Ribbon Rewards for Rent Payments

diddly74

Hi there

Life has kicked me where none of us want to be kicked. In 2010, My husband and I went bankrupt, lost our home and have been renting ever since - yes I manifest to buy again but he has mental health issues after a breakdown and an attempt to unalive himself. So its just me who is out there working and trying to keep the wolves from the door. We can't claim any benefits as he has had what he is allowed and I earn too much. But I keep trying to find things to help our income such as cashback sites, side hustles etc.

I saw today an advert for a website called Ribbon Rewards who offer cashback to you (via vouchers) on rent payments. It appears you have to set up an account which gives you a new Bank account and you pay your cash into that and ribbon send the money to your Landlord/Management company. You then earn points which add up to be exchanged for vouchers for different companies.

Has anyone heard of this company or others like it? This was the first time I have come across one. Sounds great if its legit butttttttttttttttttttttttttt………..

And before you say it - I'm not stupid, and yes it does sound too good to be true - but then so does earning cashback through Jam Doughnut or Quidco. I've had a little search, and can't find any BAD reviews, although 1 website said it seemed shady.

What do we think?

Thanks Everyone.

elsien

They appear to be in financial difficulty from the look of the accounts - this is the company behind them.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12424477/filing-history

If they are underwritten by a bank then you have that FCAS protection but if they go under and your money is sitting in a third party account, it could be a while before your rent is paid while it all gets disentangled.

I wouldn’t go there.

lfc321

Never heard of Ribbon Rewards, but I wouldn't put an intermediary between yourself and your landlord. If anything goes wrong with them making the payments to your landlord, you're only going to find yourself in further difficulties.

Albermarle

Looking at the website, it does not appear to be an obvious scam. However as a small fintech company, there must be a possibility that they might go under/cease operations without any warning.

eddddy

This is my understanding of how the scheme works - if anyone (including the people running the scheme) feels I've got it wrong, please feel free to correct me.

Scraye, the company behind this scheme, have an online property rental website (perhaps a bit like "OpenRent") See: scraye.com

(They possibly describe themselves as a fintech company because they built their website, and they say they use AI to match tenants with landlords. And possibly because potential investors are more interested in "fintech companies using AI" rather than "online property rental companies".)

The scheme looks like it's intended to generate income in 2 ways - lead generation and affiliate marketing.

• Lead generation - when tenants sign up for the scheme, they provide contact details for their landlord. That gives Scraye a list of active landlords who they can then target and try to sell landlord related services. And maybe sell the list of landlords' contact details to other businesses who specifically want to target landlords.
• (Landlords are considered to be businesses, so other businesses can email, text, call them without the landlords having to "opt-in" or give prior consent.)

• Affiliate marketing - tenants get points which are converted into "money off" with businesses like hotels.com, amazon.com, etc
• Those companies pay Scraye a referral fee for the business they generate. e.g. The tenant uses points to get £50 off a hotels.com booking, but Scraye might get paid a £100 referral fee by hotels.com. So Scraye make £50 profit.

• (That's the same way that Quidco and topcashback work - they might get paid a £100 referral fee, and they pass £50 of it back to the buyer.

• So you might get the same amount of money off by going via Quidco and topcashback without the need to join this scheme and earn points.

• And/or you might even get an even better deal if, for example, you book direct with a hotel - meaning that no middlemen are taking any fees.)

Shannn

So I’ve actually used this and it’s legit. I saw one finance guy talking about it on TikTok and decided to give it a try. Did my own research they are partnered up with Griffin bank and they had the money protection up £80k or so. I got £33 worth of points as I signed up via a referral code and after paying my first rent through them, which I redeem as gift cards . It’s a really nice way of getting cash back from your rent. The more your rent the more cashback

eddddy

Shannn said

It’s a really nice way of getting cash back from your rent. The more your rent the more cashback

Just to be clear - it doesn't sound like you got cashback from your rent, it sounds like you got cashback from buying stuff from websites that Scraye referred you to.

For example, by paying your rent through Scraye, you could get £33 cashback from a booking at Hotels.com

Is that correct?

But could you have got the same £33 cashback/discount (or even more) at hotels.com by using sites like Topcashback, Quidco, etc or by using referral codes or discount codes from around the internet? (Or by using cheaper websites?)

Scraye seem to use a system called 'Affiliate Marketing' - the same as Topcashback, Quidco, etc

In simple terms with example numbers…

• Scraye might refer you to hotels.com.
• If you make a booking, hotels.com pay Scraye a fee (let's say hotels.com pays Scraye £66 when you buy something).
• Your 'gift card' might mean you get £33 of that £66, and Scraye keep the other £33.

Topcashback, Quidco might get the same £66 fee if you go to hotels.com via them - and they might give you the same £33 cashback, or they might give you less or more than £33.

horsewithnoname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6669770/ribbon-rewards-for-rent-payments

given there are tried and trusted cash back sites, why take a risk, especially with all the potential pitfalls?

Myci85

I don't think I'd want to take a risk by putting what I consider a priority bill in the hands of someone else. Rent/Mortgage and council tax are two of the main bills I would say should always be prioritised above anything else, as they are what give you a roof over your head. If you're paying your rent money to someone else, you're taking away your control of it reaching your landlord.

horsewithnoname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82109209#Comment_82109209

how long have you worked for them 🤣

Murphybear

my gut feeling was negative. What would happen if your rent wasn’t paid to the LL delberately or accidentally.

I had a look on Trustpilot. There are 80 something reviews that are all 5*. That could be really good or really bad