Spreading the risk on cashbacks

CovMan_2

I got doubly burned when fwdcellelular went to the wall

Currently though I have cashback deals with Carphone Warehouse and Mobileshop.com.

I'm now tempted by the ridiculous deal on 3 from dialaphone, see thread listed below

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=55860

What I want help on, and I think it might be useful for others, are any of these companies related. I could swallow one cashback going down the shute, but more than one and that would be not very nice at all. (Actually the Carphone Warehouse deal has partly paid up).

Also is there anyway to check the financial health of these companies?

Could you bet on a company going bankrupt to cover your losses if it did?

Is there any other way to lessen the risk?

allthatmularky

There's always ways to reduce risk. The obvious one - is to get as high value phone and saleable phone for as little as possible. Thus, if the co. goes to the wall you're have an asset to lessen the blow. The other ways to reduce risk - are don't put all your deals in one basket - CPW are as near to solid as you'll get, Dialaphone are ok, and Mobileshop have been around for 10yrs - so you're covered in that respect. There are no trading connections - parent/sub or associate between these three.