Your settings require review
The most common reason is that you asked for it. If you’ve turned off automatic reward approval — either for your whole program or for the plan this reward came from — every new reward lands on hold so you can review it first. Hovering the badge shows Held for review due to program or commission plan settings, with Accept and Reject buttons. This is expected behaviour, not a warning. To change whether rewards are held this way, see Approve or decline a reward.Fraud prevention flagged it
Referly can automatically hold rewards that look like an affiliate referring themselves, so an affiliate can’t earn commission by buying through their own link. When this is what’s holding the reward, the badge opens a Fraud Prevention panel that names the reason:- Referral’s email matches affiliate’s email — the customer used the same email address as the affiliate.
- Referral’s IP address matches affiliate’s IP address — the customer bought from the same device or network as the affiliate.
- Potential self-referral detected — a more general flag when a referral looks like it came from the affiliate.
Choose what fraud prevention does
Whether flagged rewards are held or turned away is up to you. Go to Settings → Program details → Fraud prevention. There you can turn the checks on or off, choose which signals to watch (Email matching and IP address matching), and set the action:- Hold for review — flagged rewards go on hold for you to decide, as described above.
- Reject automatically — flagged rewards are declined without waiting for you.
The affiliate is deactivated or banned
Rewards earned while an affiliate is deactivated or banned are held rather than paid. This makes sure you don’t pay someone you’ve removed from your program. If you reactivate the affiliate and the reward is legitimate, you can approve it from its badge.You put it on hold yourself
You can also hold a reward by hand. Using Change status in a reward’s ⋯ menu, setting a reward to On Hold parks it while you look into something — a sale you want to verify, or an affiliate you’re reviewing. It stays out of payouts until you accept it.On hold vs the holding period
An On Hold status is different from your payout holding period. On Hold means the reward still needs your approval. The holding period is a waiting time that applies to rewards that are already accepted — they’re approved, but held back from payout for a set number of days to give you a window for refunds. A reward can be accepted and simply waiting out its holding period without ever being On Hold. See Holding period and frequency for that side.Clear a hold
To release any held reward, hover its On Hold badge and select Accept, or reject it if it isn’t legitimate. To approve several at once, select them and use the bulk Accept rewards action. Both are covered in Approve or decline a reward.Related
Approve or decline a reward
Accept or reject held rewards, and control auto-approval.
Fraud prevention
Set up the checks that flag possible self-referrals.
Ban or deactivate an affiliate
See what happens to rewards when you remove an affiliate.
Holding period and frequency
The separate waiting time before accepted rewards are paid.