Quidco - is it really as good as it seems?

scorpio_princess

I kept reading about these cashback websites, so thought i'd sign up to quidco (actually, i'm now rather annoyed at the amount of money I spent online at Christmas because it appears I could have got some money back on my purchases! Oh well)

Anyway, my question is, is it really all that? I mean, some of the cashback deals look incredible - do you really see the money? Take the sky deal for example - is it that lucrative that they can afford to give over £100 to new subscribers? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but all this money saving bargain hunting is a new concept to me!

Thanks

Steve_xx

Yes it works for the greater part of the time. You have to clear cookies etc if you visited the site you want to buy from before logging on to your Quidco account. Doing so ensures that Quidco properly tracks the purchase.

What have you got to lose? If you were going to make a purchase from a listed site then you might as well try for a rebate on the price you pay.

I insured my car via Quidco last year and was rebated £130. I think I've had approximately £320 rebated in the last year.

jpwilliams

Likewise, I've made about £470 from quidco, from pennies for ebay fees, to £100 for a '3' mobile contract.

If you're going to make a purchase anyway, go for it, it's a nice little sweetner.

John

taxiphil

There are tactical things you can do to cover your own back.

For instance, if buying insurance, buy it a few weeks before you want the policy to start, then if it hasn't tracked after a week or so, cancel it and take one out with a different company instead.

Luis-FlightManWithAPlan

Funnily enough i was about to ask the same question! I dont currently have a cashback site that I use,which I should because its extra money you wouldnt see otherwise!

Steve_xx

taxiphil wrote: »

There are tactical things you can do to cover your own back.

For instance, if buying insurance, buy it a few weeks before you want the policy to start, then if it hasn't tracked after a week or so, cancel it and take one out with a different company instead.

That's a very good point.

You can see what's going on regarding tracking with Quidco if when you're logged on to your account you type new-enquiry in the address bar, immediately after the www.quidco.com. This brings up a dropdown menu of the sites you have visited and the time you linked to them. So you can see reasonably if it has tracked your purchase.

Yesterday my friend bought a cooker that was already reduced to £131 in a sale. We managed to find two online voucher codes, the first saved the £20 delivery charge and the second gave a £10 discount. Then we went to the respective site via Quidco and that rebated a further 6%. In the end the cooker will be supplied and delivered for just £113.74.

valk_scot

I joined recently and after having read the FAQs section very carefully, I decided to use Quidco through Firefox, which I do have but almost never use (I use IE as my main setting) in order to keep it seperate from my main activities. This lessens the chances of the cookies getting messed up. Seems to be working so far as there is £44 sitting in my tracking account, just from buying three kitchen appliences the other day.

freddysmith

Quidco is well worth it, don't be put off by the £5 fee which they charge each year from your earnings.
I have recieved over £1000 back over the past 2-3 years. I also use other cashback sites too. You may be surprised by how many well known retailers are included in the scheme, and its always good to save some money by doing very little really and it can get paid straight into your bank account each month.

scorpio_princess

Wow, thanks for the replies! I do have firefox so i'll access via that - thanks for the tip.

I may as well go for it - I'm looking to switch my gas and electric soon (and not just because npower - my current provider - have put their prices up, but because i've never switched before) so I should get £60 back if I switch to EON (which the switching websites say is about 45% cheaper than what i'm paying now) - I really hope so as I need all the money I can get!

While i'm here, does anyone know if you can use any discount codes on top of getting cashback? What I mean is, I have an NUS student card and some websites give students 10% off, but can this be used in conjunction with quidco? Also, i've seen that some online retailers like play.com and amazon are signed up to the Nectar estores scheme - am I right in thinking you can't use Nectar and quidco at the same time? If that is the case i'll have to judge whether I get more from accessing via Quidco or Nectar.

Oooh but there seems to be other cashback websites I haven't even looked at yet - guess I know what i'll be doing with my weekend (well, not like i've got any money to go out anywhere... )

Sput2001

In the past two years I've received over £700 from Quidco, with £120 due at the end of this month and another £100+ in the pipeline.

If you're in the market for car or house insurance there's usually someone giving £100+ back via Quidco. Obviously do the basic research first to make sure the premium is still reasonably competitive.

I've only had a couple of small items declined or failed to track.

It's probably bet not to DEPEND on getting the cash back from them, although you will get it the large majority of the time. Consider it a bonus, I guess...

Steve_xx

Not sure about the Nectar thing. But you can often use discount codes in conjunction with Quidco. See here for an example of a discount codes site:

http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/

You go through Quidco to the site you want to buy from. Then as you proceed to the checkout there will often be a box to put voucher/discount/promotional codes into. Sometimes the codes work and so reduce the cost of the item, whereas at other times the vouchers don't work because they've expired or maybe are not applicable to the item you have elected to buy. These discount codes don't afftect the rebate from Quidco.

As I said earlier, my friend bought a cooker for £131, then input two discount voucher codes at the checkout which saved £20 on delivery and gave a discount of £10, then he went through Quidco which gave him a 6% rebate on the remaining £121. Last, but not least he paid for it using his credit card and that gave him a further 1% rebate!! Therefore the item was effectively reduced from £151 (inclusive of delivery charge) to £112.74 (inclusive of delivery charge). It all adds up.