How do companies benefit from Quidco

Hades · 17 Feb 2017 at 13:30

I have been using quidco for some time. When I buy something I check whether the company is on quidco. I receive an occasional advert email from quidco but it has never caused me to use them unless I was already about to buy something from that company.

So, given that I would have been about to spend money with the target company anyway, and simply used quidco to get some extra cash back, why do companies put themselves on there? They must gain something from it.

SilverTongue · 17 Feb 2017 at 13:34

Advertising, plus if for example you were going to buy breakdown and AA were offering cover for £99 and RAC were offering cover £109 with £20 cashback which would you go for? I personally would go for RAC so they will have gained a customer that they would have otherwise lost to AA

kkelly · 17 Feb 2017 at 13:57

Not all of their customers use these sites so over charging others to attract new customers with cash backs works

SimonCHere · 17 Feb 2017 at 16:41

I've noticed with TopCashBack that sometimes a site will add money on to the price when going through TCB. It's good for phone contracts and some deals, but you really have to check on a different computer (or without cookies) to see if you are actually getting a deal or not.

Bickaxe · 17 Feb 2017 at 16:55

I used to use JustEat via Quidco until I checked prices with the takeaway menu. The cashback was just slightly less than the extra I paid so now I go direct.
I've not checked other sites as most go direct but I'm sure things like insurance and travel would give similar results.

Amp34 · 17 Feb 2017 at 17:44

Affiliate marketing.

Most entailers will have an affiliate scheme that gives money to the website the person came through to land on their site and buy something. All Quidco and TCB do is give you that money (or a proportion of it) when you click through them and buy something.

E.g. If you see an advert on (for example) the Telegraph website for Amazon, you click on it and then subsequently buy an item from Amazon on that visit then the Telegraph will get say 3% of the sale as a fee.

Because they are large companies, and some people make decisions on purchasing based on offers on those sites, then they can also negotiate special affiliate offers with some companies. That will be where the most of the special offers come from, but you'll probably find most of the cash back deals will be the same percentage most websites get for their affiliate marketing deals.

SixTwoSix · 17 Feb 2017 at 18:22

I've also noticed that when I recommend to people about using quidco and topcashback, the typical reply is "can't be bothered" or "it's clearly a scam"...i've been using both sites for around 4 years and have accrued over £2000 in cashback.

This is all from things I was going to do anyway and when the option was there, I had the clickthrough available from these sites. On no instances did I end up paying more by using the cashback option either.

It's especially good if you "build" your own holidays, got cashback from the airline, hotels, airport parking and lounges last year. Ironically the cashback on the airport lounge paid when i'd used my "free" access provided by my bank just by clicking through the link.

esoteric · 18 Feb 2017 at 00:14

Been using TCB for a few years now. I don't buy a lot and most isn't available on there but I've still got about £120 in there, £74 of that was from a policy I took out on car insurance.

stoofa · 18 Feb 2017 at 10:31

I'm currently looking at the other cashback sites over Quidco.
I've just been let down by Quidco for my last two cashbacks - £40 cashback on a pet insurance policy via MoreThan and £35 cashback on a pet insurance policy from Esure.
On both occasions I read through the T&C's to make sure I qualified - genuine new policy, not a renewal, etc.
I waited 10 months on both and they have both come back with "denied". I ask Quidco to investigate and they come back with "retailer denied, sorry". No explanation, no reason, just "tough luck bud".

Now I know that payments are never guaranteed but the bottom line - I wouldn't have taken either of those policies out had the cashback incentive not been there. I've had just over £1k from Quidco over the years, so I know the "system works" so to speak. But these two have left a bad taste in the mouth, so I'll now be looking elsewhere and I shall never be purchasing anything from MoreThan again.

covenantuk · 18 Feb 2017 at 13:11

I've found insurers just about the worst payers for cashback sites, though i did get my cashback from Direct Line. I always look at cashback as a bonus and not use it as a buying decision alone.

Still worth using them though - over £1000 back so far.