Preferred Player Status

I feel so stupid right now. Around an hour ago, I met a really nice player on SWTOR. The only problem was that I was a F2P player and I couldn’t talk to him. I’m fairly new to TOR, so I went to go send him mail and it says I must be a preferred player or be subscribed. At the bottom of the message it says “Preferred Player is rewarded to anyone who buys Cartel Coins, a Subscription, etc.” I thought that was awesome and I could finally talk to my friend. I decided to buy the $2.99 Cartel Coins, because I wasn’t gonna use them anyway, just wanted to talk to my friend. I purchase them and then I go to the mailbox and I still don’t have PPS. I then read on the forums that it might have to be $5. I haven’t used any of the CC. Is there anything I could do to maybe talk to him. The thing at the bottom of the mail just said you had to purchase CC, so I’m very confused. Help!