MSE News: Quidco launches 'premium' and free cashback services

NoviceAngel

gwapenut wrote: »

I've always wondered about this, with topcashback too. If Quidco were passing on 100% and retaining £5 a year, and topcashback were giving as good returns as Quidco and not retaining £5, how did TCB ever make any money?

They say via on-site advertising which quidco don't have.

You can't fail to see that TCB is full of advertising links. It will be interesting to see if the look and feel for 'FREE' Quidco users change as Quidco fills with adverts.

Wywth

WaltD wrote: »

I have never been a Quidco member, and have never used their services.

However, I still received their email yesterday ... completely out of the blue!

I can only surmise they have got my email address from the database of one of the companies they have a discounting agreement with.

I doubt it as the email starts with Hi [Your First Name]

I suspect you have signed up with quidco, but forgotten.

Wywth

Froggitt wrote: »

The original premise of Quidco was that they passed on all the commission from the retailer, and in return they made their money on a £5 a year deduction from your cashback.

If theyre now offering the service for free, does that mean that they are not passing on all the commission for the free customers and for the paying customers?

Not necessarily. They may do it the same way as TCB do it ... via adverts.

Premium Quidco users are promised no adverts.

Wywth

armyknife wrote: »

Seems like a bit of an own goal; a revamp that 'annoys' established 'customers'. :hmm:

You're lucky, you only have a couple of weeks to wait. Mine's almost 6 months away

Account type: Premium
You are currently a Quidco Premium member. You are unable to downgrade to a Basic account until the membership anniversary date listed below.
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Your renewal / downgrade date is 30 September 2013

Wywth

corbyboy wrote: »

I don't like the idea of premium members getting faster payment. The implication being that they are intentionally withholding payment from free members.
It's not as if payment is particularly quick anyway.

As for Amazon, have you seen what you can actually earn cashback on? Hardly anything.

I agree

As a Premium member you are being paid faster than Basic members

can only really mean :

As a Basic member we hold onto your cashback longer than Premium members :cool:

Regarding Amazon, I seem to get 5% cashback in numerous categories
i.e. Baby, Grocery, Pet Supplies, Car & Motorbike, DIY & Tools, Garden & Outdoors

Turtle

I'll think this one over. To those who have said they won't use them again then downgrade, don't forget that if you have registered your debit / credit card with them for high street shopping cashback I would imagine that counts as using them, so you'll need to unregister your cards so you're not charged unexpectedly.

meher

why would they want to charge users is simply beyond me to understand

they earn a lot each time you click; they share a tiny amount because they want you to keep going through their site

the customers are doing them a huge favour by clicking and going through their sites, but for these customers, they wouldn't even exist - I prefer not to have cashback of any sort (although i think mbna and amex offers some cashback) and have retailers keep their prices low instead

EricMears

I followed the link from my email to tell Quidco I wasn't interested in their upgrade.

They sent me an email to say they'd answered my query and gave a link at which I could read their reply. Clicking on that link gets me to a page where I can't do anything else without accepting thei new terms - so I sent them another message pointing that out.

Surprise, surprise - they've 'answered' that with yet another message I can't read without accepting the upgrade. My next message has been a little more assertive but I doubt I'll be able to read their reply to that either

EricMears

Turtle wrote: »

I'll think this one over. To those who have said they won't use them again then downgrade, don't forget that if you have registered your debit / credit card with them for high street shopping cashback I would imagine that counts as using them, so you'll need to unregister your cards so you're not charged unexpectedly.

You won't of course be 'charged' - all they can do is send you some commission you weren't expecting (but £5 less of it than you might have expected).

And of course you could always start a new quidco account using a different email address and a different bank account if you wanted to retain the option of using them sometimes.

gwapenut

I emailed both TCB and Quidco with a query yesterday about a purchase I anted to make.

TCB responded once later yesterday afternoon, and again to my further query that day.

Quidco have yet to respond to me at all (now a basic member).

To be fair, quidco support team may be busy answering lots of queries about the new membershi[ structure, so I may repeat the experiment in a month's time.