How to Save Money When Shopping Using Cashback Sites
Cashback sites are a great way of saving money on your shopping. If you haven’t already signed up to at least one, genuinely, you are missing out! Essentially by signing up to a free cashback site you are being given money via its portal. It’s like always having a coupon code when you’re shopping, without the need for an actual code!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
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How does it work?
For this example, we’ll use Quidco. Log onto Quidco.com, find the retailer you want and click through to the website. Your purchase will ‘track’ and although it might take a few months for the cashback to arrive in your account, it’s a bonus and might help you with the Christmas Shop or with an unexpected car repair bill!
Each cashback Site will have a variety of retailers so sometimes you might want to check several sites first to see if one is currently giving a bigger bonus than the other. Don’t forget, you can also get some amazing deals on utilities and financial products by using Cashback!
Why do Cashback sites pay out?
In a nutshell, cashback sites take advantage commercial payments from one website to another by using affiliate links, which allow the retailer to track where the traffic is coming from and then pay the cashback sites for the lead. So, you as the customer save money and the cashback site earn a commission (at no cost to you).
This is a common system, used by sites such as Money Saving Expert, Quidco, Amazon Affiliate, Top Cashback, Compare the Market and Go Compare.
Which Cashback Sites should I use?
These are the ones we use so they are tried and tested by us and therefore recommended by us!
1. Quidco
Use our referral link and you’ll receive £10 cashback. You’ll also receive £10 for each friend that you refer which in itself, is worth it. Examples of retailers on Quidco are eBay, BT, British Gas, Argos, Amazon, Very, Deliveroo, Clarks, Booking.com and Travelodge. The amount of cashback varies between each retailer, some offer a percentage of your purchase whereas some offer a flat monetary value. For example, BT offer up to £160 cashback plus a rewards card worth up to £120 for buying a broadband package via Quidco. That’s £280 in total and could pay a £30 a month broadband bill for just over 9 months.
2. Top Cashback
Use our referral link and you’ll receive a £5 bonus to start out with. You’ll then receive £20 for each friend you refer. Top Cashback offers a variety of cashback offers, some are a one off set fee whereas other payments are a percentage of your spend. Examples of retailers are Asda, Amazon, M and M direct, Just Eat, Virgin Media and Admiral Insurance. For example, at present Admiral are offering £35 cashback on any single car insurance policy, multicar policies give a £55 cashback rate. TalkTalk are offering £110 cashback on a £18.50 a month Broadband Contract.
Top Tips for using Cashback
- Cashback is a bonus you are receiving for a purchase of a service or product, it’s not a guaranteed payment as occasionally, there will be technical errors or the like as with any website. If you do have an issue with cashback not tracking properly, contact the sites customer service team.
- Don’t leave it to mount up too much. As with any company, the economic climate is particularly volatile at present, so it is sensible not to leave all the money you’ve earned stored in the website. Draw it out when you can and use or save it where you prefer.
- Look at the offer as a whole not just the cashback. Don’t be tempted by a particular product or service solely on its cashback amount. Look in detail at which product is cheaper and better for you over all. A broadband deal with £100 cashback might cost you £30 a month but a similar deal giving you £50 cashback might only be £20 a month saving you more money over all.
