Welcome to this week's Finance Fridays. Last week we were looking at Store loyalty cards and this week we're sticking with the shopping theme. Now we are in November the Christmas shopping season begins in earnest. It's time to make the most out of your money even when spending so let's find out about cashback sites.
How do they work?
The idea is very simple in
that you log on to a cashback site and search for the retailer you
wish to purchase from. If you click on their link to the retailer it
will then track any purchases you make and in return you will receive
usually a percentage of the sale back in cashback. For example if you
buy an item costing £10 and the cashback on it is 2% you will
receive back 20p. It may not seem much but different retailers have
different cashback rates and if you do a lot of shopping it could
soon add up. Also you are getting something for nothing if you were
going to buy that item anyway.
What to look out for
Some sites are totally free
to join, others have a standard free membership and also a paid
premium membership with higher rates and different offers whilst some
have an an annual fee or one-off fee to join. Decide which level of
membership is best for. If you don't do a lot of shopping a paid
membership may see any cashback you make wiped out by the annual fee.
In other cases if you are going to make a big purchase such as a
holiday you may get back your membership fee plus more in that one
purchase.
Do keep a record of what
purchases you have made so you can keep track of them. Sometimes
purchases are not tracked properly so you will need to take it up
with the cashback company. It also can take several months for the
cashback to come through so be patient. This also means you shouldn't
rely on the cashback money as a form of income as you can't guarantee
when it will make an appearance in your account.
You may set up a number of
accounts across various cashback sites but one of the problems with
this is that they usually have a minimum withdrawal amount. If you
spread yourself too thinly you may end up with lots of little amounts
across several sites but you can't access any of the money. It's
probably best sticking to a maximum of two sites you like the best.
Once you do reach the minimum withdrawal amount it's usually best to
move your money out of the cashback site and into your own bank
account. I don't want to scaremonger but if a cashback site goes bust
you'll probably never see your money again. If you're worried about
the money being swallowed up in your current account if you want to
save it then set up a basic savings account with your bank so you can
easily transfer the money across.
Before you buy through a
cashback site do check that the item you wish to purchase isn't
cheaper overall somewhere else. For example if you want to buy a new
camera for £300 and the cashback site is offering 2% cashback
through a high street chain it would bring the price down to £294. A
local independent camera shop not on cashback sites may have it
priced at £290. Do your sums first!
Boosting your cashback
It's not just online
purchases that can get you cashback. Some sites allow you to register
credit and debit cards so purchases made in store are eligible for
cashback. Of course you need to be happy with your card details being
stored on their site.
Cashback is sometimes
offered on long-term contracts such as insurance, gas and electric
bills and mobile phone contracts. That way with every bill you need
to pay you'll be earning cashback on it.
It's not all about spend,
spend, spend. All cashback sites want new members so some offer
rewards for existing members to refer their friends and family to
join. If you go onto the sites sometimes there are surveys you can
answer to gain cashback or enter prize draws. Earlier this year I
went through a cashback site to do a car insurance comparison. I
never took up any of the quotes but I got £2.15 just for doing the
search.
Now we've had a look at some
of the dos and don'ts of cashback sites it time to have a look at the
actual sites.
Quidco
Boasting to be 'The UK's
number one cashback site' Quidco
offers both free and paid memberships plus other rewards. There is
now over 4,300 retailers who are linked up to the Quidco cashback
site. Quidco Basic is free to join and is paid for by Quidco running
retailers' ads on their site. You can also upgrade to Quidco Premium.
Do be careful when you first join as Quido Premium is sometimes the
default option unless you opt out. The £5 fee for Quidco Premium is
taken out of your annual cashback earnings. In return it offers
faster paying retailers from over 650 of its clients, no ads on the
site, a 2% bonus if you choose to receive your cashback in Amazon
vouchers plus exclusive bonuses and offers with certain retailers.
Quidco also offers in-store
cashback if you register the debit or credit cards that you use to
pay for the items in these store. The list of retailers isn't very
long but do include Caffè
Nero, Debenhams, Halfords and the two jewellers H. Samuel and Ernest
Jones. With Christmas coming up it may be beneficial if you were
thinking of making a big purchase from one of these stores such as a
bike, watch or jewellery.
TopCashback
The other player in the UK
cashback scene is TopCashback
who claim to be 'The UK's #1 Cashback and Vouchers Site'. I'll let
Topcashback and Quidco battle it amongst themselves as to which one
really is number one. Essentially TopCashback works in exactly the
same way as its rival. They have a free 'Classic' and also a £5 fee
for joining the 'Plus' membership. TopCashback offers faster paying
to all its members. In return for the £5 Plus members receive higher
cashback rates with certain retailers, a higher referral fee for
introducing new members and higher bonus benefits.
The instore purchases scheme
known as OnCard offers a slightly eclectic range of retailers from
Starbucks, HomeSense, Hawkin's Bazaar and Maplins. Most of these are
only for a limited amount of time, have amount caps and can only be
received if you pay on a Mastercard so keep checking the site for the
most current offers.
Maximiles
Through Maximiles
you can build up points through shopping at over 500 retailers.
Whilst this significantly less than Quidco and Topcashback with
Maximiles you can boost your points total by answering surveys,
entering competitions and even watching videos. The points you
collect are then able to be spent through Maximiles' own catalogue.
Therefore this isn't a straight money cashback site but more of a
reward site. For retailers such as John Lewis and Curry's you receive
2 points for every £1 spent. Rewards start from 2,000 points for
items such Bon Jovi's Greatest Hits, an iPhone 5 case or a Little
Miss Chatterbox mug. If you earned points just through shopping you
would need to spend £1,000 to receive one of these items.
GreasyPalm
The first cashback site in
the UK was GreasyPalm back
in 2003. They state they have over 2,500 retailers working with them.
In order to get your cashback you need to complete the 10 steps on
the Cashback ladder first. I've never personally used this site so
I'm not sure what this entails. However it does state on the site
that you need to have £25 worth of cashback in your account for it
to be paid out to you.
There are other ways to earn
cashback on GreasyPalm such as form filling, answering surveys,
signing up for emails (always create a separate email address for
such things) and opening bank and credit cards accounts.
Getpoundsback
The Getpoundsback
states it takes no admin fee from the retailers so it is generally
able offer higher rates of cashback than other sites. Many of them
claim to offer the highest rates so this shows it is best to look to
at all the sites. For cashback to be authorised and put into your
account it usually takes 2-3 months. Minimum payout though is only £3
so one offer could make you eligible for a payout.
Other cashback sites
I've
listed some of the most well-known cashback sites above and here are
some of the others I have found. Please note I can't personally
recommend any of the sites I've listed as many of them I have never
used. So do look round each site and look at the rates they offer and
how they pay the cashback back to you before signing up to any of
them.
Do
you use cashback sites? Which ones are your favourites?
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I'll
share my favourites with you next week so we can all get our
finances in order!
I really should do more of this sort of thing. Our bank account has started doing cash back which is useful.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I had no idea there was so many - I use TopCashBack myself but only just getting my head around it. x
ReplyDeleteI really should do this but at the moment I raise money for the school through easy fundraising
ReplyDeleteI've never used a cashback site - it sounds very complicated. It's a great idea though, as long as you're organise I guess!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article. I've never used a cash back site although I'm pretty sure I registered for one years ago? INot sure if you can answer this bit if you go through one of the cash back portals are you given exactly the same prices as if you didn't and can you still use the online stores voucher codes?
ReplyDeleteYes and yes. The cash back sites just track your purchase but the shop's site is exactly the same one. Once you get to checkout you can enter any other valid promotional codes such as for 10% off or free delivery.
DeleteThere are some great cashback sites there that I had no idea of. Cheers
ReplyDeleteI always mean to use a cashback site when I do my shopping but forget. I must try and remember in future as they sound like such a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI don't use them as they seem to be a bit of a faff but the wife uses Quidco.
ReplyDeleteWe don't really use any of these. I do find the signing up process for these things tedious and I am not sure the rewards are worth my time and constant tracking. I would consider signing for these if we were to purchase big ticket items like cars, appliances or holidays.xx
ReplyDelete