- How Do Cashback Sites Earn Money
- Earning Money With Cashback Sites Free
- Earning Money With Cashback Sites For Beginners
Very simply – cashback sites will pay you money when you click through them and make a purchase at a retailer or service provider.
This could be for everyday items, like your food shop, or buying clothes. Or, it could even be for one-off purchases like a holiday, car insurance or an ISA.
If you can get something for cheaper so easily, then there is no reason not to use a cashback site.
Earn cashback at your favourite places to shop online, from travel and tech to fashion and gadgets, thousands of exclusive rates are available when you shop using Quidco. It’s completely safe, secure and there are absolutely no hidden charges. Our average member earns a whopping £280 per year. How To Make Money With Cashback Sites - Conclusion. My top two cashback sites to use are Quidco & TopCashBack. Both offer really competitive rates and both are free too sign up for. I usually check both sites before buying anything these days, just encase I can save a few £.
Some purchases will make you a few pennies back, but others can earn you hundreds in one shop. Overall, you can easily make £100s a year by shopping via a cashback site, instead of going to a retailer directly.
How do cashback sites work?
This is how you would shop (and make money back) with a cashback site.
- Search on the cashback site for the company you want to shop with
- Click through the link and shop as normal
- Cashback will be tracked in your account with the cashback provider.
The money will first be tracked, and it can take from a few hours to a few weeks for the cashback to be confirmed. At this point, you’re able to transfer the money to your bank account, cash out via PayPal, or get a top-up bonus when you choose a voucher with a retailer.
While that’s a brief summary of how it all works, take a look at our guide what is cashback for more detail.
Best cashback sites
There are loads of cashback sites about.
I find it best to register with a few different ones as some retailers appear on one but not on another. This way you can make sure you don’t lose out.
Quidco
Quidco is one of the best sites to make money through cashback, and they say most members make £280 a year.
For new members, we’ve blagged an exclusive offer to get £16 cashback for new Quidco members. Sign up to the Skint List newsletter to receive our weekly money saving newsletter, and we’ll also give you access to the £16 free cashback deal.
Alternatively, you can go for a £10 new member cashback offer instead if you don’t want to join the Skint List (but it’s a super-awesome newsletter :) so you’ll be missing out).
It’s free to join, and you’ve got access to over 4,500 retailers.
As well as getting cashback online, you’re also able to get cashback with shops on the high street, and you can even get money back on your food shop with their Click Snap app.
If you want to make more money, you could choose the Premium membership for £5 a year, which gets you cashback promotions worth around £50 a year. You don’t pay up front. Quidco just retain the first £5 of your annual cashback earnings each year. Really, it’s all about getting access to higher cashback bonuses and, in 2017, members earned 40% more cashback than Basic members.
When it comes to getting your money out, you can have it sent straight into your bank account via BACS, pick PayPal or pick gift cards from shops like Amazon, Argos, M&S and more.
There’s loads more Quidco new member offers here.
TopCashback
TopCashback is the highest paying cashback site (although remember that Qudico price match with the cashback guarantee).
There is plenty of Topcashback new member offers like free products as well as getting £15 cash back on spends.
TopCashback is also the largest cashback site with over 5,300 merchants, allowing you to get cashback from things like car insurance to grocery shopping and even mobile phone contracts.
When you sign up, you will be automatically put on their Plus membership which costs £5 a year. All new members get Plus free for a one month trial (so remember to downgrade your membership to Classic if you don’t want to keep it).
Having Plus membership means you’ll earn more. You don’t pay for the membership up front as Topcashback retain the first £5 cashback you make. With Plus membership you will get bonuses of up to 10% on top of your payouts.
It’s not just for online shopping. You’re able to register your bank card and also earn money when you shop on the high street. You can even get free or cheaper food when you take a photo of your receipt and upload it to the site or the Snap & Save app.
The minimum payout level is just 1p, and you can choose BACS payment, PayPal or pick from gift cards from major retailers (which can see you earn even more).
Swagbucks
Swagbucks UK is free to join, and you can immediately earn £3 by signing up here.
As well as earning cashback when you shop online, you’re able to make extra points by watching videos, listening to the radio, playing games and taking surveys.
If you download the free SwagButton, you will get notified when you’re on a shop that can earn you cashback with Swagbucks
Swagbucks allows you to make points which you can transfer over to cash out via PayPal or get gift cards from major retailers.
Watch out for new member SwagUp bonus where you can earn £10 cashback.
KidStart
If you’ve got kids, grandkids or even one on the way, KidStart may be a cashback option you want to consider.
KidStart is smaller than some of the other cashback sites, but it works differently.
Instead of giving you the money back, any cashback you earn has to be put towards a child’s savings.
KidStart say you could earn around £250 a year into a child’s savings account.
That is the one catch – it does need to be a child’s savings account. It could be with any bank or building society, a child trust fund or a JISA.
If you don’t have kids or have kids in the family you want to transfer the money to, you can choose to donate your cashback to a school or a choice of children’s charities.
Boom25
Instead of getting cashback on every purchase, Boom25 works differently.
It’s a bit more about the luck of the draw. Every 25th shopper wins 100% of their money back.
While you’ve got no guarantee that you’ll get anything, if you are the lucky 25th shopper, then the amount you get back will be better than the 5% other retailers can give you via Quidco or Topcashback.
They still offer retailers across lots of different categories. It’s free to join, and they pay out via PayPal.
The largest win so far is a whopping £4,225!
Check out our full Boom25 review for more information.
20Cogs
20Cogs is not just about cashback but pays you for other tasks too.
It’s free to join, and you’re able to earn money taking tasks, surveys, completing competitions, offers and games.
An average member earns just over £200! But some members have been able to make £700!!
So while you can get cashback buying products, a lot of the earning will come from tasks.
You get a whopping £10 welcome bonus when you join and they payout via PayPal or bank transfer.
QuickRewards
QuickRewards is another site that is not just about cashback.
It’s a ‘get paid to’ website where you can earn money through shopping, surveys, by playing games and watching videos.
It’s only open to people living in the UK, USA or Canada.
You’re able to earn up to 25% cashback at over 1,000 brand names stores. You can also make extra by reading emails and visiting other websites.
How can they give away money?
Cashback sites make their money using affiliate marketing and then share their profits with shoppers.
In simple terms, the cashback website earns a commission every time you make a purchase through their links. It’s this that you earn in your account.
Any catches?
There are just a couple of things to consider when using cashback websites.
Firstly, it’s always best to make sure you shop around first.
Just because you’re getting some money back, it doesn’t mean it’s the best overall bargain.
For instance, most cashback offers don’t work if you use a voucher code (check the terms for each retailer). You could be losing out on savings if you’ve got a 10% off voucher code, but only getting 4.5% cashback.
Also, it’s worth checking to see if you can get the item or service cheaper somewhere else. The same product could be on offer without cashback so you could save more.
One last thing to be aware of is that your cashback is not protected like your cash in the bank. If one of the cashback sites were to go bust for whatever reason, you could lose the money.
It’s therefore always worth cashing out as soon as you’re able.
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Cashback websites are one of the easiest ways to make a little extra cash with almost no effort.
You don’t need any initial investment to get started, and the returns are pretty instantaneous – what’s not to love?! This really is one of the most straightforward ways to make money, and in this article I’ll explain more about how it works and tell you which is the best UK cashback site to use.
I’ve been using this method myself for over 5 years and have racked up a lot of extra money from it. Further in this post I’ll tell you exactly how much I’ve made – you might be surprised.
Before we continue, you should know that this page does contain affiliate links to these sites. These links will pay us a small referral bonus if you choose to sign up through them. It won’t cost you anything (and helps us cover our website costs), but you certainly shouldn’t feel obliged. Here are the non-affiliate link versions: TopCashback / Quidco.
What are Cashback Websites?
Cashback websites give you a percentage of your online spending back as cash when you sign up and follow their referral link to the retailer you make a purchase from.
Usually the cashback is between 1%-10% but some merchants are even higher. There are also some that offer fixed amounts (utilities and phone contracts tend to be in this category).
Cashback sites explained in a nutshell, image courtesy of TopCashback
It’s not just limited to the obvious things like online shops – some phone companies, banks, credit cards, gambling sites and even investment platforms all offer a cash incentive to choose them over their competitors.
Tip: The best things we’ve found cashback sites to be used for are:
- Holidays and travel – there are usually chunky refunds on hotels, in particular
- Insurance – usually lots of great deals so worth checking when you renew
- Household bills and utilities – you’ll find everything ranging from gas and electricity suppliers to TV and broadband giving you cash back.
- Fashion and electronics – you can get some big savings on fashion items, often giving you a further discount on items that are already on sale!
If you buy any of these online, you want to sign up to one of the websites below – or you’re missing out on free cash!
What is the best UK Cashback website?
There are two major Cashback websites in the UK; TopCashback and Quidco.
In my experience, TopCashback almost always beats Quidco for the cashback rates offered. They even have a ‘highest cashback guarantee’, to make sure it stays that way. So, for those who want to keep things simple and straightforward, I would recommend signing up for that.
A typical topcashback page
For the more hardcore among us, it can be worth signing up to both so you can compare and see which one offers better rewards. From time to time, Quidco does come out on top. It also seems to run more bonus offers so if you really want to maximise your cashback, it’s worth having an account at both.
Both are entirely free to join and use, though they have optional premium/plus tiers which delivers some extra perks and benefits.
Whether the premium membership is worth it is up to you and generally depends on how much you are expecting to earn through the site. With both, they charge you a fee which is taken out of cashback you’ve earned – so you only pay if you actually make more than that.
An example of the Quidco dashboard – all of the offers are easily searchable.
How do Cashback Sites Make Money?
Cashback sites receive a commission from the store that they direct you to. Good cashback websites pass most of this on to you, and keep a small amount for themselves.
Many websites earn money through referral bonuses like this, called ‘affiliate links’. The difference with Cashback sites is that they pass a portion (usually most of it) back to you for using their service.
The idea is that the cashback sites make enough money through advertising and membership fees so they don’t need the actual referring bonuses they get – so these can be passed onto the user.
One natural question is ‘why do retailers give commission to these cashback sites in the first place’? That’s because:
- Retailers are happy to pay the cashback sites for generating new customers and encouraging purchases.
- The cashback sites say that people who receive money back from their purchases browse more products and add more to their basket, giving the retailer extra benefit.
In the early days, these sites were met with some suspicion, but they’ve been going for over a decade now, and it has become a well-established way that online shoppers can save money on their purchases for very little extra effort.
Are there any risks of using Cashback Sites?
Although they are mainstream and have been around for a long time, there are a couple of risks you should be aware of.
Firstly, there are sometimes issues in tracking the cashback for your purchases. This can occur if you’ve not enabled cookies (as that is what tracks your purchase), or if the retailer is very slow to pay. Thankfully, most of the retailers do pay reliably, and the cashback sites provide customer service if you believe your purchase has not been tracked properly.
Personally, I haven’t had any issues with my cash being tracked.
The second risk is that any money you’ve got stored up in these sites would be at risk if the cashback site went out of business. The two sites we’ve recommended in this article are well established, so the risk of this should be small, but it’s best to take regular payouts just in case.
Lastly, you should monitor your spending when you use these sites. Just because you’re getting something back, it doesn’t mean you should over-stretch or go crazy buying things you otherwise wouldn’t. Remember, it’s not completely free money – you’re only making it because you’re spending it!
Remember, just spend normally on these site. Don’t go all ‘Supermarket Sweep’
How much can I make out of cashback websites?
The possibilities are almost endless. There are two main ways of making money through cashback:
- Simply clicking through these sites when doing your normal shopping to earn a nice little kickback.
- Taking advantage of the “free” cashback offers. This is more complicated and time consuming, but the potential rewards run into the hundreds of pounds.
Option one is easy, so just about anyone can do it. It takes almost no time and lands a little bit of money back on your online shopping – it’s a no-brainer.
Option two is a little more time-intensive so may only be for the more dedicated. But there are serious rewards to be reaped by taking advantage of free offers. The “Free Cashback” section of TopCashback always has offers to get started.
How Do Cashback Sites Earn Money
To give you an example of the possibilities, here are my earnings through using TopCashback since 2013:
Earning Money With Cashback Sites Free
That’s more than realistic to achieve as I am not a huge online shopper – my frugal nature sees to that.
On top of that, here’s my more modest but decent haul from Quidco, which I also started using in 2013.
In case you think my earnings are unusual, both of the other The Money Mountain members, Ben and Chris, have similar results.
Is this one of the easiest possible ways to make extra cash?
As you can see, in the time I’ve been using Cashback sites, I’ve netted just over £2,000! The vast majority of that is from things I was going to buy anyway (though around £400-£500 of that comes from the ‘free cashback’ offers I mentioned above).
It’s crazy to think that I’ve earned nearly all of it just by simply checking these sites to see if there’s a cashback deal before I buy something. Each time it takes about 20 seconds!
No wonder this is the lazy person’s guide to making money. Who wouldn’t say yes to an extra couple of hundred pounds a year just for a few extra clicks when shopping online?
Earning Money With Cashback Sites For Beginners
If you’re not using these sites yet, it’s time to get involved. Let us know below which cashback site you prefer and why. Can you beat my cashback totals?