paused, no new leads reach you, your profile stays intact, and you resume whenever you're ready.

Accounts get suspended for payment defaults or fraud. For payment defaults, you can un-suspend yourself by clearing the outstanding balance on a self-service page. For fraud-related suspensions, you have 48 hours to appeal.

Yes. We use Stripe for every payment and never store your bank details ourselves. Stripe is the same processor Amazon, Google, and thousands of other businesses run on.

Yes. There's a documented server-to-server API at leadchuck.com/developers — you create an API key with the scopes you want, read and write your clients, leads and referrals, and subscribe to outbound webhooks so your CRM reacts the moment something happens instead of polling. Every webhook is signed so you can verify it really came from us. There's no native LeadChuck Zapier app yet, but your API key works with Zapier's own Webhooks and API Request steps today — so if a tool speaks HTTP, it can speak to LeadChuck. Step-by-step setup lives in the help center once you're signed in.

One login is one business profile, but a profile isn't stuck in one city — your service area is a list of the cities and ZIP codes you actually work, so a single account can cover a whole metro and several suburbs. Advertising is bought per category and city, so you can spotlight the specific markets you want to grow. If your locations are genuinely separate businesses with their own bank accounts and their own books, set each one up as its own account. If they're one business with crews in different towns, keep one account and add the crews as team members.

Reach us anytime at support@leadchuck.com. We're around Monday through Friday, 8am–6pm Central, and aim to answer within 24 hours.