Did you know that if you do all your Christmas spending through cashback cards and apps, then come the New Year your accounts could have amassed a whole load of credit, cash and treats?
In fact, you could have enough to pay for a January mini-break, just on your Christmas shopping alone!
At MoneyMagpie.com we are always talking about how handy cashback cards and apps can be for day-to-day spending. After all, they’re completely free to use and you get money back when you do your normal spending. The things you buy are no more expensive, you’re just in an exclusive club that gives you money back when you pay out.
All you have to do is your normal online shopping through a cashback site and each time you spend you get money back. It could be pennies if you’re buying groceries or over £100 if it’s something like insurance or an investment product.
Some cashback apps can also be used in high street stores, as you can see below. They have different ways of working, but they are all quite straightforward as you can see here.
Which cashback card or app should you use?
There are quite a few cashback companies around now, all with slightly different offerings, so it’s good to know what’s available so that you can use some for certain shopping trips and others for different types of spending.
You’ll have to sign up to the cashback site, which should be free although some have a version with an annual subscription cost in return for better cashback.
Here’s our round-up of the top four cashback services:
JamDoughnut
JamDoughnut.com is really easy to use and with it you get cash back as soon as you spend, so you don’t have to wait. The average user saves over £500 per year through JamDoughnut.
They describe themselves as the fastest-growing and highest-rated cashback app in the UK. They offer great cashback rates, give it instantly and the app can be used in stores and restaurants as well as online. There are over 200 major retailers to choose from, including the most popular supermarkets, for example you can get 6% cashback from Marks and Spencer’s, 3.75% from Tesco, 5% at Curry’s and over 3% at IKEA.
It’s completely free to join JamDoughnut, and they give you £2 for free when you use the app for the first time.
TopCashBack
TopCashback.co.uk is free to use although it also offers a premium version, called Plus, which, if you sign up, will charge up to £5 off what you earn each year.
‘Plus’ pays extra on cashback and up to 25 per cent greater bonuses via rewards. Users say that TopCashBack pays the highest rates the most often.
The site asserts that you can earn up to £345 cashback per year, which you can withdraw straight into your bank account, into Paypal or load up onto gift cards.
Quidco
Quidco.com is a free service, although they also offer a premium version which costs £1 of your monthly earnings and gives you boosted cashback.
Again, it offers cashback with thousands of popular and lesser-known retailers. You can withdraw the money into your bank account, into Paypal or convert it into gift cards. They say the average amount you can earn is around £300 a year.
HyperJar
Hyperjar.com is a personal favourite with us. It is a budgeting app that comes with a prepaid Mastercard. They brought in the cashback element at the end of October 2023 and it works through you buying ‘gift cards’ through the app.
You don’t have to use these cards as gifts, you can use them for yourself. When you spend with them you get up to 20 per cent of the value of the card put straight back into your HyperJar Wallet.
They have gift cards on pretty much everything from at least 66 retailers. You could be buying groceries, clothing, housewares, restaurants, travel, DIY or cinema tickets to get cashback.
Make extra cash
There are sometimes extra ways to make money through cashback sites too. For example, some offer you a bonus if you recommend a friend.
You usually have to send an email using the website’s dedicated referrals page. The email will contain a link to the cashback site with a code to confirm it was you who gave the recommendation.
If you do this you could potentially make more money by putting your personal code on the website Referralcodes.com so that other people that you don’t even know can use your code to save money for themselves and make money for you.
