Cashback is now big business. If you’re new to cashback, where have you been? Don’t worry, here’s how to earn a little bonus cash pretty easily.
The concept is simple:
Shop with a participating retailer and you earn a percentage of what you spend back in the form of cashback.
There are two big cashback websites in the UK – Topcashback and Quidco.
If you only do one thing today, create an account with one of these websites.
Every time you want to buy something online, go via that website and search for the retailer. If they have a cashback offer simply click through to the main retailer’s website and make your purchase.
So let’s say I want to make a purchase on B&Q’s website.
I first visit Topcashback or Quidco and search for B&Q.
It tells me I can get 5% cashback.
I click through to B&Q from the cashback website and spend £100.
5% of £100 is tracked on the cashback website.*
The cashback is paid once the retailer confirms my purchase – usually a few months.
*Some retailers will only offer a percentage of the non-VAT amount.
If you do lots of online shopping, a couple of extra clicks can soon earn you some decent cashback.
A couple of things to remember:
You can pay a fee to upgrade your account for better deals – the fee is subtracted from cashback you make.
Always check the terms and conditions as cashback may not be able with certain purchases e.g. when using in conjunction with a discount code or voucher.
So that’s your standard cashback website in a nutshell. Pretty easy to use and it becomes second nature once you’ve used it a few times.
Cashback percentages can range from 1% to 20% or even be fixed cash amounts. I think I’ve made nearly £1000 in cashback over the years.
Taking it to the next level with cashback stacking
Now here’s where you can earn even more cash with just a little extra effort.
Cashback stacking is where you are paid cashback from multiple providers for one single transaction.
It’s perfectly legitimate and can sometimes treble your cashback amount!
Note: You can’t click through to a retailer’s website from Topcashback and Quidco for the same purchase and earn double cashback. It won’t work.
How to be a whizz at cashback stacking
1) Download Airtime Rewards
This is a handy cashback app that takes money directly off your smartphone bill. Once set up, it’s also a very passive way of earning cashback.
You link your mobile phone number to your Airtime Rewards account and when you reach £10 in cashback you can use this towards/for all of your next smartphone bill payment.
You can store as many debit or credit cards on the app which means you never have to think about activating your cashback like you do with a cashback website. It just syncs up when you make a physical or online qualifying purchase with a saved card.
There aren’t hundreds of retailers linked to Airtime Rewards, so it will take a while to build up your cashback earnings. But you really don’t have to do anything once you’ve done the initial work to setup your account.
2) Download Cheddar
Cheddar is pretty new to the cashback market and is a really simple way of boosting your cashback even more!
It works in the same way as Airtime Rewards - you simply link your bank cards to your Cheddar account and the cashback happens automatically in the background.
You'll need to reach a minimum of £5 cashback earned before you can withdraw it to your bank account.
This app also tracks your spending on any cards you have linked to it too. So a handy little feature.
3) Make use of cashback credit or debit cards or cashback offers from your bank
Cashback credit cards
These are credit cards that earn you a percentage of your spend on everyday purchases.
There aren’t too many of these on the market and you really need to be on top of paying off your credit card IN FULL, EVERY MONTH. Otherwise any interest accrued on your credit card will almost certainly wipe out any cashback earned.
Top cashback credit card picks
American Express
AMEX offers two cashback credit card options with welcome bonuses of 5% cashback that savvy spenders can take advantage of. An unbeatable cashback rate but AMEX is not accepted everywhere so double check you can use it at places where you often shop.
Chase Bank Debit Card
New customers to digital bank Chase can get 1% cashback on pretty much everything for the first 12 months when they spend using their Chase debit card. This is the best debit card for cashback on the market. So a great option if you're not comfortable spending on a credit card.
Existing Chase customers can now get 1% cashback from April 2023 by paying in £500 a month.
Barclaycard Rewards Credit Card
This typical credit card offers 0.25% cashback on anything you buy with the card. Not the best of rates, but you do also get fee-free spending abroad too which is very handy if you travel a lot. Paying with a zero-fee card gets you the best exchange rates.
This typical credit card offers 0.25% cashback on anything you buy with the card. Not the best of rates, but you do also get fee-free spending abroad too which is very handy if you travel a lot. Paying with a zero-fee card gets you the best exchange rates.
Utility Warehouse Prepaid Cashback Card
This is one of those unheard of cashback cards that you’ll only know about if you use Utility Warehouse for your household bills.
To summarise, when you switch your gas/electric and broadband to Utility Warehouse, you’re given a prepaid visa card which earns 1% cashback on everyday spending plus up to 7% cashback at specific retailers.
Every month, cashback you’ve earned is used towards your next UW bill – just like how Airtime Rewards works.
Utility Warehouse may not be the cheapest option for your household bills, but if it is, then earning cashback on top is a great bonus to cut your bills even further.
Cashback offers from your bank
Many banks now offer extra incentives called cashback rewards. Similar to how the major cashback websites operate, you can earn cashback when you shop with a partner retailer using your debit card.
Natwest, Lloyds and Halifax all offer cashback of up to 15% with certain retailers.
But whoever you bank with, double check if there are any cashback offers available to you.
An example of cashback stacking
Matalan are currently partnering with multiple cashback platforms that I can take advantage of.
1) At Quidco I can earn 5.5% cashback when I spend a minimum of £50.
2) At Airtime Rewards I can earn 5% cashback when I shop online at Matalan.
3) With my Natwest Debit card I can earn 5% cashback when I shop at Matalan.
So if I spend £50 at Matalan and stack these 3 offers I could earn a total of £7.75 (depending on the VAT policy on cashback) by:
paying with my Natwest Debit card
linking it to my Airtime Rewards account
shopping online at Matalan via the Quidco cashback link.
Seriously, how long did that take me? Maybe an extra 3 minutes? The only thing I really had to do was check the current offers running at Quidco and Natwest.
A triple cashback stack is not that common, however. So don’t go buying things with specific retailers if you hadn’t planned to anyway.
Remember: cashback is a bonus. A nice little earner that ticks away in the background.
Taking an extra couple of minutes every time you shop can soon boost your cashback earnings.
