Top Cashback Sites Article Discussion

simcmahon

Booking Cosmos Holiday through TopCashBack more expensive!

We found a holiday on Cosmos to the Canary Islands for 2 people at £823.46 each, total cost £1681.92

TopCashBack were offering 4.04% cashback when booking a holiday through Cosmos, but when you click through and find the EXACT same holiday - the price shoots up! Now £907.46 per person, total £1849.92!

We went back and forward, clearing our cookies each time and realised that despite the offered 4.04% (around £70 off the total price), the total price is increased by £168!! :shocked:

This is a massive warning flag for me - basically cashback being a complete rip off if you are paying more in the first place!

I'd love to hear any comments back on this, to see if anyone else has spotted this scam!

Si

Trickyann

Hi Simcmahon,

i was trying to get car insurance for my son which as he is 19 is obviously high. Went through the whole process as precsribed by MSE and found best prices, however after clearing cookies and then going through TCB the exact same details for the quote come up over £40 more thereby making the deal the same as if I had gone through confused or the like. In fact it is not as good as you have to wait on average 4/5 months for insurance to become payable. Slightly OT but on a similar vein after TCB disappointment tried Confused and had a quote that said held until 13 June, but when click through it is more with People's Choice (an arm of Hastings direct) When I called P Direct they tried to tell me that a quote is just your details you enter and not the price!! They say the price changes in real time, (but only seems to change upwards) Have emailed confused.com but fear they won't get back to me before I need the renewal. All these things seem to have a whiff of con about them.

vhussey1

Just wondering if anybody ever recevied a second payment from Simms re Cashbackkings / rpoints? I did receive a small amount in mid April and was advised there would be a further one payable. Did anyone else receive it yet?

mariner99

I use Cashback sites followingrecommendations from MSE as a way to SAVE money!

It now becomes clear that some sites TOPCASHBACK in my case use special links which result in a much higher price than if you go direct.

This higher price is more than the cashback so effectively you LOSE money by using cashback sites.

I really think Martin should rewrite this section of the site and stop promoting this.

Yes i'm a cynic and i suspect that referral fees may mean this doesn't happen however.

mariner99

:money:MSE - PLEASE STOP THE CASHBACK SCAM:money:

simcmahon wrote: »

Booking Cosmos Holiday through TopCashBack more expensive!

We found a holiday on Cosmos to the Canary Islands for 2 people at £823.46 each, total cost £1681.92

TopCashBack were offering 4.04% cashback when booking a holiday through Cosmos, but when you click through and find the EXACT same holiday - the price shoots up! Now £907.46 per person, total £1849.92!

We went back and forward, clearing our cookies each time and realised that despite the offered 4.04% (around £70 off the total price), the total price is increased by £168!! :shocked:

This is a massive warning flag for me - basically cashback being a complete rip off if you are paying more in the first place!

I'd love to hear any comments back on this, to see if anyone else has spotted this scam!

Si

Trickyann wrote: »

Hi Simcmahon,

i was trying to get car insurance for my son which as he is 19 is obviously high. Went through the whole process as precsribed by MSE and found best prices, however after clearing cookies and then going through TCB the exact same details for the quote come up over £40 more thereby making the deal the same as if I had gone through confused or the like. In fact it is not as good as you have to wait on average 4/5 months for insurance to become payable. Slightly OT but on a similar vein after TCB disappointment tried Confused and had a quote that said held until 13 June, but when click through it is more with People's Choice (an arm of Hastings direct) When I called P Direct they tried to tell me that a quote is just your details you enter and not the price!! They say the price changes in real time, (but only seems to change upwards) Have emailed confused.com but fear they won't get back to me before I need the renewal. All these things seem to have a whiff of con about them.

mariner99 wrote: »

I use Cashback sites followingrecommendations from MSE as a way to SAVE money!

It now becomes clear that some sites TOPCASHBACK in my case use special links which result in a much higher price than if you go direct.

This higher price is more than the cashback so effectively you LOSE money by using cashback sites.

I really think Martin should rewrite this section of the site and stop promoting this.

Yes i'm a cynic and i suspect that referral fees may mean this doesn't happen however.

lycosfreak

I would agree with everybody here. Unfortunately, cashback has taken a dark and dirty twist.

MARTIN AND TEAM YOU REALLY NEED TO LOOK AT THIS AND PUBLISH A REPORT ON THIS SCAM.

I have found with many items across a whole range of industries and companies, from insurance to car hire. If you go through the cashback site, the price to pay magically jumps by the exact amount you are going to receive in cashback and sometimes even more.

Now if you take the fact you pay an annual fee for cashback membership. £5 at Quidco taken from your cashback, not paid direct.

Then you add the fact you can wait up to 6 months + for some companies to pay the cashback, and if you are really unlucky the companies will actually not pay at all, stating technical issues etc.

This means you are majorly out of pocket plus paid your cashback site a membership for nothing.

Its time this was exposed, Martin use your influence to get this issue onto Watchdog.

david1976

I have used quidco the last couple of years and have had just over £300 off them so far this year.

I was sceptical at first and one item did not track but they sorted it all out for me and I got the cash.

Signed up today for topcashback to give it a go as well.

As far as some posts here suggest about cashback sites deals actually costing more, I always go to the actual site first, clear cookies and history then check with the cashback site to see which is the cheapest.

JDPower

lycosfreak wrote: »

I would agree with everybody here. Unfortunately, cashback has taken a dark and dirty twist.

MARTIN AND TEAM YOU REALLY NEED TO LOOK AT THIS AND PUBLISH A REPORT ON THIS SCAM.

I have found with many items across a whole range of industries and companies, from insurance to car hire. If you go through the cashback site, the price to pay magically jumps by the exact amount you are going to receive in cashback and sometimes even more.

Now if you take the fact you pay an annual fee for cashback membership. £5 at Quidco taken from your cashback, not paid direct.

Then you add the fact you can wait up to 6 months + for some companies to pay the cashback, and if you are really unlucky the companies will actually not pay at all, stating technical issues etc.

This means you are majorly out of pocket plus paid your cashback site a membership for nothing.

Its time this was exposed, Martin use your influence to get this issue onto Watchdog.

First rule of cashback (and as clearly stated by Martin) - cashback is never guaranteed.

And if you choose to use a cashback site that charges you, whose fault is that exactly?

If you use common sense (or failing that READ THE ARTICLE) you will never be in the slightest out of pocket, never mind "majorly" so.

mariner99

JDPower wrote: »

First rule of cashback (and as clearly stated by Martin) - cashback is never guaranteed.

And if you choose to use a cashback site that charges you, whose fault is that exactly?

If you use common sense (or failing that READ THE ARTICLE) you will never be in the slightest out of pocket, never mind "majorly" so.

Hi JDPower,

I think you have missed the point here. NOWHERE in any of Martins advice recashback sites does it mention that they sometimes inflate prices.

I think this is a new development or maybe we just took them at face value as customer champions and didn't think they would scam us.

Martin says find the cheapest then buy it via a cashback site. What he doesn't say is to be careful that the cashback site might be a different price to the direct price.

People should be warned and MSE et al should expose the cashback scam.

MooSah_2

I have been using TCB for over two years and probably got about £1k cashback in that time.

HOWEVER, I ALWAYS check the prices of the original product on the original website and if it happens to be less than if I clicked through TCB (with cashback), then I simply buy through the website direct. As Martin always says in these type of circumstances (another example being getting extra points on clubcards, but ending up spending more money in the first place!), always check to see which route saves you the most cash-in-hand.

These are not new tactics - every business uses them in one form or another. Yes, it's dirty and leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but in the world we live in today, this is kind of thing we constantly have to be aware of!

TCB still have some fantastic deals. I travel a lot, & I often use their link to the Holiday Inn group, along with a discount code which gives me 2-4-1 or 35% off AND I still receive cashback (even if it's only a few pounds). I have stayed in Holiday Inn's for as cheap as £11pppn!

So it just means you have to work a little harder by comparing which way it works out the best for you.