Quidco - get your £5
I have never been too convinced about websites that offer the so-called Cashback, i.e. partial refund of costs incurred for purchases from selected sellers. When I moved to Monzo, I started following their forum (community), reading the opinions of other users whether it works and if so, how much money can you get back on this by making purchases that you would do anyway.
And so, at the end of January 2019 I decided to check out Quidco, one of the two main players on the market in the UK. As the basic membership costs nothing (Premium is only £5 per year deducted from the cashback earned), I don’t risk anything.
If you shop, for example on eBay or Argos, order a pizza from Dominos, plan to change your electricity company, or plan to buy a Disney+ package, why not get extra money for something you will be doing anyway.
According to Quidco, their members receive on average £300 per year. Personally, after only a month of use, I have no doubt that this is real unless you refer a lot of people. Additionally, on TrustPilot over 125,000 people gave Quidco a rating of 4.3 out of 5 (74%, 5-stars), which is also impressive.
In the first month, I only made a few planned purchases, some of which did not qualify for Cashback, but it was not Quidco’s fault but the way I made these purchases, so first of all I want to share my experience with you.
First of all, you must be aware that for everything to work, Quidco needs to track the transaction from start to finish, and for this purpose it primarily uses cookies. Quidco is not a charity. They also receive cashback from sellers who cooperate with them. They share a portion of their cashback with their users.
Once you have searched for the seller (on the Quidco home page) from whom you want to make a purchase, using the link you will be taken to the seller’s website where you will be able to make your planned purchase.
You will find out how much refund we will receive (in % or £££), how quickly the purchase is tracked and when the funds will be released to us on the Quidco website before you start purchasing.
And here, if we made the purchase correctly (that is, we did not do anything that could invalidate our Cashback, i.e. we used an additional discount code unrelated to Quidco), our transaction should appear in the Tracked section. It usually takes from several minutes to several hours or days. Now all we have to do is wait the period after which these funds will be released and will be available for withdrawal (Account balance).
Well, the funds we collect are not paid immediately. Quidco verifies transactions with sellers and if there are no comments, e.g. you made a purchase and later cancel it and return the goods, the funds are released and you can withdraw them. Depending on the type of transaction, the amount of cashback and the seller himself, the funds may be available after a few days, and sometimes only after a few months (e.g. when changing electricity suppliers).
Not all transactions are tracked correctly
Everything is beautiful when everything works. Nowadays, especially when we shop from a mobile phone, when we go to the seller’s website, we can be redirected to a dedicated application installed on our phone, where we can make a purchase in a convenient way.
This “convenient” method means that Quidco has no way of tracking this type of transaction. They talk about it at every step, so it is better to make a purchase in the web browser in which the link from Quidco was opened.
I personally experienced this myself when I lost several cashbacks. This is what “learning” how to use it is all about. I didn’t actually lose anything, because if I made the purchase traditionally, I wouldn’t have received anything extra.
Even purchases from your browser may not be tracked correctly
The struggles continue.
Even if we used the link on the Quidco website correctly and went to the seller’s website, the transaction cannot always be tracked. Various extensions and privacy settings in the browser are to “blame” here.
If you use AdBlock or another similar browser add-on (or block cookies in your browser) designed primarily to block ads, you may notice that in addition to blocking ads, they also block tracking codes/cookies that are necessary to pay you cashback.
Personally, I don’t recommend browsing the web without AdBlock Plus, but in the case of Quidco, I had to change the way I shop on my computer to make sure I got the cashback I deserved. I also found this out when my purchases were not picked up and everything went through the roof.
Since I use Safari every day, I have Chrome installed on the side and I used this browser (without Adblock Plus) for purchases with cashback.
What to do if the transaction has not been tracked?
Fortunately, when our transaction has not been traced, all is not lost, we can always file a “complaint” (Claim), during which we will select the seller (he will be available when we used the link from the Quidco website), the date of the transaction and we will provide some additional details that will allow both parties to identify the transaction. If everything went as we planned, we will soon see the missing transaction and cashback on our Tracked page.
Premium Membership
Quidco also offers Premium membership. However, you don’t have to pay for it. A fee of £5 is deducted from the first cashback earned once every 12 months. Thanks to premium membership, the user is offered a portal without advertising and with additional options that allow you to increase the cashback value that you can receive from selected sellers. Personally, I decided that I would try this option and after a year I would check whether it is profitable.
Although the first year was intense and I got a lot out of my purchases, I did not decide to continue the premium package for the following years.
Get £5 from your referral
Now coming to the point, which is £5 for you.
Well, in addition to the possibility of getting cashback on purchases, Quidco offers a referral program. By encouraging a friend to join Quidco using the referral link (below), they receive £5 added to the first confirmed £5 cashback. Since it’s free, why not take advantage?
The person you refer gets £5 and you, as the referrer, get £15.
Once you join Quidco, you can refer your friends using your individual link in “Refer a friend” so you can start earning money yourself.
Nothing but use.
Regards.
