How cashback sites work

Cashback sites don’t quite hand out money for nothing but they do give you money back on products that you buy through their sites. In fact, some will give you some money just for signing up with them, so you might as well sign up for all of them just for the free upfront cash.

The way they work is that cashback sites list retailers with which they have deals. When you clickhrough to one of these retailers, the cashback site gets money from them. The cashback site then gives some of that money back to you. Handy.

Step 1: Choose a cashback site - or several.
There are plenty around. Start with the sites that give you instant cash just by signing up such as Rpoints which gives you £5, Cashback Shopper which gives you £5, and Ecashback which gives you £2.50 immediately.

However, you can’t take this money out straight away. They credit your account with this cash but you only get your hands on it once you have used the site once or twice and more money has been credited to you.

Step 2: Look at the retailers.
Have a look at the retailers on each cashback site and use the sites that have the most retailersyou like. Also, see which sites give the most money for the different items or services. Top Cashback is good because it gives you all of the money which it gets from the retailers anddoesn’t make an annual administration charge.

Step 3: Charity giving.
Consider giving money to charity through cashback sites. The site Give or Take offers users the choice of keeping their cashback money or giving it to charity and they have just doubled the amount they are giving.

For example you (or your charity) could make up to £120 taking out car insurance through them (although make sure first that you can’t get a better deal on insurance, even taking the cashback into account, by shopping around here).