I’m a cashback king – how I get FREE cash by shopping and pay my phone bill by eating Greggs
DAD-OF-THREE Joseph Seager is a self-confessed cashback king and has made over £4,000 in the past 10 years using sites like Quidco and TopCashback.
The 36-year-old, who runs the Thrifty Chap blog, and lives in Lancashire, has shared with The Sun hhis top tips for getting free cash when you shop.
Cashback websites work by paying when you buy from certain retailers or sign up to financial products.
It’s an easy way to get back money when you’re shopping.
Joseph said: “This works on everything from fashion to electronics.
“You'll find brands and retailers that you recognise and probably already shop with.
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“Expedia, BT, Travelodge, Ann Summers and Card Factory.”
Shoppers should find the deal they’d like to buy and then check with cashback sites to see if they have an offer.
Then you click through the link and the kickback is paid to you within 30 days of your transaction.
Here Joseph shares his top tips on how to make the most of cashback sites.
Pay your phone bill by eating at Greggs
The Airtime Rewards app allows users to connect their bank card.
Then every time you shop at certain retailers you earn a percentage of cashback - and this can be used to pay your phone bill.
Joseph said: “It works with retailers like Wilko, Argos and Greggs. Yes, you really can help pay your phone bill by eating a steak bake.
"In just over twelve months I’ve earned over £30 with Airtime Rewards, which is three months of my £10 a month phone contract with EE."
Networks signed up to Airtime Rewards also include Vodafone, Three Mobile and Giffgaff.
Try this gift card trick
Joseph also uses an app called JamDoughnut that gives you a percentage of cashback when you buy a gift card from top retailers.
The amount you can earn ranges from 3% to 20%.
“I’m not usually a huge fan of gift cards because of the risk of them becoming worthless if the company goes bust,” Joseph said.
“But if you buy them to use there and then, they can be great.”
Joseph has earned over £200 since downloading the app twelve months ago.
“We use it at Asda. Instead of using a credit or debit card, we buy a gift card through JamDoughnut.
“This saves us 4% - saving us £3.20 on a £80 weekly shop. I also used it to get 8% cashback when we bought a new washing machine from Currys. That was a £20 saving!
“You can get 8% at Airbnb and 7.5% at M&S at the moment too”.
Get cashback from your bank
Some banks give you a percentage back when you spend.
For example, Chase pays 1% cashback on all of your spending for the first 12 months - so if you spend £5,000 in a year, you get £50 back.
There is no fee for the Chase bank account, no minimum income per month and it is app only.
You don’t have to switch to it either, like you do with so many bank incentives.
Simply set it up and you can start earning cashback. It also has a linked 1.5% easy access savings account.
Earn hundreds from your supermarket shop
Other apps like Checkout Smart, GreenJinn and Shopmium help you earn money back on your supermarket shopping.
You get a set amount of cashback when you buy different products and certain retailers.
Joseph said: “For example, 50p cashback when you buy Rachel’s Organic yogurt from Tesco or £1 when you buy Kellogg’s cereal from Morrisons.”
“These offers change weekly and it's a great way to bring down the cost of your food shop.
“You might even expand your tastes and try something new.”
“You'll often find 100% cashback offers on some products. This means that they are free.”
On GreenJinn you have to earn a minimum of £1.50 before you can withdraw your cash.
Shopmium pays directly into your bank account a few days after your submission is approved.
On CheckoutSmart you can withdraw once you have £5 in cashback, however any amount under £20 will incur a 5% fee so you’re better to build it up before you cashout.”
The cashback catches to watch out for
There are always potential downsides to earning cashback, Joseph warns.
“Sometimes the journey doesn't track because of your computers cache or cookies.
“You can always submit a claim but this tends to take longer to go through that if it had tracked automatically.
“There are also terms and conditions to take into account and some offers are only for new customers.
“Different retailers pay out in varying lengths of time too. Nine times out of ten you will have to wait for your cashback to go through the system before getting your hands on it.”
He also warns that it’s worth doubling checking the terms and conditions before you sign up.
He added: “You should never buy something because of the cashback incentive.”
In other news we tested supermarket brand champagne and you'll never believe which one tastes better than Moet.
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