Pigs Do Fly! (pigsback.com)

Member Name: cherwaite

Product:	pigsback.com
Date:	02/10/06 (414 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free money ! Cute Website ! Has 'Pig' in the title !

Disadvantages: Involves lots of clicking and waiting for money to mount up

What is this pig thing?

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If your like me and stuck for cash alot of the time or you love saving money or getting owt for nowt this site will probably be of interest to you. It is another spawn in the breed of cash back sites. However, this one is quite different. It is more focused on consumer participation with regular competitions, surveys and a small forum. It actively encourages you to build up your points and had the widest selection of rewards i have seen.

The website you need to visit to see what im talking about is ~
www.pigsback.com

Basically you are collecting 'piggy' points. I often wonder what the fixation with pigs is on this site, well not often, just when im laid in bed pondering lifes mysteries sometimes.. anyway i digress.

100 piggy points = £1.00

By building up your points total with either free points or buying items from other websites 'through' pigsback (which i shall come to later) you build up your total and this enables you to spend your piggypoints on treats.

It is quite addictive and is one of my morning ritual website visits - amongst ciao, ebay, natwest online banking etc etc - plus the website is so funky and pink and bright and eyecatching! Its in my humble opinion, the best cashback site online (with quidco a close second) . I expect messages in my guestbook to the contrary.

How did Pigsback come about?

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PIgsback was originally launched just in Ireland on the 5th of July 2000. It quickly established a large consumer base who were interested in the idea of getting something back from the ever growing online shopping industry. Through promotion of the website via targetting female commuters with freebies such as the incomparable stress pig, to pig keyrings, pig carrier bags, piggy mouse mats word spread quickly. Pigsback then expanded to the UK in June 2005.

This has been hugely successful. Taken from the Pigsback website i quote;
'Pigsback.com is growing its UK database by 5-10,000 members a week'

Is it easy to become a member?

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Simple!!!! Just go to the website above and click on 'Join Now'
They will then ask for basic information ie your name, address, phone number if you want to divulge it that is. Also they ask for categories you are interested in as they centre the offers that appear on your home page around these. Click on everything to receive the widest variety and more chance of free piggy points!

Only one pigsback account is allowed per person and only two pigsback accounts are allowed per registered household.

An email confirming your membership details will be sent out to you, hey presto.

The layout and navigation of Pigsback.com

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The first thing you think when you enter pigsback is

1- Thats very pink
2- This looks quite cluttered
3- Information overload, cant compute - help!

Thats what i first thought when i came across the site. There is a vast amount of adverts, boxes, links yada yada all thrust at you at once. Once you have had a minute its quite simple and user friendly.

Curly is the pigsback pig icon that you see popping up everywhere. She is quite the gal and is used quite alot in promotional campaigns and on the website. Very cute and quirky - appeals to us girlies.

At the very top of the page you have your basic account functions.

My piggybank - This shows you exactly how many piggypoints you have and where you got them from, plus the date issued.

My account - Here you can edit your details, change subscriptions to newsletters, broaden your categories of interest or cancel your account.

In a pink row below that are the website catergories. If you click on any of these it will take you straight through to them.

They are
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Offers - Cashback offers to browse
Rewards - A list of items you can get when you have enough piggypoints
Competitions - Self explanatory
Shop & Earn - Cashback list
Travel - Basic Travel info
Entertainement - This is updated daily with entertainment news
Wellbeing - Very interesting articles on healthy eating, beauty tips and fitness
About us - Contact details and Website information

The forum is accesible via the right hand pink column on the home page named aptly 'forums'. You have to register to use this but it is a quiet helpful community of fellow piggies and is helpful if you are looking to up your balance as they know where all the secret points are. The moderator is Curly herself!

The website from what i can see is aimed at quite a young market anything from 20s plus. It is done in a magazine style with articles and competitions that would appeal to young women and men.

It is always fast to use and in my memory i cant think of one time when it has ever played up or been 'down'. The quality of the content can be sometimes dubious - not for those amongst us who need intellectual stimulation shall we say. But the offers and points up for grabs are always displayed eye catchingly and are bold and easy to see.


Which Clients offer Cashback through Pigsback and how much is it?

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If you follow the links through the 'Shop and Earn' Section on the site it will take you through to the list of online merchants who offer cashback by clicking on the clearly marked link and doing your regular shopping you gain cashback. This is tracked back to pigsback and is often added to your piggypoints total (piggybank) within anything from 1-4 weeks.

It is simple and easy to do for even the most hardened technophobes around!

Merchants who offer cashback and the cashback values are

Amazon - Earn 5 piggypoints per £1 spent on books
Avon - 10% back
Best Birthdays - 5% back
Buyagift - 10% back
Carphone Warehouse - Earn 2'000 points when you sign up
CD WOW Cd's - Earn 10 piggy points per pound spent
CD WOW DVD's - Earn 10 piggy points per pound spent
Dabs.com - Earn 10 piggy points per pound spent
Dell - Earn 5 piggy points per pound spent
Dorothy Perkins - Earn 10 piggy points per pound spent
Euroffice - 15% off plus 500 piggypoints
eBags - 10% back
EBTM.com - 10% back
Field and Trek - 5% back
Firebox.com - 5% Back
Goldshield - Earn 10 piggypoints per pound spent
greatmagazines.co.uk - 5% back
HQ Hair - Earn 10 piggypoints per pound spent
HQman.com - 10% back
I.World - Earn 10 piggypoints per pound spent
Lonely Planet - Earn 100 points each time you buy
Marks and Spencers - 5% back
Mollycoddles of Rochester - 10% back
Strawberrynet - 5% back
Teleflorist - Earn 10 piggypoints per pound spent
Thomas Pink - 10 piggypoints per pound spent
Tightsplease - Earn 10 piggypoints per pound spent
TurnBackTime - Earn 10 piggypoints per pound spent
WowWoman.com - 10 piggypoints per pound spent

The only downside to the shop and earn section for myself if
~ The lack of online shops offering cashback (especially fashion)

For a more varied cashback service i would recommend quidco. If you are using the site purely for cashback purposes their is certainly a lack of different merchants to choose from and possibly higher cashback rates.

How easy is it to build up your points total?

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I find that i get a £10 voucher on average every 2 months. Its a treat i look forward to *blush*. Most of my piggypoints however come from free click through points.

These occur on mondays it appears. On the main page of pigsback you will see lots of boxes with offers inside. When a click through is available you will see a purple outline against the box. Which if you click on it, it will take you through to a different page but will award you 10 piggy points.

To begin with you get about 5-7 of these a week but the longer you have been on pigsback the harder these are to come by. Although they still make appearances and you spend hours (ok minutes) tracking down the little blighters. If you press F5 it refreshes the home page and they usually pop up.

Also free points are sometimes available for sending off for brochures/signing up to receive newsletters or signing up to different sites through pigsback. These are advertised on the main page and are difficult to miss. They are credited speedily to your account. Often within 24 hours.

Can you win piggypoints?

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Funny you should ask :D

Yes piggypoints can be won from a variety of different competitions offered daily by pigsback. If you win the competition which is often to answer a simple question, you will have 1000 extra points in your total the day after! I have been lucky to win twice. I was so chuffed.

The competitions you should look out for are

The daily trivia quiz
The spotlight quiz (can be found via entertainment section)
The ticketmaster quiz (can be found via the music section)
The Daily crossword - if you are lucky enough to win this you get 2000 points! one day..

There are also weekly competitions which you get 10/20 points automatically issued to you just for entering.

The toucan quiz - 20 piggypoints
Where in the world quiz - 10 piggypoints
Londong calling quiz - 10 piggypoints.

Goodluck with it! I enter everyday and have also had the pleasure of receiving a pigsback goody bag with pencils, pens, rubbers, tote bag, keyrings and squishy pigs in. Ya gotta love pigs.


What rewards are available to 'buy' with your piggypoints?

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If i wrote a list out id be here all night and so would you be reading it. If you want to check it out just visit pigsback.com and click on rewards.

They are all available at decent 'prices'. Due to the recent postage change and the increase in postage charges the admin fee to send it out has increased slightly so this has upped the amount slightly.

Examples of rewards are

150 points - You could get a pink tote with 'curly' on, or pink sticky notes.

500 points - You can donate to various charities including the Marie Keating foundation, The samaritans, Northern ireland hospice care. Or you can get £5 vouchers for Costa coffee,betfair or paddypower.

800 points - You can get your very own pink pigsback t-shirt wooo. Dont go mad will you. Not the trendiest of items but hey if you like pigs there will be no stopping you.

1100 points - £10 off pizzahut, TGI fridays, Brewers Fayre, Beefeater.

1150 points - £10 off any arcadia store purchase ie Topshop. This is my favourite :D

If you manage to get to the dizzy heights of 17988 points you get an unlimited blockbuster subscription. Wow!

The rewards are often posted out to you asap and you get them within 14 days. In theunlikely event that you dont the customer services have always been very helpful and have followed it up for me and i have received my reward quickly with no hassle. You are asked to confirm your mobile number before ordering a reward for security purposes which i always find reassuring.


Referring friends

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I have got several friends and members of my family to join this website and they are all now addicted. An added incentive of referring friends is that you get 100 points creditted to your account for every person who joins and gets their first reward.

You refer them by going to the home page and clicking on the refer a friend icon on the right hand side column of the website. You are asked to input their email address and an email is automatically issued to their mailbox. It couldnt be easier. My friends all love the place, im sure you all would too.


Pigsback Customer Service and Other Policies of interest

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The few times i have ever had to contact customer service they have all been handled efficiently and friendly. If you have any problems regarding lost or missing piggypoints/missing rewards/problems with the website email them at -

postmaster@pigsback.com

Rachel (yes im on first name terms and no im not secretly a PR girl for their on commision) usually replies to your queries within a day and sorts it out for you asap. If they have made a mistake they on occasion give you free piggypoints to make up for it. They really are lovely. They all have beautiful irish accents too <swoooon>

Their policy is not to send out junk mail which is a huge plus in my book. I hate un-necessary paper being wasted, its such a waste of the environments resources not to mention being downright annoying too. I have never received anything from them other than what i have asked for. Also if you get annoyed by newsletters being emailed to you, you can unsubscribe via the 'my account' function on the home page.They also abide by the Data Protection Act 1988 and dont disclose information to any third parties, phew. Ive no complaints whatsoever on that front.

Their head office is based at

Empathy Marketing Limited
Winchester House
259-269 Old Marylebone Road
London
NW1 5RA
Tel: +44 207 170 4010

If you want to run round and demand your points. Whatever floats your boat :D

Overall

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If you love pigs, free stuff, clicking, competitions, pink and squishy stress pigs i cant recommend this site enough. Ive been out loads of times for free meals with my rewards and bought lots of lovely swishy dresses with my free arcadia vouchers. I can see myself being a member of this site for however long it goes on, which will hopefully be forever. It is so friendly, easy to use and bargainous. The only glitch in its armour is the lack of cashback sites it offers but im hoping this will be changed in the future.

It has won several awards including Two Golden Spiders for Internet Hero & Best Shopping Site and i couldnt agree more. I *heart* it.

PIGGYPOWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

copyright cherwaite 2006

Hope you enjoyed that chums :D

Summary: A Summary Of The Cash Back Site 'Pigsback' including handy hints on how to earn hidden points!