- A lead return policy is a price term, not an admin detail. Two things decide what it is worth: the cap on how many leads you may send back, and which document that cap lives in.
- EverQuote’s agent FAQ offers returns on up to 20% of a month’s volume. Its binding terms say returns are at EverQuote’s sole discretion.
- MediaAlpha tells its investors it generally does not offer a right of return at all.
Price the cap, not the promise.
Quick answers:
- What is a lead return policy?
- How long do you have to return a lead?
- Do you get cash or account credit?
- What counts as a returnable lead?
- Can a vendor refuse a return?
Every buyer asks what a lead costs. Almost nobody asks what happens to the money when the lead is junk. That second question moves your real cost further than haggling over the sticker price.
The pages that rank for this topic are written by the people selling the leads, and they explain how to file a return politely. You are the one paying the invoice, so here is the same subject priced from your side of the table.
- EverQuote Pro accepts returns “up to the threshold of 20% of the total leads purchased by the account during a given calendar month” (EverQuote Pro FAQ, read 12 August 2026).
- The same page allows a return credit request “up to 30 days after the lead’s original purchase date” (EverQuote Pro FAQ, read 12 August 2026).
- EverQuote’s binding terms state that “refunds and returns (if any) are at the sole discretion of EverQuote” (EverQuote Pro Terms of Use, read 12 August 2026).
- Those terms waive charge claims “unless claimed within ten (10) days after the charge” (EverQuote Pro Terms of Use, read 12 August 2026).
- MediaAlpha states in its FY2022 annual report that “the Company generally does not offer a right of return” (MediaAlpha 10-K, filed with the SEC).
The four terms that set the price
A return is not a refund. It is almost always a credit against future purchases, so the money never leaves the vendor. A replacement is different again. You get another lead instead of your money back, and nothing governs the quality of that replacement.
Four terms decide what any of it is worth.
The window. How long after delivery you may flag the lead. Vendors tighten this one first. A short window shifts the burden onto your follow-up speed rather than their sourcing quality.
The accepted reasons. Disconnected number, wrong vertical, duplicate, out of area. Anything outside that list stays on your side of the ledger, however bad the lead was.
The cap. The share of a period’s volume you may send back. This term sets your floor price. Buyers almost never ask about it.
The remedy. Account credit or cash. Credit is the norm, and it only has value if you plan to keep buying from the same vendor.
What the big sellers actually publish
Here is what three named sellers put in writing, and where each statement lives. Note which column each promise sits in, because a marketing page and a binding contract are not the same commitment.
| Seller | What the buyer-facing page says | What the binding or audited document says | Where that leaves the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| EverQuote | Returns accepted “up to the threshold of 20% of the total leads purchased by the account during a given calendar month,” and “any returns beyond the 20% cap will not be accepted for any reason” (EverQuote Pro FAQ) | “Refunds and returns (if any) are at the sole discretion of EverQuote,” and the agent waives charge claims “unless claimed within ten (10) days after the charge” (EverQuote Pro Terms) | A published 20% allowance sits above a contract reserving discretion and a shorter claim deadline. Get the operative one named in your agreement. |
| MediaAlpha | Markets calls, clicks and leads to insurance buyers at scale | “The Company generally does not offer a right of return,” and the price per referral is “determined and recorded in real time and no estimation of variable consideration or future consideration is required” (MediaAlpha FY2022 Form 10-K) | Returns are not modelled in the revenue at all. Treat any credit as a courtesy, not a term. |
| Home services platforms | We found no standing return policy published at the buyer-facing level during this review, unlike the insurance marketplaces above | Independent trade coverage frames the sticker as the beginning of the cost. “The raw cost of the lead is just the start” (ACHR News) | Ask for the terms in the contract, because there may be no public page to hold the platform to. |
Read the MediaAlpha line twice. That is an accounting disclosure, not a customer promise. But if no estimate of future consideration is required, the revenue booked at delivery is not expected to come back out. We read that as a firmer signal than a sales call will give you.
Turn the cap into your real price
You do not need our numbers here. You need the cap, which the vendor publishes, and your own bad-lead rate, which only your CRM knows.
Take EverQuote’s published 20% cap as the worked case. Buy 100 leads at any price. If 20 come back bad and every one is approved, you paid for 100 and can work 80. Your effective cost is 1.25 times the sticker. If 30 come back bad, the cap still stops you at 20. You paid for 100 and can work 70, which is 1.43 times the sticker.
| Your bad-lead rate | Returnable at a 20% cap | Leads you can work | Effective cost vs sticker |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | 10 | 90 | 1.11x |
| 20% | 20 | 80 | 1.25x |
| 30% | 20 | 70 | 1.43x |
| 40% | 20 | 60 | 1.67x |
Those multipliers are arithmetic on the published cap. They are not a market benchmark and not an Elevarus result. Substitute your own rate and your vendor’s cap. The shape of the answer holds either way. Above the cap, every additional bad lead is paid for in full.
This is why sourcing beats the return desk. Insurance Journal tells agents to “be wary of aggregated, incentivized, and co-registered leads,” because “they’re often low-intent consumers used by suppliers to boost lead volume and inflate your cost-per-policy metrics.” A low-intent lead that answers the phone is rarely returnable. It just loses. Our read on exclusive versus shared leads covers where duplicates come from. The buy-side math on live transfers shows how these terms get written when you buy an answered conversation.
Get these in writing before the first invoice
Ask for all six in the agreement itself, not in an email from a rep who may not be there in a quarter.
- The return window in hours, counted from the delivery timestamp, not from when you got round to calling.
- The accepted reason list, written out, including duplicate and wrong vertical.
- The cap, as a share of the billing period, and what happens the month you exceed it.
- Credit or cash, and how long a credit stays valid.
- Who decides. A policy reading “at our sole discretion” is a courtesy, and should be priced as one.
- Whether your rejection rate can be used to cut your delivery volume.
If you buy verified leads, the proof matters as much as the policy. Our piece on TrustedForm and Jornaya pricing covers what a certificate does and does not establish. In regulated lines these terms appear under different names, which is why the health insurance lead generation guide treats the return desk as part of the cost model. Have your own counsel read the final version.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a lead return policy?
It is the agreement defining which purchased leads you may send back, for what reasons, inside what window, and what you get in exchange. In practice you get account credit rather than cash. Treat it as a price term, alongside cost per lead and volume commitments.
How long do you have to return a lead?
It depends on the vendor, and one vendor can publish two answers. EverQuote’s agent FAQ allows a return credit request up to 30 days after purchase. Its terms of use waive charge claims not raised within ten days. Ask which governs your account, and get that answer in the contract.
Do you get cash or account credit?
Credit, nearly always. That matters when you are testing a vendor, because a credit is only worth something if you keep buying. Ask what happens to unused credit if you stop.
What counts as a returnable lead?
Whatever the accepted reason list says, and nothing else. Disconnected numbers, wrong vertical, duplicates and out of area are the common four. A prospect who picks up and simply says no is a normal sales outcome, so no vendor treats it as returnable.
Can a vendor refuse a return?
Yes, and larger sellers reserve that right explicitly. EverQuote’s terms state that refunds and returns are at its sole discretion. MediaAlpha’s annual report says it generally does not offer a right of return.
Cite this data
Elevarus, “Lead Return Policy: What Your Vendor Actually Guarantees,” elevarus.com, 12 August 2026. Terms quoted from EverQuote Pro’s FAQ and Terms of Use as read on 12 August 2026, and from MediaAlpha’s FY2022 Form 10-K filed with the SEC.
Know the cap before you know the price. If you want a second read on a vendor agreement before you sign, talk to us.
