The Affinity Program is fully described below through a dialogue of "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ).
If you want to skip the FAQ and go directly to the
signup form,
What is the Affinity program? The Affinity program is a program to provide a discount off of the CTS long distance plans for any of the following:
- 5 or more persons who sign up as a single group (one-at-a-time or all at once)
- 5 or more businesses or organizations who sign up naming a designated "head" of that group
- any combination of 5 or more persons, businesses, or organizations, e.g., 1 business and 4 individuals would qualify
- 1 or more persons, organizations, or businesses who collectively have $150 in long distance calls per month.
This plan is particularly beneficial for a church, a synagogue, any other religious organization, a business, and especially a non-profit organization. If you have less than 5 persons/organizations/businesses, you can still qualify for the program if the total of all members of your group generates over $150/month in long distance services -- this could be just 1 (or 2) persons whose combined calls are over $150/month.
Can the originator of the Affinity program remain anonymous to the other members of the Affinity group? Yes. We provide a web page that can have any designated title or name, and as long as you direct potential members of the group to that web page, the person requesting the start of that group can remain anonymous to the rest of that group. For example, if you are an individual and want to start an Affinity group, you can request a name such as "DISCOUNT LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE GROUP". We would set up a web page with that title, then each month, you would receive a commission check for the calls made by persons you direct to that web page to sign up for long distance service. No reference to your name is mentioned on this link.
Want to see what your web page would look like? If we set up your web link with a title such as "ABC Church Group", then your link would look like the following:
Just click on the above link to see a sample of what your phone service signup web pages would look like.
The first initial web page presented asks for entry of your phone number. This helps qualify your phone as being valid for this plan. About 95% of all phones are eligible for the long distance plan.
After you enter your phone number, you'll have displayed a second page of information which will include items such as :
You could then click once more on the "signup" icon to complete your on-line long distance service request, BUT, don't do that final finishing out of that form as you will want to have us set up your Affinity plan web site first then sign yourself under your own Affinity plan so that you can get the 5% to 10% commission on your own long distance service. If you want to, you can review the few short pieces of information that are asked on that final signup page, just don't fill it out. Just hit the browser back button to return to this Affinity FAQ web page. The application for getting an Affinity Plan web page set up is at the end of this web page, so just read on to get the details describing the rest of the Affinity Plan.
If my business (or organization) has 7 phone lines, do we qualify for being an Affinity program? Each individual phone line does not count as a member of a group -- the entire business counts as one member of the group. However, if you had 4 additional employees (with 4 separate long distance bills) sign up, you would qualify as a group. Your business with 7 phone lines can also qualify for the Affinity program if your individual business or organization generates over $150 in services per month. If you do not generate over $150/month in services, if you have additional members sign up (individuals and/or businesses/organizations) and collectively (both you and the additional members) generate over $150/month in services, you also qualify for this program. We try to make it easy for a business/organization to qualify for the Affinity program.
If I am a non-profit organization, can I advertise to have members sign up under my Affinity program? Yes. This is a great way to generate additional income for your non-profit organization. In addition, each month that the Affinity program is operational, you'll get a payment for the commissions generated from your member's long distance calls. If you have your own web page, you can put the link we generate for you directly on your web site so that all a person or organization needs to do is just click on this link to go to the on-line internet signup page.
Is there a cost to establish an Affinity program? No. Completely free. No obligation to setup or run. No long term commitments.
What is the discount called? For purposes of this program, the discount generated each month by members of the group is called a "commission".
Is the commission given to each member of the group each month? To reduce the administrative costs of the Affinity plan, a single check is issued that represents the discount for the total monthly calls of all the members of that Affinity group. The one person, one business, or one organization that receives the commission check can of course distribute the funds from this commission check as desired, or keep the funds for themselves.
Does the commission generated show up on the Affinity group member's regular monthly bill? No. This is a commission earned on the Affinity member's monthly generated calls. The individual members of the Affinity group receive no record of the commission earned. Only the designated Affinity designated recipient receives information on the commission earned.
Is it difficult to promote the Affinity program? No. For example: a non-profit organization could mention in their monthly newsletter with a small few lines describing the 3.0 cents/minute (or alternate 3.9 cents/minute) interstate rate, then print the link address that points to the on-line signup web page that we generate for the Affinity group. They might even mention the commission the non-profit organization will receive from their member's long distance calls.
Another example: a business could get the Affinity program started, then tell the employees about the discount long distance rates available with information on how to sign up for service. Whether to mention that the organization/business receives a commission from their member's/employee's long distance bill is left up to that organization's discretion.
What is the mechanism for members to sign up for a service? Very simple. After you've requested to have an Affinity program set up (see form below), usually within a few hours later (sometimes up to 24 hours) you will have a dedicated web page created for you for members (persons/businesses/organizations) to go to for signing up. On that dedicated web page will be embeded your Affinity program unique identifier which will allow CTS to track the long distance service for all those persons signing up under your Affinity plan and allow CTS to calculate the commissions earned..
Who is CTS, Incorporated of Virginia? CTS is a Master Agent of this program. CTS has been in business for 23 years and, specifically, in the telecommunications business for 7 years.
How much time is allowed to get the minimum of 5 different members to sign up for service (or $150 collectively if there are less than 5 members)? 6 full calendar months. For example, if you start January 2, you have until July 30 to obtain your required members (or $ amount).
Can an initial (one) account be set up, then 4 additional accounts be submitted later? Yes. As long as the other 4 accounts are setup within 6 full calendar months of the original request, your Affinity group is valid.
Can I sign up for the Affinity program then sign up for long distance service immediately? Yes, but we would prefer that you sign up and get your dedicated web page set up, then sign yourself (or your company/organization) using this special web page. We notify you via email when we have your Affinity web page set up and link established, then you can use your Affinity web page to sign yourself (or your organization) up for service.
Does an individual or a company/organization setup the Affinity program? Either an individual or a company/organization can request the setup of this program.
When does the Affinity program start generating a commission check? As soon as there are 5 members of your group set up, or if less than 5 members of your group and your group is generating over $150/month long distance service, that establishes the month the Affinity plan starts generating commissions. Check payments for commissions generated are made approximately 45 days following the billing month for phone calls made during that month. For example, if you get the 5th person to sign up for long distance service June 20, then bills for the 5 persons would be sent out June 30th. A commission check would be sent out (approximately) August 15th (45 days after the close of the June billing month), then commission checks would continue month-to-month, e.g., July bills generate a check on September 15th, August bills generate a check on October 15th.
If there are 5 members of the group, are 5 checks sent out? No. Only one check is sent out to a single person (or organization) that is designated at the time the plan is established. However you distribute the amount of that commission check is up to you.
Can the person or organization receiving the check be one of the members of the Affinity group? Yes
Can the person or organization receiving the check not be one of the group? Yes. The check can go to any person or organization. For example, you can start a "group" by requesting CTS to establish an Affinity program. Then if 5 (or more) persons/businesses/organizations sign up for service and generate a monthly bill, a commission check would be sent out, and it is not required that the person /business/organization setting up the Affinity group have their long distance service with CTS. For example, if you wanted to distribute this check to your church, we could send you the commission check and you could then endorse the check made payable to your church. You could also request that the commission check be made out in the church's name and sent directly to that church. Any member of the Affinity group can get other persons/businesses/organizations to sign up for long distance service by simply directing prospective members to the dedicated web site that CTS sets up for your Affinity group. All persons, businesses, and/or organizations signing up for service (and generating a long distance bill for services) will generate a commission. The church could also inform church members to go to the site to sign up for long distance service. The church does not have to sign up their own long distance service with CTS although they could if they wanted to. CTS has the right to refuse setting up an Affinity group if CTS determines that there might be fraud involved. For example, we would not setup a commission check payment to an individual that sets up an Affinity group if they wanted to title the Affinity group as "American Red Cross".
Can a person or organization designated as the receiver of the check receive a "commission" for their own long distance service? Yes. The "organizer" of the group receives the same percentage commission of their own monthly bill as all the other members of the group..
Can the commission check be made out to an individual? Yes, or to a business or organization.
What is the name of the person starting the group called? An "Agent".
Can the Agent establish the group as "anonymous"? Yes. What this means is that you as an Agent can just get persons to sign up for service without telling them that you (the Agent) is going to be earning a commission on their long distance service. This is great for someone in a business who wants to earn commissions by telling other persons in that business about the great rates offered without having to tell them that a commission would be generated for their long distance service. Another example is that if a company is providing some sales contacts with customers selling that company's own product or service, they might want to mention the great rate offered to these customers without telling them about the commissions. This Affinity plan is also great for consultants in contact with their customers and wish to remain anonymous to these customers.
Can an Agent run the Affinity plan as just a business? Yes. Signing up individual persons under an Agent's Affinity group is basically running the Affinity group as a small business with none of the normal "headaches" and paperwork of setting up a company, signing contracts, and/or meeting some of the restrictive high volume requirements offered by other long distance companies.
What is the commission rate generated? There are two different plans that can be set up for any Affinity group: a domestic calling plan and an international calling plan. The CTS 3.0 plan has a low interstate and intrastate rate but a higher international rate. The CTS 3.9 plan has a higher interstate and intrastate rate but a very low international rate. The difference between the two plan's international rates is approximately 18%.
Plan |
Primary |
Interstate Rate |
Commission On |
Commission On |
Commission On |
Commission On All Other |
CTS 3.0 plan |
Domestic calls | 3.0 cents/minute | 5% |
5% |
10% |
0% |
CTS 3.9 plan |
International calls | 3.9 cents/minute | 10% |
10% |
5% |
0% |
In the above table, there is a 0% commission in the last column. Explain. CTS pays commissions on phone calls made, not on taxes and fees that are paid out to sources such as the federal, state, and local governments.
Can I direct members to go to the CTS 3.9 plan only so that there is a higher commission generated on interstate and intrastate calls 10% vrs 5%? Yes. It's up to you whether you want to offer the CTS 3.0 plan or the CTS 3.9 plan (or both) under your Affinity program. If you offer both plans, you will receive two "links" you can include on your own web pages to direct persons to the appropriate rate plan. In addition, the web page we set up for you will have both rate options explained so that your potential new Affinity member can select the appropriat plan for their particular calling plans.
How do I find out the rates for intrastate calls (calls made from your phone to a phone within your state) and international calls?
For domestic intrastate rates: go to our phone web site at http://costar.net/phone.htm then in the "Intrastate Rate" table (just below the "Interstate Rate" table), look under the CTS 3.0 (domestic) plan column for your state's intrastate rate.
For international rates: For the CTS 3.9 (international) plan, go
to the http://costar.net/phoneinternational.htm web
page, or just
You can also see the higher international
rates (lower domestic rates) for the CTS 3.0 plan by going to the
http://phone-ld.biz web page.
After CTS sets up an Affinity link for you, what will the signup process look like? To see a sample, just go to http://phone-ld.biz web site (this is the site persons are directed to when they click on any link in the CTS 3.0 column of the Intrastate Rates table). This web page starts the signup process by requesting entry of your phone number. As a test, you can go to the http://phone-ld.biz web page, enter your phone number, display the plan's information page along with FAQ, interstate rate, intrastate rate for your phone number within your state, and an international rate lookup table. This is exactly how you (and your group's members) will experience the information page and (if you click to sign up), the signup page to allow you to sign up for service. You can click to continue to the signup information page but don't fill out the detail information on this page --just use your browser back arrows to back out of the signup process. Why? If you are going to want to sign yourself up under the Affinity plan you are establishing, DO NOT fill out the detail information on the http://phone-ld.biz web site -- just wait until we provide you with a link so you can sign yourself up under your own link so you can get credit for the commissions on your own long distance calls. The only difference between what you see now and what you see when we set up your link will be that by clicking on the unique link that we provide to you, your Affinity identifier will be passed by that link to the computer system so that you and your group members will be uniquely identified as having come to this site through your efforts. This is how you get your commissions generated. The name of the company that your members will see on the signup page will be "CTS" for the domestic plan and "CTS International" for the international plan.
Are the two plans that are available for members to sign up under the Affinity program the same rates as offered directly on CTS's site? Yes, there is no difference. Note that although CTS offers long distance service from 7 other long distance companies, only the CTS offered plans are available under this Affinity plan. We do not compete on price between what we offer on our web site for the CTS 3.0 and the CTS 3.9 plans versus what you offer to members of your Affinity group.
When are commissions paid? Commissions are typically paid on or about the 15th of the month following the month after the customer's billing month has been closed. For example, if a customer's billing for the month of January is sent out on January 31, then typically by March 15th, your commission check would be mailed.
Is there a minimum commission check amount that is sent out? In the first 6 months of setting up an Affinity program, a commission check will be sent out no matter how small the check. After 6 months, a commission check will be sent out if the commission is over $25. If it is less than $25, a check will not be sent out but the commission amount for than month earned will be added to the next month(s) monthly commission amount until the total check amount goes above $25 at which point CTS will send out your check. After your first full year (12 months) after you start generating commissions, if your monthly commissions generated is under $10, you will no longer receive any commissions although your web site will still be active for signups to allow you to get additional signups to get your commission rate above $10.
Can the Affinity program be terminated? Yes. If after 1 year from the time your Affinity program is started, if your total number members in your group fall below 5, you will not generate any commissions (unless the total of your remaining member's calls are over $150/month). Also, if your commissions fall below $10/month, you will not generate any commissions.
Is there any "charge back" for a customer's bad debt? Explanation: After a member is set up, you receive a commission on that member's monthly long distance phone calls that is sent to them each month. If the member does not pay their bill, you are required to pay back the commission you've already received from that member's bill. You don't have to pay back the complete debt that the member has, just the commission you've received on that monthly bill that the member doesn't pay. For example, if you've received a commission of $15 for a member on a $150 phone bill and that member doesn't pay their bill, after CTS attempts to collect this debt and determines that it is a bad debt, i.e., we cannot get the member to pay the bill, you are required to return that $15 commission you've received. In most cases, we would just offset this against your next month's commissions and indicate the detail of this offset.
Be careful if you're looking at other Affinity plans or Agent plans available from other long distance companies. Some companies charge the whole bad debt of the member against your commissions -- this can "wipe" out your commissions for several months (or years) especially if the member is intentionally trying to scam on paying their bill and runs up $500-$1000 in long distance calls. We know!!!!
Why is the social security number (or federal ID # if an company/organization) in the below Affinity application required? You are considered an independent contractor, and we are required to report any income you receive to the federal government. All long distance companies handle payments (commissions) paid out this same way. Note that if you are receiving a check and signing that check over to a non-profit organization, church, synagogue, or other tax deductible organization, you should probably be able to claim your "income" as a "deduction" on your income tax form. We are not offering any tax advice here, so check to make sure you understand the tax implications of these checks.
Why is an email address required? In order to reduce our long distance telephone costs and keep better track of our correspondence, email is used extensively to communicate with you. However, during the initial few weeks in getting established under the Affinity program, we welcome phone calls with any questions (or problems -- none we hope) that you might have. Our toll-free phone number is 1-800-267-8276 and you can always use our toll-free fax number which is 1-888-810-3200.
Why doesn't CTS give commissions from the start of signing up your own long distance service at the time the Affinity program is set up, instead of waiting until the 5 member minimum (or > $150 in total member monthly billing) is reached? Because it takes a tremendous effort on our part to set up a new Affinity program, we don't want a person to sign up for the program just to get an additional discount on their own long distance service and then not get any new members. We feel that if a person is requesting to set up the Affinity program, then they probably have 5+ persons, businesses, or organizations that they can get quickly switched, so the program contact's own long distance service should quickly start earning commissions. By requiring a minimum of 5 members before commissions are generated, we prevent an individual from just setting themselves up to try to get an additional reduction on their long distance bill.
How do I sign up on-line for the Affinity program? To set up the program on-line, please fill out the following information:
* = required information
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