The cash is in the bag! (cashbag.co.uk)

Member Name: sirg0508

Product:	cashbag.co.uk
Date:	18/09/06 (404 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many - see review

Disadvantages: Tracking cashback not show like other sites

Cashbag is one of a long line of cash back sites on the net but having used many of them it is one I’ve stuck to and use on a daily basis for several reasons. If buying anything on the internet, the first thing I normally do is check Cashbag to see if they offer cashback. This can be anything like buying from retailers like Boots.com and getting 2.25% cashback or even just registering on a site to get money. It may not seem much but it all adds up and is money back for something I was planning to buy or join anyway. Secondly I can click on links daily and receive between 2p – 12p just for searching for something on a site like Kelkoo or enter competitions all for free. I don’t have to spend a penny. Thirdly is the Freebie Village forum which is used for finding lots of freebies on the web but also a place to ask general questions about Cashbag and is answered by Cashbag staff (although these are general enquiries and not account specific).

Joining the site is very simple and I do stress that you should read the Ts&Cs before joining. E.g. People outside the UK cannot get cashback and you have to be over 18. A lot of accounts have been closed because people didn’t read them! By clicking on ‘Join Now’ all that is required are general details like name and address (used for sending cheques). It doesn’t really matter about choosing a payment method as this can be changed when asking for a payout.

Payouts are made from £15 and can be received through PayPal, by Cheque or Amazon vouchers. Each works in £5 increments which I know can be infuriating at times when for example another 2p is needed to get a payout. I don’t know exactly how much, but I have made upwards of £500 from Cashbag since joining in August 2005. At the moment it will take a lot longer than a year to make as much as I did because eBay had a few offers on that meant we could earn around £35 a day (another was £8 a day) but this offer was abused and quickly removed… it was on several cashback sites so not directly caused by Cashbag members but for those who put the time in, were greatly rewarded. The same can be said about Cashbag as a whole. If you don’t bother to visit the site and either buy through the links on site or visit daily to do the recurring offers then you won’t be paid as much as others who do.

The site is well presented and even if you go to click on one area that could get you cashback it will ask you to login if you haven’t already which I feel is missing from other sites and I would lose out. I always begin by clicking on ‘Member Login’ and this is time sensitive so if I don’t do anything for a while can mean having to login again. Once logged in I am faced with the latest offers. Most of these require some form of payment like ‘deposit £5 and receive £7.50 cashback’ from a bingo site or can be sites to join up to for a smaller reward. Lately these offers have been added with dates which is handy for those who forget if they’ve been done or not. There isn’t much to the site so it isn’t complicated to navigate and even though it does contain animated advertisements for sites, is actually still quite fast to use. Down the left are all the options needed for accounts and further down all the retailers organised by category – within each of those, organised by alphabetical order. There are hundreds of retailers from well known to not so well known ones so always check! Current earnings shows what is available in GBP and now includes dates of when the offers were originally done – still in Beta testing these dates are not always accurate but do give some idea of what is being paid and from when. Cleared Earnings covers all the offers that have been done but already received in payment. When a payment is asked for and the account goes down, this is where they are moved to. It has been handy because it means I can still check on what I’ve been paid for although it doesn’t contain a running total of everything earned.

Under ‘Retailer Categories’ is the category I use most often: ‘Recurring’. As mentioned above, these are generally worth between 2p and 12p and all they require is searching a website and clicking through to another site. An example would be the merchant ‘HighStreet Web’. By clicking that link I am taken to their site. I would then click on anything under the 8 categories in the middle of the page (like ‘Loans’) and be faced with a list of sites and click on one of those which will open in a new page. I wait for a few seconds before then closing. All the offers on Cashbag under ‘Recurring’ can be done on a daily basis and it is a good idea to disable pop up blockers and to clear cookies regularly so there is more chance of them being tracked. Personally I do try and do these on a daily basis and at the moment I don’t make many purchases so my money comes from these offers. They may not seem much but it is amazing to see how quickly they add up. Best of all they don’t take long to do and I usually do them the same time as other things online.

Buying through the site is done the same way. Login and either browse through the categories on the left or, if decided which retailer will be used, click on Fast Cash and search for them. There is a range of different cashback offers available e.g. 1% cashback from Currys but 1.25% from Comet on electrical goods and then after reading the little blurb about the retailer (as some can have specific requirements) just click on the site name. This will then open up a new page which contains a special link for tracking the purchase. Nothing else has to be done except buy what is going to be bought but I always browse the site first and decide what I want to buy before clicking through Cashbag so I know there is more chance of it being tracked if done in a shorter time.

Whatever is done to gain cashback will NOT show up in the account as it does on other sites which are then pending and waiting to be verified. When you login it says at the top of the page how much is in the account. This is where people give up altogether – they think the site is a scam and doesn’t pay out because they can’t see it being tracked. It is mentioned that some merchants verify purchases/clicks between 30 and 45 days however there are times when some are verified after only 14 to 21 days. Some are done in blocks and only credited at the end of the month which can mean larger payouts especially on the daily clicks if there is 30 days between being added each month. I’ve only ever put in a claim for 2 offers which hadn’t paid out within 30 days – easily done by clicking on ‘Submit Claim’. The first was a Boots.com order which was then received within the 45 days maximum wait but the other was a payout from a gambling site. I had signed up, put money in, gambled with that money, luckily after losing a bit managed to get it right back up again so I could get the money deposited back. But unfortunately I was informed by Cashbag after they looked into it that the offer had not been tracked. Maybe it was my fault or maybe it was the gambling site being greedy I don’t know. It was disappointing but not caused by Cashbag. In both cases I received a message on screen to say it can take up to 4 weeks to hear back from Cashbag as they have to contact the merchant once a claim is raised and I then received personal replies in both cases to let me know what was happening.

Having been on the Cashbag forum (known as FreebieVillage.co.uk), I’ve heard it can take over 4 weeks to get information on unpaid cashback but if Cashbag haven’t heard back from the merchant then there won’t be any message to pass on until they hear something. What shouldn’t be done is sending in more and more claims – just be patient! Also the forum will not deal with account specific queries e.g. if you haven’t been paid for something (not all the Cashbag staff work in the office so can mean more work and retailers being asked more than once about a specific query). On the forum it is fine to ask for advice or help if needed as there is usually someone around to help.

When £15+ has been reached, it is easy to ask for a payout. Just click on ‘Current Earnings’ which shows what has recently been paid (since last payout) and under the list is “If your account balance is £15 or more, please click here to request your payment” and clicking there takes me to an invoice page. Details can be edited (if using paypal the e-mail address has to be that of the account connected to Paypal), amount to be asked for and what payment method – paypal, cheque or Amazon vouchers. Once submitted, accounts are checked for any fraudulent activity and paid out within 7 days. The invoice amount only goes up to £200 but if wanting more just submit a second invoice asking for the rest. Once submitted, an automatic reply should be e-mailed and I find my account balance goes down a few days after being asked for. The advantage to this payment method by Cashbag is that you only have to wait 7 days (sometimes a few more days if they're on holiday or extremely busy) – some sites will only payout once a month to members – I’d rather wait 7 days than waiting around 30 if I reach payout just after a payment run!

There is a referral system on Cashbag which means you can get family and friends or random strangers to join if they want and if they use the special referral link will mean earning more money. If I invite someone and they use my link, I receive 25p as soon as their account has been confirmed. Once that person has reached £15 (and asked for a payout) I then earn another £2.25. I’ve been lucky enough to have several people join and reach the payout level so my earnings have been boosted by that money. This is one reason Cashbag take 7 days to payout – they’ll make sure that sign ups are not done fraudulently. However, if family members join up and they are in the same house using the same ISP, both people will not earn the cashback from recurring offers (which track IPs) and some other sites like gambling sites. To them it looks like multiple accounts trying to earn more money out of them. If buying things though should be no problem as those offers can be done over and over again.

My advice: join several cashback sites, find out what they are like at paying out, how much they offer etc. and decide on one or a few to stick to. Personally it can be annoying to hear people complaining all the time that Cashbag are so slow at paying out, never payout blah blah. Most of the time this is caused by people using more than one cashback site (for recurring offers) and because retailers log IPs will not payout on both sites so they think it is Cashbag’s fault. I’ve been there and done that – I’ve been on sites that have even closed down without warning and have not paid out what I’ve been owed. I’ve been on sites that do show what cashback I am potentially going to get but I have to wait double the length of time for it to be verified before I can even get a hold of it. I’ve been on others that don’t pay out until 2 months after asking for the money or want me to earn at least £25 before I can ask for a payout or only do one mass payout to everyone a month. I like Cashbag and will continue to use it. I get out as much as I put in. I know if I don’t click for a week that I won’t be paid as much as others who do the clicks and buy through the site regularly.

So why not get a job as no doubt I’d earn as much as I do in a day from Cashbag in 15 minutes in a job? Simple: I can work and take 10 or so minutes a day doing these recurring clicks or get cashback on things I’d have bought anyway and have that bit of extra money to spend. If I hadn’t joined Cashbag a year ago I would never have made that £500+ I have done and bought things I wanted. It probably isn’t a site I’d recommend to impatient people because patience is needed and some days I know I can’t be bothered just clicking but my mood soon changes when I see my account balance rising and then I wish I had been more active. It’s money for doing very little and as I’ve mentioned, Cashbag has its advantages over other sites and the main reasons I stick to them but like I also mentioned, it can be a good idea to check out the competition and find a site to suit your needs… for me, that’s Cashbag.

Round up of benefits:
£2.50 free when you join
25p when a referral joins and another £2.25 when they reach £15
Payments can be asked for at £15 through Paypal, Amazon vouchers or cheque (lower than other sites)
Daily recurring offers – earn 61p a day at the moment
Payment received within 7 days – no waiting on monthly payment runs
Active staff visible on the forum if help is needed
Timely replies to account specific problems

Summary: I've earned £500 in a year with very few problems!