Warning TopCashBack dirty tricks

PenguinJim

I'm a reasonable fan of TCB - quite pleased with the money I've got back from them so far, and almost lost the £5 through their naughty auto-sign-up, but no harm done. But I just want to repeat, as I don't think it gets said often enough: always compare the checkout price through TCB with the regular checkout.

I was just checking out some life assurance premiums today for fun (I'm wild and crazy), and Legal & General offered a premium of £6.33/month. I went to TCB which boasted a £38 pay-out, clicked through and entered identical terms, and was offered £7.09 a month. That's a difference of ~£270 total to get £38 cashback.

So always check!

marvin

PenguinJim wrote: »

I'm a reasonable fan of TCB - quite pleased with the money I've got back from them so far, and almost lost the £5 through their naughty auto-sign-up, but no harm done. But I just want to repeat, as I don't think it gets said often enough: always compare the checkout price through TCB with the regular checkout.

I was just checking out some life assurance premiums today for fun (I'm wild and crazy), and Legal & General offered a premium of £6.33/month. I went to TCB which boasted a £38 pay-out, clicked through and entered identical terms, and was offered £7.09 a month. That's a difference of ~£270 total to get £38 cashback.

So always check!

I second this one well known plant seller has one price for cashback sites and one for direct so always worth checking but certainly for larger amounts.

payless

Home serve also seem to offer different deal ( ie a free service) if you select a product not on the cash back site lists ( not just an issue with TCB). This type of dual pricing means one needs to be more careful.

Bricks

Those who are saying we shouldn't complain because the fee is deducted from "free" money - no, it's not free money. It's money that you only get if you decide to go with a particular deal from a particular retailer.

Each time I use a cashback site (increasingly rarely as the deals seem to be more and more paltry) I do it having made a calculation based on the amount of cashback offered. It might swing me to buying from retailer B instead of retailer A, because B offers a cashback deal which effectively makes the purchase cheaper despite having a higher or similar standard price than retailer A.

That's based on an understanding that I can expect X amount of cashback from retailer B. If it turns out that I don't actually get X amount because TCB are going to deduct an admin fee from it, then it could actually *cost* me money to go with the cashback deal.

Cashback is *not* money for free. That's what they hope you think of course, which is why they are trying it on with this fee.

I've just discovered it's been added to my account and have asked for it to be refunded.