MSE News: Are you a cashback site loser?

a lot of companies (including seemingly reputable ones) employ incompetent staff:mad:

vandanfc wrote: »

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Here it is before it disappeared.

Are you a cashback site loser?
By Helen Knapman, Senior News Reporter

27 October 2015

Shoppers using cashback sites to max their gains when buying online should beware that some retailers offer different cashback rates to different customers on the very same deal.

Cashback websites pay you when you click through them to retailers' or product providers' websites and spend. You can make £100s a year using them correctly, although cashback isn't guaranteed. Tracking problems can occur, meaning there are times when you'll expect to be paid but won't be.

See our Top Cashback Sites guide for more on how they work.

But some customers may be offered different cashback rates for the same deal. The issue was first brought to our attention by one MoneySaver who discovered BT was seemingly paying different cashback rates on popular cashback site Quidco, as the image he took below shows.

MoneySavingExpert.com forum users also report differing rates when checking BT offers on Quidco.

When do cashback sites offer different rates?

We asked popular cashback sites Quidco and TopCashback in what scenarios different payouts are offered. Here's what they said:

Quidco
1. Premium customers, who pay £5/year in return for certain benefits, will sometimes be offered different rates of cashback on the same deal compared to standard, non-fee paying customers.
2. On the website, some retailers target specific types of customers with different cashback rates. So two standard members and two premium customers could see four different cashback rates on the same deal. Quidco says when this happens, decisions on rates are made by retailers using anonymised data around elements such as customers' shopping habits, locations, what devices they shop on, and where else a particular type of member shops. However, Quidco adds this practice isn't common.
3. Personalised cashback offers may also be sent via email.

TopCashback
1. Again, retailers sometimes offer different cashback rates to 'Plus' members, who pay £5/year, compared to standard members who use the service for free.
2. In some scenarios where a customer has looked at a specific deal but not bought it, they may be emailed their own personalised cashback rate for that offer.
3. Hidden cashback rates, which aren't listed on the website for everyone, are also sometimes emailed to customers, although TopCashback says this is quite rare.

Beware automatic payout changes

Separately, Quidco has this month "paused" its weekly automatic payment option. Instead, you'll have to manually request cashback payments, which you can do up to twice a week.

It says it's doing this as part of wider site improvements, although it wouldn't expand on what this involves.

TopCashback requires users to request a payout of cashback accrued.