Top Cashback is the UK's most popular cashback website and, in my view, probably one of, if not THE best, of the UK's most generous cashback websites. I've earned just under £2,000 in cashback since I joined!
So first things first, what is a cashback site?
Imagine you're shopping online, buying things like clothes, gadgets, or even booking a hotel room. Now, wouldn't it be nice if you could get some of your money back after you make these purchases? That's where a cashback site comes in.
A cashback site is like a friendly helper that gives you a portion of the money you spent on your online shopping back to you. Here's how it works:
Sign Up: First, you need to sign up on a cashback site. It's usually free and easy to do. Think of it like creating an account for a game or a social media site.
Browse Stores: Once you're signed up, you visit the cashback site and look through the list of online stores they partner with. These could be household name big brand stores you're familiar with or smaller or independent shops.
Click and Shop: Let's say you find a pair of shoes you like in one of the stores listed on the cashback site. Instead of going directly to that store's website, you click on the store's link from the cashback site. This link helps the cashback site track your purchase.
Make a Purchase: You buy the shoes as you normally would on the store's website. You complete your order and pay the full price.
Cashback Time: After you've made the purchase, the store gives a little thank-you gift to the cashback site for sending you their way. This thank-you gift is a percentage of the money you spent.
Getting Money Back: Now comes the cool part. The cashback site gives that thank-you gift to you! This money adds up in your cashback account on the cashback site.
Withdraw Your Earnings: Once you've gathered enough money in your cashback account (usually, there's a minimum amount), you can withdraw it. This could be through various methods, like sending the money to your bank account, PayPal, or even getting a gift card.
Think of it like a little bonus you get for doing your regular online shopping through the cashback site. It's like getting some of your money back as a reward for being a savvy shopper. Just remember that it might take a bit of time for the cashback to show up in your account, so patience is key.
So, in simple terms, a cashback site helps you save money while you shop online by giving you back a part of what you spent. It's like an online shopping buddy that helps you put some of your spending back in your pocket!
What's TopCashback, And How Does it Work? Top Cashback is the biggest cashback site in the UK and certainly one of the best cashback sites, in my opinion. Millions of members are all earning free money by using TopCashback when spending money at one of the cash-back sites partnered with online retailers. The site, and app, offer over 5,000 shoppers' favourite retailers, ranging from big high-street names to small independent companies, on which any purchases you make will earn cashback which will be applied to your Topcashback account. The cashback offers are competitive, and it's unusual for rival cashback sites to be beating TopCashback on cashback rates as rates are checked regularly to make sure they are market leading, or at least matching that of their rivals so you can normally be pretty sure you're getting a good cashback rate on your purchases. You can earn cashback when using the TopCashback website or smartphone app to make your purchases, and they also have a pretty useful browser extension which runs in the background. Then when you go to a partnered retailer's website, the extension will pop up and offer you the opportunity to earn cashback at that website. It's handy as it's fast and the easiest way you can earn cashback on your purchase, and it has earned me extra cashback that I otherwise would have forgotten to earn! The main cashback technique is earning money via an online purchase, but you can earn cashback from selected retailers by connecting your bank account. Then when you spend at a featured retailer, you'll earn cashback automatically. If I'm honest, this feature hasn't really been developed well by TopCashback; as I write this, only three retailers are offering the cashback, and they aren't popular retailers, so I'll stick to Cheddar or Airtime Rewards for in-store cashback as they are both massively better than TopCashback, who I think has dropped the ball on this handy feature! TopCashback makes money by charging retailers to use TopCashback and for advertising opportunities. They actually pass all the cashback earned onto their members and don't keep any of this, so what you earn is all yours! What Can I Earn Cashback On? The answer is pretty much anything and everything! The sheer number of retailers working with Topcashback means that you are likely to be able to earn cashback on a high percentage of your cashback purchases, but not all. As an example, you can't earn cashback on purchases made at Amazon, which I know I spend a lot of money with; as with most other cashback sites, Amazon doesn't offer cashback on its products, apart from the occasional offer on Amazon's own brand products such as Alexa products. In fact, the only cashback app I know that offers any regular Amazon cashback is ZipZero, which offers between 0.5% and 1% on purchases and is the main reason I use ZipZero! It is a bit of trial and error; some retailers offer cashback with TopCashback, and others don't; often, the smaller the company you are shopping with, the lower the chance of cashback, as smaller companies may not have the profit margins to be able to pay out cashback. If you can't find a specific retailer, then it's worth checking if it's not available on a rival cashback services site, as some cashback sites do have some exclusive retail partners. If you don't find the retailer on another site, search for the product on Google Shopping to see if another retailer also sells it, which does work with a cashback site! You can earn cashback on physical products bought from online retailers, and also you find cashback deals on services and non-physical products as well. For example, you might earn cashback for taking out a new car insurance policy, taking out a free trial of a service, or perhaps signing up for a new internet or TV service provider, an airport parking booking, a new phone contract, maybe a new credit card or bank account or booking a hotel or holiday; there are lots of different options. In fact, you'll often get higher cashback rates on non-physical purchases; as an example, if you sign up for Sky TV at the time of writing this blog post, I could earn upto £140 cashback on my subscription, so a decent amount of cashback, or I could earn £6 cashback taking out a FREE Experian credit account, which is literally money for nothing! You can also earn cashback by purchasing gift cards from TopCashback via its TopGiftCards service. Once you buy a gift card, the gift card is available almost immediately to you for spending or giving as a gift etc. The cashback from the gift card purchase is allocated to your TopCashback account immediately, and the cashback is set to payable straight away, which puts it in the same type of instant cashback you'd get from sites such as JamDoughnut. Does It Ever Go Wrong? Every so often, you'll find a cashback transaction hasn't tracked properly, and it isn't showing up on your account. If this happens, you can submit a cashback claim, and customer service will then contact the retailer to confirm the transaction and then once the claim has been agreed, the claim is updated, and you'll have the cashback allocated to your account, or not if the claim is denied. You can also find that the retailer can decline some cashback claims, which can be annoying! The most common reason for this is that you've used a discount code on your purchase that hasn't been authorised or issued by TopCashback, and as you may have already received a significant discount, you can't then receive cashback as well. You may also find a transaction denied if you've clicked on a different cashback site after clicking through TopCashback. The cashback paid out by a retailer will be paid to the most recent cashback service you clicked on before paying for your order, so it might be that the cashback will show up on the other cashback service; however, I have found that if you click on too many cashback sites, the retailer's system gets confused and doesn't pay out on any cashback site! If you have been a bit click-happy, I suggest signing out of the retailer's website and then clearing the cookies on your computer, and then clicking back into TopCashback and going to the retailer again, signing in and that refreshes the process and you should then have no problems! When Do I Get My Cashback?
Like all similar sites, the cashback you earn will typically appear in your account within 24 hours. This will then show as pending until the retailer confirms the transaction with TopCashback, and then once approved, the cashback will be marked as payable. It can take several weeks, even months, for the cashback to become payable, and this can be for several reasons. One of the main reasons for the delay in payment comes down to the returns period the retailer offers the customer. If a company offers you a sixty-day returns period, then any cashback you've earned won't be available until the return period has closed; otherwise, the retailer could be paying out large amounts of money on cashback to then have the goods returned, which they refund and you've then just received a refund, plus been paid cashback which leaves the retailer out of pocket, so you won't get paid till the returns period has closed. Equally, if you've earned cashback on a holiday you've booked for next summer, you can expect that this cashback won't become payable until after you've been on holiday, again to ensure that you have not been paid cashback on a holiday that you then cancel, so it's not some sort of scam to delay paying you out, its simple economics!
How Is My Cashback Paid?
Cashback can be paid out in a few different ways. Firstly you can simply withdraw your available funds via a bacs payment/bank transfer to your bank or have the money sent to your Paypal account if you prefer. Your cashback rewards can be boosted by transferring your payable cashback into a 'Reward Wallet', and this wallet allows you to exchange your cashback into gift cards that can be redeemed at hundreds of high street stores, including supermarkets, and you get a 10% or 20% bonus for doing this which is a great way to earn even more extra cash on your shopping!
Account Types
Topcashback offers uk members the option of having a classic account or Premium membership/ Plus membership. The classic account is free to use, and you'll be able to earn cashback at the advertised rates and withdraw cash to your Reward Wallet with a 10% bonus. If you choose to go with a premium account, you'll pay £5 a year, which is taken from your cashback earnings, and for that, your offered higher cashback rates, extra promotions, and you'll also get a reward wallet bonus of 20%, so if you are someone who is likely to use TopCashback reasonably often, then Premium is absolutely the way to go as you'll likely earn extra money and benefit from the best offers and payout bonuses, which will ultimately increase your annual cashback earnings. As a premium member, you'll also earn a higher New Member Welcome Bonus.
New Member Welcome Bonus
TopCashback offers bonuses to a new customer who has been referred to the cashback service via a friend link. This referral bonus is split between the person referring the new TopCashback member and the new member and becomes payable once the new member earns £10 or more payable cashback. There are often bonuses for the new member of between £10 and £15, and the referrer, depending on what account type they have, will earn between a £20 and £35 bonus, so its worth referring your friends and family to join up as well!
If you'd like to join TopCashback, we'd be grateful if you used our TopCashback link, as any referral payments go towards our website operating costs.
What Else Should You Know?
Keep your eye out on the site for special 'Global Bonus Events'. These pop up from time to time, especially around bank holidays and special events, and you'll likely be offered deals such as spend £5 at any retailer before midnight tonight, and you'll get a £3 bonus on top of your cashback. My top tip here is if you don't need anything from any retailers, buy a gift card for a supermarket or a retailer you use a lot for the minimum transaction amount allowed as part of the Global Bonus Deal, and you'll then get the gift card instantly, get the cashback amount of the gift card applied to your account immediately as well, together with the bonus amount and as it's a gift card purchase both the gift card cashback and bonus cashback amount immediately turn to payable, as there is no waiting time for gift cards, so you get your cashback straight away as well!
Keep your eye on the retailer pages on TopCashback, as you often find exclusive discount codes or promotion codes that you can use on top of receiving the cashback, which is super handy!
If you haven't shopped with a particular supermarket online before, for example, Sainsbury's, make sure you use TopCashback, as you'll often find cashback bonuses for first-time supermarket users. As I write this, Sainsbury's is offering £7.35 on a £40+ home delivery food shop or £8.40 for a first-time, click-and-collect purchase!
Talking of supermarkets, you won't earn cashback on in-store shopping from TopCashback, but you can earn cashback on a supermarket gift card purchase, so buy a gift card for your supermarket if it's not being delivered, and that way, you'll earn something! Alternatively, if you don't want to pay for delivery, order online for click and collect, and you'll earn cashback on that purchase.
You could also buy a gift card for a supermarket that allows gift cards to be used online through TopCashback or a rival such as JamDoughnut and earn the cashback on the gift card purchase and then use the gift card as payment for a delivery or click and collect purchase, made via TopCashback and earn cashback on the order as well! It's cheeky but a perfectly legitimate way to double your cashback! If you are only going to use one cashback site, then it probably should be TopCashback! It's perhaps the most generous cashback site and the highest paying cashback site, and as of February 2023 was voted the cashback site of the year for the fifth year running, and that tells a very positive story! I use the site in conjunction with many of its rivals to make sure I'm getting the best possible deal, and you should too if you want to maximise your cashback savings! You can see all my recommended cashback sites on the 'Best Cashback Sites You Should Be Using' blog post HERE.
