** Background information **
Over the past few years there have been a surge in the emergence of "
cashback" sites. All though they differ in approach, they are all based around the same basic principle. Many
online retailers use "affiliate networks" to boost traffic and sales through their sites. These networks are companies which provide advertising materials for use on other
web sites in return for commission
payments on products sold using these adverts. It's probably easier if we look at an example.
Let's say I have a web site based around digital cameras. On my site I have some adverts for Jessops, a well known seller of cameras. If you click on the advert, you will be diverted via the affiliate network to the Jessops site. If you then subsequently buy a camera from Jessops, then Jessops will pay a percentage commission (usually based on the sale value) to the affiliate network. The affiliate network will then pass on this commission to me (the site owner) at a later date, collating payments from multiple transactions, and possibly other retailers.
Cashback sites operate on the same principle - directing people to retailers via affiliate networks - the only difference being that instead of keeping all the revenue from the affiliate network, they pass a percentage of this back to the user. The upshot of this is that buying goods through a
cashback site will effectively earn you a discount - typically between 0.5% and 5% of the total (ex-VAT) cost. Typically a
cashback site will keep half of the affiliate income for themselves and pass on half to their users.
** The Quidco approach **
Quidco differs from most of these sites in that instead of keeping a proportion of the income for themselves, they pass on the ENTIRE revenue to their users. The result of this is that you typically earn twice as much cashback from Quidco as you would from other sites. A comparison is available at: http://www.quidco.com/how-we-compare/
Of course, this does raise the question of how can such a site be run without costing a fortune? This is solved by charging a "membership fee". Basically, quidco will deduct £5 per year from your earnings, as long as you've earnt over £5. While this might not sound very attractive in principle, in actual fact, so long as you earn over £10 per year you're already going to earn more than you would with most other cashback sites.
Similarly, while other cashback sites try to lure members in with "sign-up" bonuses and referral incentives, Quidco does not offer these. Simply put, these offers are only possible at other sites due to the large proportion of the affiliate income those sites hold back for themselves -
money that you would be getting yourself at Quidco!
** Getting started **
Getting started is easy. The registration page only asks for a few details - your name, a username, password and e-mail address. After confirming your details in the registration e-mail you can then log into the site and set up your PayPal e-mail address and your minimum earnings threshold (more on this later).
You can the get started on earning cashback! The list of merchants is easy to browse through. At the time of writing there were 1,190 retailers to choose from. You can either access these by browsing through a series of
categories or sorting through a list alphabetically, by cashback amount, or by when they were added to the site. There is also a
search function which is completely adequate.
The range of retailers is extremely good. The cashback offers generally fall into two categories. The first is a simple percentage cashback, e.g. 5% of your total spend at the retailer. The second is a flat fee for using a service. Often these are for sites such as online casinos or bookies which often pay very generous bounties - at the end of 2005, the Blue Square Games site was paying £70 for users who signed up and deposited only £5!
** Earning cashback **
Earning cashback is a simple and usually automatic process. You simply find the retailer you wish to use on the cashback site, click on the link provided and carry out your purchase. As the tracking of purchases through the affiliate network is mediated by the use of "cookies", there are some steps you should take with your system settings to ensure things run smoothly. The exact details are beyond the scope of this review, but can be found in the Quidco help section: http://www.quidco.com/help/13/
Once at the site you proceed with your purchase as usual. One thing to be aware of is that transactions will usually only be eligible for cashback if they are completed entirely online - so if you need to phone up to finalise the sale, you may not receive your cashback.
Some time after completing your purchase, the relevant details should show up in the "My Earnings" page of your Quidco account. The amount of time this can take varies - sometimes it's a few minutes, other times it can be weeks! This is down to the different ways the various affiliate networks operate. Over time the status of your transaction may change. The initial status of "Tracked" means that the affiliate network has successfully recorded your transaction. If a transaction is marked as "Validated", then the affiliate network has confirmed that cashback will be paid, and "Received" means that the affiliate network has paid money for that transaction to Quidco. The final status of "Paid" means that Quidco have paid the money to you. There are two other possible states: "Added" is for cashback that has been manually added to your account following an enquiry, and "Declined" when cashback is not going to be awarded - usually because of a failure to comply with specific terms and conditions of an offer.
** Payment **
Quidco say that they will pay their members once they have been paid themselves. Occasionally this means they might not be as fast as some other sites, but as they are working to much tighter margins, then it would be financially very risky for them to pay out before they'd actually received the money. Payment runs are completed once per month, usually on the last day (or thereabouts) of each month.
To be paid you must have earnt more than the minimum amount set in your Settings page, and, for the first payment of each year, more than the £5 admin fee (which will be deducted). You also need to have specified a valid payment address. Payment is by PayPal e-cheque. On the plus side, this is a secure form of payment, less risky than being sent a cheque, and also free to send, which minimises the costs for Quidco and help to make the site a commerically viable opposition. On the downside, you need to have a PayPal account and if you have a Business or Premier account, you will lose around 3% in fees. Nevertheless, even in this worst case scenario you will still be keeping around 97% of cashback for yourself which compares very favourably with the ~50% you can expect from other sites. E-cheques take around two weeks to clear, which is mildly irritating.
Occasionally Qudico will pay out bonuses on certain transactions. This will happen if the affiliate network are running special promotions and Quidco have hit a target. These are usually distributed amongst the members who made purchases at the retailers for which the bonuses have been paid.
** Customer Service **
Quidco have a sophisticated
online help service to help with the most commonly asked questions - available at http://www.quidco.com/help/ In the early days of the site, you could contact the site owners directly by e-mail and they were quick to deal with queries. Nowadays, they have moved away from this, largely due to the enormous success of the site and the fact that they wouldn't have time to deal with each query directly. Instead, there is an online system which
deals with most potential problems. For example, for missing cashback, you simply navigate through a series of menus which attempts to identify the transaction you made so that an enquiry can be sent off to the affiliate network. This process can be slow, but that is largely out of the hands of Quidco.
A good way to get help is to ask on the appropriate thread on the Refferers Board of the moneysavingexpert.com web site. This can be found at: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=42 - Quidco themselves regularly contribute to this discussion, and a number of other volunteers who are long-time users of Quidco can usually offer good advice. Responses from Quidco may take a a day or two, but they tend to be thorough, polite and helpful.
** In Summary **
In case you haven't guessed, I'm very very happy with the Quidco experience. I should stress that I am in no way connected with the site other than being a satisified customer. Over the past year I have saved (and made!) a considerable sum of money, far more than I could have with any other cashback site that was around at the time. The people behind the site are highly professional and the whole operation runs extremely smoothly. Basically, it just works.
And if you need further convincing, have a look at this poll of moneysavingexpert.com users:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=157095
Easily the best cashback site. 
