Greasypalm.co.uk

Cash back wasn't well known about until recently through the media and press mainly because of the credit crunch and the importance of getting hold of and keeping cash for longer.
However cash back sites have been around for years and Greasypalm is no different, they have always been a good way of getting something back from shopping you would be doing anyway and contrary to what people think pennies do make pounds and if you are prepared ...
...you could come out with a fair amount.

INTRODUCTION
I joined Greasypalm back in 2003 and couldn't fault them when I first joined up to a nice £2.50 for joining and decent cash back on the bits and bobs I was buying. Since then there have been numerous changes some for the good and some for the bad.
Greasypalm is an online site that pays you to shop! Like most other cash back sites they offer a variety of offers for example ... more

Cash back wasn't well known about until recently through the media and press mainly because of the credit crunch and the importance of getting hold of and keeping cash for longer.
However cash back sites have been around for years and Greasypalm is no different, they have always been a good way of getting something back from shopping you would be doing anyway and contrary to what people think pennies do make pounds and if you are prepared to put in those extra few seconds before buying online you could come out with a fair amount.

INTRODUCTION
I joined Greasypalm back in 2003 and couldn't fault them when I first joined up to a nice £2.50 for joining and decent cash back on the bits and bobs I was buying. Since then there have been numerous changes some for the good and some for the bad.
Greasypalm is an online site that pays you to shop! Like most other cash back sites they offer a variety of offers for example money off codes or free postage, money back deals which is basically the commission you get for making a purchase from one of the websites they endorse and cash for taking out services such as credit card and bill providers.
Cash back websites are basically a notice board for advertising different products and services that they will get a fee on and pass a very small percentage on to the consumer, which is us! Ok you don't get a great deal back but every little bit helps and it is something you wouldn't get from a shop. Buying bits and bobs brings in a few quid but if you have major purchases then the amount can be fairly good that you get in return.

SIGNING UP
Once you visit www.greasypalm.co.uk you are faced with a simple screen boasting of the millions of pounds they are paying out as we speak and how much you can earn just be opening an account. You are then given a simple box asking for your name and a user name you would like after this you are asked for a few more obvious joining questions and you are away to earning your very first £2.50 and then a further £7.00 if you refer a friend but only if they then go on to make at least £15 in cash back.

WEBSITE
The website is very bright and attractive it is set out like a newsletter so it is easy to read through and understand. There are 14 different areas you can look into which all in some way relate to cash back. Personally I don't think you need that many areas to complicate things but I suppose they want to be able to give maximum exposure to their advertisers and to get people to stay on their site for as long as possible. Once your on the main page you can see who are the top earners on Greasypalm who earn around £120 per month it may seem a lot but the 2nd and 3rd highest earners soon drop to £70.00 it may seem difficult to get but you only have to book flights or buy a load of presents to pocket a bulk amount one month. Underneath the names it asks "how do they do it?" this then just navigates to the free cash back page, yeah course they made all that money from ordering a few catalogues and sim cards they are never going to use!
You then have a column with all the exclusive cash back deals which can be a good help because they advertise all the really good cash back deals to get you enticed into looking further like joining gala bingo for £20.00 cash back when you only have to deposit £10.00.
You then have an update of all the new cash back providers which is good to know so you can spot a retailer you use a lot that doesn't yet offer cash back elsewhere.
Down the right hand side of the website you have all the categories you can earn cash back in once you click into one it will show a list of retailers a short description of them and how much you can earn, if there is a voucher code for some money off this will also show. You get nearly all well known retailers on cash back sites now. I have noticed that a lot of independent sites use these sites for a while and once they get a good client base from them they withdraw from the site so best to get your cash back in quickly, especially if it looks to be a good offer.

CASHBACK RATES
The cash back rates Greasypalm used to offer used to be quite competitive and am sure some still are but I have noticed some are a lot lower. They do sometimes introduce a higher cash back for some websites on occasions and they normally email you to let you know and they advertise the fact all over their website. Just to give you a rough idea on what sort of cash back you can earn I have given some examples along side some competitors.

* Purchases *
Dorothy Perkins
GreasyPalm - 2.5%
Competitor 1 - 5%
Competitor 2 - 5%

Comet
Greasypalm - 1.75%
Competitor 1 - 0%
Competitor 2 - 4%

Avon
Greasypalm - 7.5%
Competitor 1 - 16%
Competitor 2 - 15%

* Services *
Taking out a Halifax credit card
Greasypalm - £10.00
Competitor 1 - £20.00
Competitor 2 - £20.00

Taking out Pru health insurance
Greasypalm - £42.50
Competitor 1 - £85.00
Competitor 2 - £85.00

Taking Aig home insurance
Greasypalm - £22.50
Competitor 1 - £45.00
Competitor 2 - £45.00

I have picked these cash back examples randomly I haven't selected any specifically but as you can see the figures speak for themselves Greasypalm are not looking after their customers the cash back rates are minimal and not benefiting us.

EARNINGS
Besides the cash back from purchases and services you can make online you can also register your debit card details and benefit from cash back from Halfords, Superdrug, cine world, jjb sports and little chef for in store purchases.
If you have a spare evening or day free you can go through the daily cash back section area where you can click (but only once a day) on sites like Kelkoo or buy central for a whipping two pence so could amount to 60p a month at least! Then x 12 you could benefit from £7.20 its ok if you've got the time and patience but a lot of the time their not tracked and is anyone really that bored? If you are after a few more pennies perhaps to bring your earnings just up to the £25.00 payout mark visiting the no spend cash back could help up out a bit. This is an area showing you what sites offer a sign up pay out or maybe a competition payout you normally get around 25p for one of these, there good because you don't tend to have to do a lot but don't use them all up in a month as they rarely get updated. The best one on there I would said is join a DVD club for £8.00 cash back you get 28 days membership to watch as many free DVDs as you can without spending a penny. You do have to give card details but as long as you cancel in time you don't get charged. That offer is that good I actually took it up 4 years ago!
If you like competitions you can also gain cash back for entering the selected competitions on other websites some are easy and you just have to fill in a couple of boxes others expect you to fill in loads of questionnaires and then invite a million friends before you even get an entry into a competition so be careful with those.
Talking about surveys you can also sign up to survey sites but getting cash back from doing this is like getting blood from a stone you never get paid out and you get plagued with emails forever so don't bother if I were you unless you like getting a million survey requests for "prizes".
If you are into participation there is a part on the website called member deals where you can research a good deal such as a buy one get one free or a really good discount (not through a voucher) you can then share it with everyone else as long as its passed by greasy palm because if you duplicate an offer or pass something on that isn't in their guidelines more than twice you get banned from trying to post anything again. You used to get 10% of the cash back someone would earn buying through the link you provide for the offer and now it has gone up to 50% so my guess is no one uses it I could be wrong but the lack of people rating says it all I think.

TRACKING YOUR CASHBACK AND GETTING PAID OUT
This is the part that bugs me the most trying to get hold of your money, it used to be dead simple your money would be tracked through what they call a rebate catcher that you install on your computer for a 25p cash back and if it wasn't received within 30 days you could chase it up and get your money quite quickly via a cheque. Once you got to £25.00 or more at the end of the month you get a cheque the following month. However things have now changed and I think they are due to change again as the procedure just doesn't seem to be working. All payments can only be made by bacs into your bank account or in Amazon gift vouchers and that is still only if you have clocked up over £25.00 which is now harder to get hold of as quick because even now with the rebate catcher the cash back never seems to come up and when it does it stays in pending for the maximum time possible and you then have to chase it up, but as always there are plenty of restraints on this. Cash back can take now up to 120 days and you can only place an enquire after 30 days which is fine but if you have missed this and you have waited up 90 days you cannot make a claim as you have waited too long but if your cash back is in pending they can rightfully make you wait 120days for the cash back to go into validated and then if they cant get the retailer to agree they can refuse it anyway, one word of advice I would give anyone is to chase chase and chase!

HELPDESK
If you are encountering problems and believe me you will as the help page even shows you the thousands of people looking on there, you can make a payment query which should be responded to in 5 days and you are sent an email when it has been answered so they are efficient in that way and they do have a very sufficient question and answer page which clears up most things I need to know besides obviously chasing the cash back.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
When I first joined Greasy palm I wouldn't look anywhere else I found the website easy to navigate and was pretty much straightforward you saw something you purchased it and the cash back would show up in your account after a couple of days no problem. If you ever did encounter a problem and you emailed Greasypalm enough they would give in and pay out on your word. However they have now expanded so much they cant seem to be able to track any transactions I seem to make especially the higher value ones, for example I took out a mint card the transaction wasn't tracked, I then couldn't put in a claim for a further 28 days and then I had to wait a further 120 days to wait for a response which came back that they couldn't track it through the website even though the click history was there in black and white. They refused to pay the fee and by then I had been using the card for over 4 months so I was really angry at greasy palm for letting this go because it feels as though your being tricked into waiting for so long you can then do nothing about it. I wouldn't have taken the card out unless I was getting the cash back.
Since this all came about I was really unhappy with the service and decided to take my business elsewhere until I realised I had a transaction pending with Thomson Fly who used to pay out a percentage of the flights you book. I emailed through the correct channels to get the transaction out of pending and they credited me with £1.00 well that did it for me it was like an insult instead of honouring the cash back offer they offered at the time I purchased the flights they offered the current cash back offer. I made enquires on several occasions and I was politely told not to keep sending what they call "tickets" as they had to deal with other peoples queries and basically they didn't have to pay out anything.!
Well I begged to differ they are making enough money out of the transactions we as customers are making so there right they don't have to payout but then again we don't have to use them! There are plenty of competitors out there looking for business so you would think Greasypalm would try and keep their members but this doesn't seem the case.
I feel Greasypalm offer the worst customer service, rubbish commission and ridiculous waiting times I would say they have a very pretty website with lots of added extras but if the main purpose of the website doesn't work then what's the point in it all? I am happy using another cash back provider who offer good rates of commission and pay very quickly, I will not be returning to Greasypalm. 

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