Making a totally unused account before getting invite didn't work for me. I made 5 new accounts with no linakge to any game, then sent myself an invite and all the brand new accounts I made just hours before sending the email were not allowed to register for a trial/RAF. I had to make completely new accounts off the invite link.

BEFORE paying for anything, should always make sure the trial account you made is actually linked to your account you used to send the invite. This is very easy to do. Just log in to your account, look at RAF under account and check that your new account is listed as "Trying Game'. Make double sure and go ahead and log into the game with old account and new account, get both accounts in same group and make sure you can "go to" on the accounts. If the account is "trying game" then it is probably linked. If you can "go to" then they are absolutely linked. Both of these can be checked before ever giving SOE any $$. If it is "Invitation sent" after hours of waiting, then you need to try again because it is not linked. You might have sent yourself the invitation, but whatever new account you just made was not made off that invite.

When you send an invite to your new account, your old account under RAF will list "invite sent" . When you make a new account off that invite (possibly also have to log in) it will change to "Trying game". This is very easy to check and as retarded as their logging in and out of accounts is or how easily people can screw up while making the RAF account, checking to make sure the accounts are actually linked before paying is simple.