Not something to turn your nose up at! (pigsback.com)

Member Name: sirg0508

Product:	pigsback.com
Date:	29/01/07 (551 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free piggypoints weekly, easy quizzes, really helps charities, lots of rewards

Disadvantages: Slow delivery of rewards, poor packaging, poor customer service

Having been a member of Pigsback.com since 2004 I’ve come and gone quite a bit and noticed a lot of changes throughout my time there. The site is essentially a cashback site (buy through one of their merchants and receive money back… sign up to offers…) but instead of the currency being pounds and pence, they are called Piggypoints. The points system however is actually quite easy to understand: 10 Piggypoints = 10p so as long as you know where your decimal point will go, it can make you look rich. To date, I’ve spent 11280 Piggypoints (£112.80) on rewards alone (including charity payments). I did unfortunately make a lot more but I wasted them on Jackpots. Piggypoints do expire after a year so I do find I get more benefit visiting regularly so I can get bigger rewards without any expiring.

Do you have to spend anything to earn anything? The answer is no! In fact I don’t recall spending a penny through Pigsback to earn anything. That’s what initially grabbed me about the site – although you’re basically earning money for nothing money wise, the only thing you’re using up is your time and even that is a very short time if you know where to look.

Although a ‘dot com’ site, it is only for those in the UK and Ireland although each of these has separate sites obviously for differences in currency and shopping. Signing up though is simple with general personal details required. An address is also needed so they know where to send your rewards. Once signed up, you do need to wait a certain length of time (a week or so) before claiming a reward – I think this is more to do with ensuring accounts are genuine (not multiples). A family can sign up but Pigsback do keep a close eye on them. You earn 50 Piggypoints just for signing up and extra for signing up to newsletters.

The site looks a bit girly because it’s pink but it shouldn’t put men off. If shopping isn’t your style there are the more manly money sections and chances to gamble away Piggypoints. I do like the site though because it does look very clean and orderly – everything has its place. The homepage features a 3 x 3 section of offers – always keep an eye out – if one of the shaded areas turns purple and says 10 Piggypoints, you can just click it and earn 10 Piggypoints for looking at that page! These are normally updated every Monday and I usually get 2 or 3 a weeks so they all add up! More offers are just in plain text below these but the problem I have is remembering what I’ve already entered or signed up to as the site gives no indication.

The site does have different areas including a dedicated travel area to receive points for booking flights using one of their merchants, taking out insurance or signing up to related offers. I usually only visit that section for the quizzes although I did submit a holiday review to try and earn 100 Piggypoints but it was never added so didn’t bother again. The Entertainment Zone covers quite a lot from music to movies, Fun Zone has games, Restaurants is similar to Travel with reviews but really focuses on one of their merchants. That’s just a couple of areas but they are quite diverse to cater to a lot of different tastes so there is something for everyone. The worst area for me anyway is under the competition tab and the big button that says Jackpots. It’s very easy to gamble away all your Piggypoints as I’ve found out over 3 years yet I still feel compelled to try: Predict the score in football, guess who’ll be kicked out a reality TV show next, guess the bonus ball, guess who will win an award at X ceremony… These are never a guarantee and you have to bet at least 50 Piggypoints so it can be a big chunk disappearing at once. Although it can give you a buzz when you know you’ve won and the frustration of having to wait for the winnings being added to your account. I’d still say I’ve lost more than I’ve won though!

So how did I earn my points? Although not the quickest way, the way to earn the most at one time is to win one of the competitions the site runs. There are usually about 6 of them running daily and each gives you the possibility of earning 1,000 Piggypoints (or in monetary value, £10). These are dotted around the site and usually the questions are quite simple but most don’t matter if the answer is wrong because it’s multiple-choice so just keep guessing until you find the right one. Since joining I’ve won 1… There is also a weekday crossword with the possibility to win 2,000 Piggypoints – again I’ve won this once so just from those 2 wins I’ve made £30. As I mentioned above, there are the 10 Piggypoints on the offers (otherwise known as Click Through’s / CTs). There are a few other quiz questions run weekly earning 10 or 20 Piggypoints – these also have easy questions and mean a weekly boost to the account. Signing up to newsletters and websites usually have bigger payouts of around 50 Piggypoints. I have seen these offers paying out more than they have done on other cashback sites so it’s worth comparing them. The final way, although it will cost is to use the site as a cashback site. Spend X amount and receive Y Piggypoints per £1 spent. These can be around 5 Piggypoints per £1 so 5% cashback. Some first time buys can also earn a bonus 200 Piggypoints as I discovered when first buying through Amazon although they no longer exist to gain cashback. You can invite friends in a referral programme to earn 100 Piggypoints for each sign up but there does seem to be a tracking issue with these – Pigsback have claimed the person never used my referral when they did.

The site also has competitions that are non-Piggypoint related. These can be spa days, beauty products, electrical items… they have actually had some good ones around but they do make them harder! While you can guess away at the Pigsback ones until you get the right answer, the first answer is accepted on these ones (usually recognisable with a ‘hint’ link) but some are disguised so guess carefully! I’ve never won any of these though. There is also an eBay section to bid on a certain item but this actually costs 1 Piggypoint and you only get 1 bid but unlike eBay it doesn’t really work like an auction so if you bid 2000 Piggypoints and the person before only 1,000 then you’d be winning it at your stated bid. This means someone can easily come along a bid a few more Piggypoints so you loose out by a very small amount – really not fair!

I have had a variety of rewards from Pigsback which I spent my Piggypoints on. These have included T-shirts, mugs, pencils, pens, vouchers for various shops (offline and online), a stress pig… the only things I haven’t gone for are a few of the other Pigsback branded merchandise. I do notice though that the prices now compared to a few years ago have both gone up and down – a voucher a year ago to the value of £10 e.g. for Boots would have cost me 1150 Piggypoints but today they cost face value at 1000 Piggypoints. The Pigsback mugs however have gone from 300 to 425 Piggypoints. My main disappointment with rewards though is the length of time I have to wait to receive them. They tend to be about 2 weeks but that depends if they are actually available. Pigsback however don’t decide to tell you that until you complain your reward has still not turned up after these 2 weeks. It’s happened several times to me and did put me off ordering anything. Another thing is lack of adequate packaging – I received pens in a self sealing DL envelope which easily open/rip so the Royal Mail got a couple of free pens. I did complain and more were sent out though so I didn’t lose out.

The Charity section was never really that prominent on the site but Pigsback put a lot into marketing it and it really has been worthwhile. I did make a couple of donations with my Piggypoints which were easily done as there are several charities there and donations made from 100 Piggypoints (£1). What made the donations more worthwhile was the end of the year ‘Thank You for your donations’ e-mail. Not many sites actually say thanks – you just end up sending your money away never to be heard of again but it was great to hear how well they had done – nearly £50,000 had been raised! That really did give me a boost and I will be sticking with the site and donating a lot of my earnings as it really did feel more meaningful. If a Pigsback member is holding a charity event, they too can ‘apply’ for it to be put in this section so members can donate – it makes it a lot more personal than just saying ‘here’s a couple of charities so you have to donate to one of them’.

The reason I did give up on the site (for months at a time) was that things are actually quite hard to find unless you know where you’re going. I’m lazy and couldn’t be bothered spending much time looking for all the offers. Mainly I want the free Piggypoints so I enter the daily quizzes. These have come and gone depending on which areas the site updates or gets rid of so unless you keep a note of the links, can mean missing out. I did find a site where the links are posted in one place so that did get me back into visiting again. Saved me wasting my time looking for them all! But during my absence I did miss out on all the CT’s and weekly quizzes that give out Piggypoints so I am kicking myself for losing out on a lot of money. Pigsback however is just one of quite a few cashback sites around and I think really the deciding factor for me is do I want the money or a voucher? Other sites payout to PayPal or in cheques but the only cash equivalent on Pigsback is a voucher. I do give them credit that there are actually quite a lot to choose from but unless you have those shops near you, isn’t really an incentive.

I’ve had to contact customer services a couple of times and replies can be slow to non existent. It won’t help sending thousands of e-mails a week asking them what was happening so I found e-mailing again after a week or so finally got me a reply. With cashback queries these at times are added manually by staff if you question why it hasn’t been added but proof of purchase is needed. As mentioned above, some of my rewards have gone missing but I did receive an apology with more sent which is really all you can ask of them. There is a Pigsback forum which requires separate registration but I’ve never been a fan of it and never really found any helpful advice when I asked from staff or members.

The site is worth it. Even if you only join for the free Piggypoints they offer weekly. If I’ve earned £112 and £30 of that was from the 2 competition wins then I’ve still made a very decent amount without spending a penny! There is also the bonus of the range of rewards available so you can choose and even a £10 voucher is a lower payout than some other sites offer. Customer service can be a bit dodgy at times but everything gets there eventually. With receiving the charity e-mail and making it seem worthwhile has put my faith into them as a company so I will happily donate my earnings to worthwhile causes. A star knocked off for the complaints a I do have but I do still rate the site highly so 4/5 from me!

Summary: Cashback site with free points so you don't have to spend a penny!