Although this isn’t directly related to babies, poo or the like, it is do with money (something that I’m learning each day that this baby is going to consume by the bucket load!)
Someone at work told me about Quidco.co.uk, which is a money-back co-operative website, which means that you get back a percentage of the money that you spend with a particular online retailer. Quidco is one of a handful of sites, which are becoming increasingly popular, and all do this by allowing you to sign up and use their site as a portal to click-through to another online shopping website. Once the sale is complete, then you get a proportion of your spending back every time you shop, normally between 4-10%, depending upon the retailer’s arrangement with Quidco.
Online advertising has changed in the last several years and now many online shopping sites pay a percentage of the sale to the website that originally referred the customer to them in the first place, rather than to pay for online advertising in the first place. Quidco.co.uk is one of a handful of websites that allow the public to sign up and use this method as a means of getting cash-back from their online purchases.
Once signed up and logged in, simply search for the name of the online retailer, e.g. Kiddicare, and Quidco tells you up-front what the cash-back rate is from Kiddicare (normally expressed as a percentage) and provides a link to their site.
Kiddicare, at the time of writing this, pay 4% cashback on orders placed via Quidco, providing that you use the link Quidco give you and you do not close the web-browser before completing the transaction.
The list of other online shopping websites that are available through Quidco is amazing. As this blog has a baby-orientated outlook, Mothercare are currently paying 5% and Early Learning Centre are currently paying 4%. But don’t think that Quidco is limited to baby sites, as lots more big name companies are on there, such as Orange, ebay, HMV and so on. Although 4 or 5% doesn’t seem much on a £20 online order, but it all adds up and the larger orders can be swayed from different websites/suppliers offering differing amounts on Quidco!
Since March 2008 (when we first started using Quidco) until now, Claire and I will have received £402.61 back from purchases that we were going to place anyway! Whether this was buying cds or dvds online, ordering a new mobile phone contract or even a new cot for the baby, if we could use Quidco, we did.
What’s the catch? Well, Quidco doesn’t really have any bad catches to watch out for. They do charge an annual administration fee of £5, yes five whole British pounds, but they take this as the first £5 that you earn each year. i.e. If you start in January 2009 and get £50 cash back from your online purchases, then Quidco keep the first £5, meaning that there’s £45 left to transfer to your bank account. If you then accumulate another £30, say, then you’ll get the whole £30 back, as you’ve already paid the fee for this year. Then, come January 2010, they’ll take the first £5 of next year’s money. Simple.
The time that you can expect to receive your money back from the online website that you buy from can vary, so don’t expect it instantly. Also, Quidco only pay the money owed to you once a month. But then it's money that you're technically getting that you wouldn't have had before, so it shouldn't make a big difference if you get it a month or two later.
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