All of us shop online. That’s the reality of the world we currently live in. But did you know that there are websites that pay you for shopping online? These are called cashback websites.
I personally love these sites and do all of my shopping through these. This way I earn £200-300 per year without a fail.
The best part about these – you can join for free and start using these instantly. There are no hidden fees or catch there. You simply get paid for shopping online through a link supplied to you from a website.
Below I will explain how these websites work, why on Earth would they pay you money, what are the watch outs with these as well as couple of examples of how I personally use these.
what are cashback websites
Cashback websites are amazing tools for those doing any amount of shopping online. And I don’t mean only buying clothing. Cashback websites do miracles for those buying/reserving/ordering anything at all online.
The way this works – the cashback website provides links for you to use in order to shop on the exact same website you were previously planning to buy your goods from.
These links do nothing to you. The cashback website however receives a referral payment for you completing your shopping trip on there. Once the money is cleared – you get your share of the deal added to your online account.
You are then free to do whatever you want with the money that you have accumulated.
One thing that I personally struggled with in the beginning – getting into the habit of checking for links. You need to remember – if you make a purchase without using their link, you will pay the same price yet no cashback will be given to you.
So before buying anything – make sure to check the list of partner websites these platforms offer.
One further help cashback websites do currently – they offer browser extensions for you to install. Some of these will remind you to activate the cashback when you get to the basket. This way you can be certain that the price you pay doesn’t change while at the same time you get money into your account.
what can you buy
When it comes to what you can buy through these websites – there really is no limit. Often it is the things you don’t even think about that will pay you the most.
It starts with clothing brands and goes all the way to investing accounts. And anything you can think in between. There really is no limit to what you are able to get cashback for while shopping online.
I can’t tell you the right way of using these websites however I can share my personal experience with these.
What brings me the most cashback is usually the likes of utilities and mobile phone contracts. You often get £20-100 offered for using their providers. What I normally do prior to that – a couple of searches of comparison websites. This gives me a great idea of what sort of prices I could get elsewhere.
Once I understand a fair pricing – I find something similar through the comparison websites I can access through a cashback link. This way I make sure I get the best available price while also getting myself some cashback in return.
I also use their referral links to places like eBay. I know the exact item I am going to buy anyway. While the eBay cashback is normally a low single digit percent – these do add up over time.
For those who love to their clothing shopping online – there is a lot of cashback you can make that way. Many retailers offer between 5% and 20%. That’s a decent discount to get for whatever you were planning to buy anyways.
If this becomes a habit for you – you could easily make extra couple of hundred of pounds each year.
watch outs for shopping on cashback websites
While all of the above sounds like a great tool to add to your money making repertoire – there are a couple of watch outs with these to be aware of.
One of the examples I personally found – airport carparks. You often think that you will use a comparison web site through a cashback link and definitely get the best deal. In my personal experience that isn’t always the case.
I have emails with voucher codes sent to me occasionally. The codes that you find there are most of the time a better deal than what is offered through a cashback website. And no – you can’t use the two combined in most of the cases.
Another industry I personally struggle with – car rentals. I can often get a significantly better deal on a normal rental car comparison website than the prices I get through cashback comparison portals.
The above 2 examples simply highlight the areas to pay extra attention to. At times the cashback you can earn is actually not worth it when you compare the final price you’d pay.
summary
Cashback websites are a great tool to use in order to save yourself some extra money. When it comes to the services that are available for you to use – there are 2 main ones that I use. Quidco and TopCashBack are the ones that I have taken a lot of money out of.
Be careful with these and make sure you don’t end up overpaying vs prices available to you on the market.
One further tip I can give you – don’t necessarily spend the money. What I personally do with all the cashback I earn – withdraw it once a year and add to my investments in an ISA. While this isn’t a massive amount – it will add up over time and compounding will do the rest.