Qui audet adipiscitur (Quidco.co.uk)

Member Name: jojoegypt2008

Product:	Quidco.co.uk
Date:	23/04/09 (212 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cashback, moneysaving

Disadvantages: A touch technical, not guaranteed, have to be careful to follow rules

Quidco.co.uk is one of a number of cashback websites that exist on the internet. The premise behind cashback through Quidco is that the merchants that subscribe to Quidco know they are accessing a base of customers that will choose them over other retailers, if they can save some money. For the retailer, this is a simple principle - they can increase the number of their sales, whilst cutting their profit margins a little (to cover the cost of the cashback), and if all goes according to plan, they will actually end up making more money, not less. It's what my mum calls the 'Tesco principle' - Mr Cohen, who founded Tesco, did so on the principle 'stack em high, sell em cheap'.

How does it work as a customer?
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Well, you have to create an account, including your personal details - address etc, as per usual. You also have to specify a paypal account into which your earnings will go. If you have a payment scheduled for more than £50, you have to nominate a bank account for a BACS transfer - be aware that you need to do this in plenty of time for the payment to go ahead on schedule.

So, you have your account. What next? Well, you can browse the merchants who are offering cashback - top left hand corner of most screens has a big blue button.
You can sort the merchants by amount, popularity, percentage (some cashback is a percentage of the spend, some is a fixed amount), A-Z, newest, and SureShop (merchants who gurantee to pay in 60 days - trusted merchants in effect). There are currently 1330 merchants on Quidco.

If the list seems too daunting, or you know what you want to buy, you can search in a more focused way by using the categories on the left hand side of the screen, such as "Computers and Software", "Fashion" and "Travel".

You can also use the search box to find a particular merchant or type of product straightaway - but I've stumbled across some gems by browsing!

How do I get cashback then?
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Well, this is where it gets a TINY bit technical. Wait, come back... It's only a tiny bit, I promise. Even I can do it.
The merchants who offer cashback want you to be loyal to them because of the lovely moolah you are getting from them. They don't want you, as a sensible, savvy shopper, to look around online, find the best price and then buy - they want you to come to them out of habit, even if they aren't the cheapest. If you want to be loyal, it'll probably work fine for you.

If you want to be moneysaving, though, this is what you need to do:
Find the cheapest option for what you want - maybe use a price comparison site, or shopbot. So, you've found the perfect laptop, you've tried it out instore, and you've found that it's cheapest (or best) to buy it from Apple.com.

NEXT (and this is VERY important) - you clear the cookies and temporary internet files on your computer. These are the tiny bits of software that make life easy - remembering usernames, and preferences etc. You can do this through the Control Panel - choose Internet Options, then Delete Browsing History, or you can use something like CCleaner (freeware) which clears up junk elsewhere as well.

WHY? Because the company giving you the moolah is giving it to you (and to Quidco) because you went through Quidco - it's worth their while to pay quidco money to appear on the site, IF they are delivering the customers. If the customers are finding the retailers anyway (which they can tell through the cookies they left on your computer when you went to their website...), why offer cashback? You were going to buy it anyway!

Quidco themselves are pretty explicit about this - only transactions completed entirely online, and entirely through them will be paid. That means if you alter an order, you should go back to the website through Quidco.

TECHNICAL BIT OVER. You can look now.

So what now?
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You found the laptop of your dreams. You found that the cheapest and best place to buy it was Apple (for example), and then you go to quidco, and lo and behold, as an extra bonus, they will give you 3% cashback on the laptop! Hurrah!
You press the button saying "Click here to visit this merchant and earn cashback" and you are taken to the Apple Site. Apple will know you came from quidco, there's nothing more for you to do, but make your purchase, exactly as you would anywhere else.

A few days later, check your quidco account. You should find that the amount of cashback you were expected has "Tracked" - this means the merchant has noticed, the cookies worked and everything's on 'track'... Sorry.
From Tracked, earnings become "Validated" - agreed by the merchant that they will pay, then "Received" - this means by Quidco, they are busying sawing off their portion of the pie, then "Paid" - paid to you!

The speed with which you can expect this to happen varies - each merchant gets a bar-chart indicator from quidco showing you the average speed. I have found it can be as fast as six weeks, it can take a year...

So, where's the catch?
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There isn't a 'catch' per se. You do have to pay an admin fee of £5 a year - but only if you make more than £5 a year. It comes out of your earnings. I happen to think it's worth it - my total for last year was over £100, and I don't have house or car insurance to renew - always lucrative earners.

Occasionally transactions will fail. You have to be aware that the money isn't guaranteed until it's in your account, and that it takes a while to pay out - which is why you have to choose the cheapest/best option, THEN look for cashback. You can query any transactions that are rejected, and my experience is that the team are very good and very fast investigating. In fact, in one case, within a day of complaining, the director of the company in question called me to apologise and manually added the cashback to my account!


Some hints and tips
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Insurance pays out really really well - there are wads of cash to be had for using quidco to renew your house, contents, buildings, or car insurance. You have to do the whole thing online, of course, but my mum and sister have both done it successfully.

Mobile phones - if you're thinking of moving companies, and want a contract, you can sometimes get nearly £100 in cashback for doing so.

Free cashback - some places offer cashback for doing free trials (the cashback that took a year for me? Lovefilm...) - they assume you'll sign up after the trial period, or forget to cancel. If you don't, and take the two weeks and the £15, you're laughing. Some price comparison websites offer a fixed amount for getting a quote through them, but they of course limit the number of times they will pay in a year.

Gambling - if you are disciplined. A lot of gambling/bingo sites will offer cashback when you sign up AND DEPOSIT money. Usually there are a few that offer more cashback than the initial deposit. This (in my limited experience) doesn't stop you getting the 'free play' money as well. So: I signed up to Gala Bingo. Quidco paid me £20 cashback when I did so and deposited (and spent, of course....) £10 - you do have to spend your initial stake to get the cashback, of course.... So, already I'm £10 up. And I got to bet £10 on bingo. Then Galabingo gave me £10 free play. Now, I can't withdraw any of this money - it's not winnings. I can only bet it. The £20 cashback is mine, paid into my paypal account, and I have £20 to bet on bingo. Which I do, and win £20. That £20, I can withdraw. I did. So I made £30 pure profit. It's not for the addictive though - they want to suck you into it, so you'll play every day and waste all your money.


Be careful: read the terms and conditions carefully. If it says £3 for a new/first order and you've ordered before, they won't pay you. If it says 5% off the price, excluding postage and packing costs, work out how much to expect.

There are constantly changing lists of merchants who have increased, decreased or started a cashback offer - keep an eye out for deals (right hand side of screen - Savvy Tips).
There are Quidclans you can join - groups of likeminded cashbackeers.
There are competitions to enter - particularly around Christmas.
There is a Quidblod - keeping you up to date with news.

If you ever buy ANYTHING online, you should check this out. It might just save you some money.

My best saving to date? A year's Vodafone Mobile Broadband contract - £90 cashback (now paid). Makes my contract cost £7.50 per month instead of £15. For a bit of clicking. Pretty good, huh?!

Summary: Really worth it for the savvy shopper!