What if you could get paid for online shopping? How about getting paid to visit a store? Do pesky grocery shopping? Paying for your broadband… Cash back websites are just that.
How do they work? How much can you earn? Do they really have exclusive deals? Do they really make an earnest payout? Does the money really arrive in your bank account?
Lets take a look at all of the above claimed adverts and then proceed with a review on the biggest and best Cashback websites around today.
What You Need to Know Before Making a Purchase
- Make sure you are signed into your account
- Do not block cookies, ads or use incognito / private browsing mode when buying.
- Complete the purchase in only 1 sitting so your purchase is very clearly tracked by the system.
- Purchase only 1 item from a retailer at one time. If you buy multiple products then the chances are that your entire order will be tracked at a lower cash back rate.
- Do not make changes to the purchase after buying through a cash back website, if you do, then the cash back will not track for you.
- Do not use vouchers or codes from other websites, do not use gift cards either.
- Complete the transaction online. Very few retailers have telephone tracking. Those who do, make it clear on their retailer page.
- Read the terms and conditions of the retailer’s cash back deal carefully and understand it.
- Make sure you know the clearing period of the retailer’s cash back. Typically the length of time expected for each retailer to send payment is mentioned on the retailer’s page.
Best Cash Back Sites to Save Money
Now that you know what you need before making purchases, lets take a look at the biggest Cash back providers in UK, USA, Canada, China, India and Japan.
TopCashback
TopCashback offers a range of cash back offers in a variety of industries. From Utilities to mobile phone plans, electrical, travel, insurance and high street shopping, TopCashback has them all. TopCashback offers other benefits as well: you can compare insurance plans for car, home, bike, van, travel and pets across 125 insurance companies in the UK (sadly TopCashback doesn’t offer insurance in the US, Japan, China as yet). If you are not in the mood for online shopping but are just browsing through stores and decide to buy an item, all you need to do is find the store in the app and show the voucher code at the time of payment.
When grocery shopping, the TopCashback Mobile app is great for getting items at exclusive deals and prices. All one needs to do is unlock an offer in the app, scan the product bar code and take a picture of the receipt when you pay for it. Another method to earn cash back is via your registered cards. For this, you need to do register your credit card or debit card on the website, activate offers and shop through them in store and you’ll start earning cash back through retail outlets as well.
All Cash back is collected and a payout is made as you reach minimum thresholds of your selected withdrawal methods. TopCashback offers BACS (direct bank account transfer), PayPal and many gift card options as withdrawal methods. Mind you, a store gift card usually has a threshold of £10, while the likes of Amazon and M&S have a threshold of £0.01.
TopCashback is the UK Cashback site of the year for 2022.
TopCashback – US, India, China and Japan
TopCashback is also active in the US, India, China and Japan. The regional websites are not as versatile as their UK counterpart however, they are a good place to start when buying online from the likes of Macys, Nine West, Reebok, JC Penny, Dell, Jet.com, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Expedia, Hotels.com etc for US.
For India TopCashback is a wonderful option and should be the first stop before buying anything online or in-store. Cashback from popular sites and providers such as Flipkart, Airtel, Ebay, Telenor, Reebok, Swiggy, Pepperfry.com etc. is available at flat rates or ranges from 4.5% to 12%.
Quidco – UK only
Quidco is one of the best cashback providers in the UK. Going head to head with TopCashback in the UK, it too offers some great features and has the highest cashback offer available. They cover travel, electricals, telecom, fashion, insurance and luxury brands.
Quidco Compare works across insurance, energy / utilities and telecom plans. All you need to do is fill in your details / requirements and the best offers from multiple providers are shown to you. You can choose the best offer and complete the purchase via Quidco. If you want some time to think then Quidco will save your quote and you can retrieve it later for easy decision making. The Quidco ClickSnap gives cashback on selected offers in-store and online. All you need to do is upload the receipt within 7 days of your shopping at a participating supermarket in the allotted time-frame. Unlike TopCashback, you don’t need to activate an offer before making a purchase.
Quidco High-street allows you to shop in-store and get cashback via your registered cards. You will need to activate retailers prior to shopping though. Other ways to earn from Quidco is via giving opinions / filling surveys. There is also the rewards program where you shop at select Quidco partner sites/stores with coin icons and earn bonuses on top of your cash back.
Quidco offers a variety of payout methods. These include bank transfer and PayPal along with digital gift cards. The minimum balance required for withdrawal is £1 or £5 depending on the withdrawal method. Quidco’s website is easy to use and has an intuitive user interface. It is my preferred choice for a cashback website due to this and for their excellent mobile app. Quidco is always the first one to come up with innovative methods to save while shopping or browsing.
Signup via TechVise and earn £5 cash back on your first earning of £5 in Cashback with Quidco!
Rakuten Rewards
Another popular cash back site from the US and Canada is Rakuten Rewards. It doesn’t matter if the stores are physical outlets or online, Rakuten offers deals / cash back on electronics, vacation, books, office supplies, health, beauty, clothing (men, women, kids) toys, food, flowers and digital media etc. You can get Rakuten app for android or apple devices and signup to earn cash back from all the online retailers available there. The way to make cash back earnings for a successful payout is to have PayPal or get a check.
You can earn 5% cashback on many restaurants via Rakuten app including the tip! If you use lyft through the app, you can get cash back on taxi rides as well. You can also get exclusive deals on online shopping. It doesn’t matter if you are a new customer or just there for referrals, if you buy, you can earn a certain amount of cashback.
You can also book hotels and earn 10% cashback. If you want to shop in person, you can check which retail stores are available for cash back and then register your credit cards, debit cards, and activate exclusive deals and offers before shopping in-store or in person. They also have double and triple cash back offers that are highlighted under a separate tap on the website. Be sure to look into those before deciding on shopping at Rakuten.
You can also get the cash back button which is an extension for your browsers: Google Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. It alerts users on cash back sites about coupons, deals and cash back opportunities.
Rakuten is available in US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and China.
Use our special link to get $30 for your first $30 purchase.
How Do Cash back Websites Work?
Cash back websites earn a profit for each sale they do on behalf of their client. What this means is that if you buy a product or service through them, they will get revenue from the seller; a portion of this revenue is passed on to you.
How do I earn through a Cash back website?
Once you’ve decided on your purchase, you simply need to go to the cash back website and look for the correct offer. Once you find an offer, see the cash back terms and conditions and purchase the product through the link they provide.
You end up spending a couple of extra minutes with this, but the savings are usually worth it.
How Much Do You Earn Through Cash back Websites?
For high net services such as insurance, utilities, banking etc, you can earn from $50 to $150 per qualified sale.
What type of purchases should I do via Cash back Sites?
Typically, industries such as Financial Services, Insurance, Internet, Mobile and Utilities pay a fairly decent sum for each qualifying sale.
A qualified sale generally means that you are a first time customer approved and have cleared any internal/credit checks required by the service provider to become their customer.
What is a ‘Last Click’ policy?
Cash back sites work on the ‘Last Click’ policy. This means that you have to come directly from the cash back website through the link/button on their website and not from another website when you are ready to make a purchase. Thus, even if you look at many websites before deciding on a new phone or a laptop you want to buy, you have to go back to Quidco or Top Cashback, sign in to your account and click the product/deal link from there.
Final Thoughts
Depending on your country it doesn’t matter whether you use Quidco, TopCashback or Rakuten Rewards; they are all very good and above board. You should always appreciate that a cash back site is always a bonus to your purchase and not a guaranteed payday.
