Want to bag £50 without spending a single penny? Find out how here...
Everyone likes to be rewarded for shopping. But how would you like to earn free money for every pound you spent online, and in some cases, on the high street?
Well, if you know how to play the cashback game, then you could be no more than a few clicks away...
Cashback websites are a nifty way to make money on your everyday shopping. You simply sign-up using your email address and a chosen password. The sites then serve as an online portal from which you can do your shopping.
Any purchases you make are tracked, and commission generated from your sale is then passed back to you through online middlemen. Providing you meet certain criteria, this can then be transferred to your account in a number of ways, including electronic transfer or cheque.
What You Can Earn
Here’s a quick glance at what the cashback players are offering. For a more in-depth overview of cashback sites and how they work, take a look at the article, Earn Cashback On Everything!
| | Quidco | TopCashBack | RPoints | Greasy Palm |
|---|
Membership/ Admin Fee | £5 annual membership | Free | Free | Free |
Sign up bonus | N/A | N/A | £5 | £2.50 |
Earnings required before first payout | £0.01 | £0.01 | Varies (must reach £25 to qualify for bonus) | £25 |
Referral bonus | N/A | 50p | £5 | £7 |
As you can see, the rewards can be great, as some sites such as RPoints even give you a sign up bonus which you can claim once you’ve earned £25. However, there are other ways in which you can maximise your cashback.
Cash-In On Your Cashback
The first thing you can do is double up on your cashback by paying for your purchases with a cashback credit card. These credit cards also reward you for every pound you spend, whether online or in the supermarket. You earn money back on virtually all your shopping, with cashback usually paid once a year as a credit to your statement.
Currently, the highest paying cashback credit card is the American Express Platinum MoneyBack credit card, which gives you 5% cashback on purchases made within the first three months (on up to £4,000 of spend), and up to 1.5% cashback thereafter.
So, for example, if you shopped through Quidco and bought a Nintendo Wii at Tesco Direct.com, you’d immediately earn 3% cashback, shaving £5.40 off your spend. On top of that, if you also used your American Express card within the promotional period, you’d get an additional £9 off your purchase, bringing the total to £165.60 -- that’s nearly £15 back in your pocket for a few extra clicks of a mouse.
Bear in mind that some companies affiliated with cashback schemes such as Play.com don’t accept American Express as a method of payment, so you may want to consider alternatives.
Unfortunately, Capital One has recently withdrawn its popular MasterCard cashback credit card. However, Barclaycard’s Platinum Cashback MasterCard, currently offers 4% cashback until 31st July 2008, and 0.5% cash back on all spend until January 2010. (Although with July already halfway gone, one wonders how great the 4% offer really is).
A Fountain Of Free Cash!
There are even ways you can make money without spending a penny (in the literal sense, of course).
For example, if you were a member of new cashback site CashbackKings, signing up for a free trial with both Blockbuster and LOVEFiLM, would earn you £16 a piece.
As well as this, music download shop eMusic.com offers you £4 if you sign up for their free trial, and VistaPrint will give you another £4 if you order a set of free business cards from their online store. That’s £40 so far -- all for watching DVDs and listening to music!
In addition to signing up to these trials, many cashback sites will offer your money for completing short surveys, or for registering on selected websites. With around 50p - £1.50 on offer per completed survey, you could get up to £10 to £15 within a few weeks, depending on how much time you have on your hands.
Here’s how it could add up:
Company | Cashback Earned |
|---|
Blockbuster | £16 |
LOVEFiLM | £16 |
eMusic.com | £4 |
VistaPrint | £4 |
Surveys | £10 |
Total | £50 |
As you can see, signing up for various offers could easily earn you £50. However, a word of warning. By completing some of these surveys, you could inadvertently be signing up for spam, so if you're averse to junk in your inbox, earning cash this way may not be for you.
Also, as with all 'free' subscriptions, to make 'free' really mean free, make sure you cancel your subscription before any trial ends to ensure your bank account doesn't get charged.
A Few Things To Remember…
Firstly, in order to earn cashback, you must be logged in and always shop through the cashback website to qualify.
Secondly, you may be tempted to sign up for all the cashback sites in the hope of raking in as much cash as possible. However, many require you to earn a certain amount before you can actually transfer the cash into your account.
For example, GreasyPalm requires you to have £25 of cashback in your account before making a transfer. So choose wisely and pick a cashback site which is linked to shops which you regularly spend at.
Thirdly, remember that these sites are not the be-all and end-all of shopping, and you could still get a better deal from shopping elsewhere.
For example, if you wanted to get your mitts on Editors' album The Back Room, you could bag it on HMV.com for just £4.99. Shopping through Quidco would earn you an extra 7% cashback, bringing the price down to £4.64.
However, if you followed this savvy tip from our latest Discounts and Deals article and bought the album from Zavvi, you’d only have to fork out £2.99. So, I can't stress enough the importance of shopping around over being seduced by the idea of cashback.
And finally, as long as you pay your balance off in full every month, make sure you use your cashback credit card to pay for your purchases. That way, you can clock up more great rewards in no time.
Happy shopping!
More: 99% Of Cards Use This Dire Trick! | Earn Cashback On Everything!
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