Cashback sites Cashback sites: What to watch out for

Person shopping online

Get extra cash by shopping online via cashback sites

While cashback sites are a great way to earn extra money, there are a number of aspects that you need to watch out for.

Watch out for cashback site fees

The sites may be free to register with but some, such as Quidco, will keep back the first £5 of cashback that you earn each year – a de facto membership fee – to cover costs.

Watch out for minimum payments on some sites; for example, Giveortake only pays the money into your bank account once you’ve earned a minimum £25.

Don’t forget to factor in delivery charges on goods as some sites don’t pay cashback on this or the VAT element of the product’s price.

Better bargains

The lure of cashback can throw you off the scent of cheaper deals elsewhere. An example of this might be buying a particular home insurance policy with £75cashback if the policy’s costing you £300 when you could get the same cover on a price comparison site or by going direct for just £150.

Also, bear in mind that if you have a discount code for a website you usually can’t use cashback on top of that. In addition, a code may offer a bigger discount. So, in other words, check if you can buy more cheaply elsewhere, don’t be sucked in the lure of cashback.

Watch out for cookie trails

Keep a close eye on your cookies – software tracking your internet site visits. To be paid your cashback, there must be a clear ‘cookie trail’ between your computer, the cashback website and the retailer – an electronic footprint that shows you did use the cashback site to make the purchase.

For example, if you regularly buy goods direct from an online sports shop and then decide to take advantage of cashback as well via one of the sites, you’ll need to first ‘clear your cookies’. This will wipe away all your earlier behaviour of only shopping direct and, instead, set up a new cookie trail between your computer and the online sports shop via the cashback site.

If you don’t do this, the absence of a clear cookie trail could leave you empty-handed. Once you’ve made your first purchase at an online retailer through the cashback site, it’s usually no problem to keep going back.

Late or no cashback payments

Sometimes, cashback can take up to 12 weeks to reach your account. And in some cases, the operators who run the so-called affiliate links that transmit the payments between retailers and cashback sites, can run into trouble.

While each cashback site has its own relationships with individual affiliate link providers, you’re likely to reduce the risk of losing out if you stick to the bigger sites such as Quidco or Topcashback. 

A survey from research firm Consumer Intelligence found that 41% of respondents has made a complaint to a website about not receiving their money while 37% of those who complained say they never received a rebate. 

If you fail to receive money owed to you, write to the site as quickly as possible via the site’s official cashback claim link.

No regulation

Cashback sites are not regulated, so in the event of a company collapse, the chances of you getting any money would be the same as with any other creditor – involving a wait to see what assets remain before possibly claiming some cash.

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