That is a great question, Howard. When you sign up for Thumbtack, the registration and requests you receive from customers is at no cost to you. You can review every detail of the request until you see one that sparks your interest, and then you can send the customer a quote. This is when you'll purchase the credits to promote your service to the customer. Depending on how big the job is, each request is between 2-9 credits, and each credit is $1.67. When you come to the purchase page after you create your quote, you can pay with a debit card, credit card, or PayPal account. If you'd like additional information, this article about Thumbtack credits (https://www.thumbtack.com/pros/credits) is a great resource. All you need to do is copy this link, paste it in your URL, and press “Enter.”