Cashback websites pay you when you click through them, go to retailers or product providers and spend. You can make £100s a year using them correctly.
How do cashback sites work?
If you want to buy something online or sign up to a finance product, rather than going direct, click to the company via a cashback site and you get paid for it. The amounts range from pennies for retail items to – at the top end – more than £100 for some mobile or broadband contracts.
You’ll have to sign up to the cashback site, which should be free. If it’s not, avoid it. Then simply log in and search for the online retailer you want to buy from, such as Argos or Tesco Direct. If it’s listed, click the cashback site’s link to visit that company.
Your visit is then tracked. If you buy something, an amount is put into your cashback site account once the transaction’s processed.
Typical cashback site payments
| Debenhams | 3-5% of product’s cost | Marks & Spencer | 1-5% of product’s cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aviva home insurance | £20-£50 per policy | Currys PC World | 1-15% of product’s cost |
| Esure car insurance | £25-£42 per policy | Clarks | 3%-3.15% of product’s cost |
Why do they pay out?
Cashback sites take advantage of the way commercial payments from one website to another work. They use affiliate links, which allow the retailer to track where the traffic is coming from and then pay the cashback sites for the lead.
This is a common system, used by sites that send people through from comparison results, unique content (MSE does this – see the foot of the page for more details) or using links on advertising promotions. Cashback sites simply drive traffic by giving their users some of the money they’re paid.
The top-paying cashback site
If you want the site that pays the most, TopCashback is the winner. It’s the cashback site that gets the best feedback from its users. You can take earnings as cash, or boost returns by swapping cashback for Amazon or M&S vouchers.
How do I join & get cashback?
Choose its free membership. TopCashback has no annual administration fees. New users are are signed up to a one-month trial of its ‘Plus’ membership – remember to downgrade before the trial is up (which you can do at any time) otherwise you’ll automatically be charged for a year’s membership.
You can choose to pay a £5 membership fee. Topcashback’s Plus membership gives a 5% bonus on all the cashback rates on its site, eg, a £100 cashback deal would net you £105 as a Plus member.
Boost returns by up to 20%. Get a payout bonus by exchanging your cashback for gift cards from Amazon, Argos, M&S and more.
Earn cashback in store. TopCashback offers cashback on certain purchases made in store
How to boost your cashback by £100s more
Earn in-store cashback
You can get money back on in-store spending at a few different retailers wiith TopCashback
TopCashback allows you to earn in-store cashback by registering your debit or credit card and activating offers through OnCard. There aren’t a huge amount of offers available through this method, but you can get cashback by spending at big names with a MasterCard like ScS Sofas (3%), Cotsworld Outdoor (6%) and Runners Need (6%) through it.
Otherwise, the TopCashback lets you earn cashback on your in-store grocery and high street shopping with deals on specific items. Using the app you unlock the offer, scan the barcode of the product and then take a photo of the receipt, and the cashback should be approved fairly sharpish.
Cashback credit cards: 5% spending boost
Cashback credit cards give cold hard cash every time you spend on them. Always make sure you pay them off in full so you’re not charged interest though.
There’s no conflict between cashback sites and cashback cards, as when you spend money on a cashback card, whoever you spend it with, the card will give you some of it back.
