Quick Links: 👉 Are cashback sites worth the hassle? 👉 What types of cashback are there? 👉 How does a cashback site make money? 👉 Which cashback sites should you be using? 👉 The Top 3 cashback apps you must have! 👉 Quidco 👉 Airtime Rewards 👉 TopCashback 👉 Cheddar 👉 Jam Doughnut 👉 Everup 👉 Honey 👉 Kids Pass 👉 Kindred
Conventional Cashback Sites
Gift Card Cashback Sites
Using a cashback service is a great way to earn extra money on your purchases, both big and small!
Every year, Brits spend a vast amount of their money in shops and online; it goes without saying, but a huge amount of that money is spent and could have been spent in a way where that spender could have clawed a percentage of that money back in the form of cashback - literally millions of pounds have been banked by retailers when it could have gone straight back to the spender, had they spent a minute or two making use of a cashback service.
By getting into a routine where you actively look to earn cashback on your purchases, both large and small, ranging from buying a sandwich to buying a new telly, I guarantee you'll be shocked at how much money you'll save over a year!
Imagine earning, even just a couple of per cent cashback, on all the purchases you make in 2025, and saving up that until the end of the year; how much money do you think you might have? I'll eat my proverbial hat if you're not sitting on enough cash to pay for your Christmas dinner, all the trimmings and likley a decent amount of gifts as well!
Does that sound good? Well, if so, the good news is that it is easy to do, anyone can do it, so read on and find out all about what cashback is, how you earn it, and who you should earn it with, and let me know how you get on!
What are cashback apps, and can you use multiple cashback apps?
Below I'll show you the different types of cashback apps available in the UK, and if you're wondering if you can use more than one cashback service, the answer is yes, absolutely, and I recommend that you do!
First things first, are cashback apps safe?
Many of the cashback sites I mention below have been around for years and are reputable and totally safe to use. The newer style cashback apps, especially the gift card variety, are still fairly new and so have not been around as long; therefore, they don't have the benefit of time on their side to show they are trustworthy. The gift card cashback apps are the ones people tend to worry about the most. These apps use Open Banking technology to enable users to purchase gift cards. When you make a purchase, the cashback app connects to your phone banking app to authorise the transaction. You’ll need to enter a password or use face-scanning technology to approve the transaction.
93% of Britons use online banking, and Open Banking technology is widely used by banking services for transactions. Open Banking is highly regulated and employs robust security measures to ensure safe transactions. Cashback apps use the same technology, so you can trust them to access your banking app for payments. I’ve been using cashback apps since their inception and have never encountered any security issues.
Conventional Cashback Sites: Conventional cashback sites allow you to browse through various cashback platforms. When you find a retailer you’re interested in, you click on the link provided by the cashback site, which will redirect you to the retailer’s website. You then add items to your basket as usual and complete the payment. The cashback site will then record your purchase and reward you with cashback. Typically, the cashback is available for a few months before it can be withdrawn. Gift Card Cashback: This cashback rewards you with instant cashback when you purchase a gift card from an app. You can then use this gift card to make purchases at your preferred retailer, either online (not all retailers accept gift cards online) or in a physical store. Once you’ve accumulated the minimum cashback amount, you can withdraw it to your bank account or, in most cases, use it to purchase another gift card.
Instant (Automatic) Cashback: This is a cashback program that allows you to earn rewards by simply adding your debit or credit card numbers to a safe and secure app. Once you’ve done this, you can make purchases at participating retailers by using one of your saved cards. The cashback is automatically tracked, and once you’ve reached a certain threshold, it’s awarded to your cashback account. This means you don’t have to do anything extra; the cashback is earned for you automatically.
Millions of UK shoppers use cashback sites, but are cashback sites worth it? Are they just a hassle, or are they an invaluable money-saving tool?
Absolutely! Imagine this scenario: you enter a store, select some products, and head to the till to pay. Suddenly, two tills open up, and one sales assistant offers a 5% discount if you use their till instead of their colleagues. Even though you’re still shopping at the same store and paying the same way, how likely is it that you’d decline the offer? I’d wager that 99.9% of customers would accept and be delighted by the savings they’ve made. It’s a fantastic way to save a significant amount of money!
Cashback services can be viewed similarly. Imagine you’re browsing online and want to purchase something from your preferred retailer. Instead of visiting the retailer directly, you navigate to a cashback site and search for it. You find the retailer on the site and discover that they’re offering a 5% cashback rate if you click a link that leads to the retailer’s website. This link will take you to the same retailer you were planning to visit anyway, allowing you to make your purchase. By doing so, you’ve not only made the purchase but also earned 5% of the purchase cost, which you can either receive or spend as you please. In reality, taking advantage of these fantastic deals requires only a brief 30 seconds of effort, making it a no-brainer for anyone seeking to save money.
So, which UK cashback sites are the best ones for you to use this Christmas?
The simple answer is that whichever site gives you the best cashback rate is the best cashback site to use at that moment! I'm very disloyal, not in a to my wife kind of way, but to my cashback provider. My allegiance is to my wallet, so I'll always check which cashback service is offering the best cashback rate for the particular retailer I'm buying from and use it for my purchase.
The best thing to do is to sign up with all the cashback services, and then you have the power to be able to switch and choose which cashback service you use for each purchase, and the differences between the cashback rates can be significant, so sign up with them all, it makes sense!
So, which cashback sites should you be using?
Here is my guide to the best cashback apps you need to be using right now to maximise your Christmas cashback savings!
The TOP 3 Cashback sites you absolutely MUST have!
All the best UK cashback sites are listed below, but my personal TOP 3 and the very minimum cashback apps I think you should have on your mobile phone are:
1. JamDoughnut
2. TopCashback
3. Quidco
Conventional UK Cashback Sites
Quidco
An app and website-based cashback site offers competitive cashback on a range of goods and services and is one of the more prominent cashback services in the UK. It's free to join and offers a premium service, giving you a better cashback rate, more promotions, exclusive offers, plus other benefits; it costs you £1 of your cashback earned each month. I like it removes pesky adverts from the site, which can be annoying!
You can earn cashback on physical goods services such as home and car insurance. It compares the cost facility on specific services, plus cashback on phone contracts, TV services, utilities and holidays and nights away, so an extensive range of cashback options. You earn your cashback in the 'conventional' cashback manner, so search for a retailer on the Quidco site or app, click the link to take you to the retailer and then earn cash back on purchases made.
Quidco is a decent cashback service and offers some strong offers, which can often sway me to them from its competitors. You can sign up HERE for the service; using our referral link will earn you a £5 bonus when you earn £5 of cashback!
TopCashback
TopCashback is the most extensive cashback service in the UK, possibly the world, as they have a site in the UK, USA, and India!
TopCashback has over 4,400 retailers on its service, meaning it's pretty rare not to find cashback available from the retailer you want to purchase from; I find it's the smaller, more independent retailers that aren't offering cashback to their customers. The more significant the retailer, the more likely you will discover cashback opportunities!
So, back to TopCashback, which is the market leader, and for that reason, it often has to fight with rivals such as Quidco to offer the best cashback deals so it can offer some cracking deals and stay at the top!
There is the standard/basic membership, which is free and offers competitive cashback. There is also a premium service, which costs £5 per year (which is deducted from your cashback balance annually). This offers a higher rate of cashback, plus special offers and payout bonuses.
You can withdraw your cleared cashback to your Paypal account or bank account or your reward wallet.
Withdrawing the cashback to a reward wallet allows you to get a bonus by withdrawing your earnings to a gift card, which you can then use at your favourite retailer, (I tend to withdraw my earnings as supermarket vouchers, as it helps with the food budget!), and make sense as you can get up to a 25% bonus, (my supermarket bonus is 4%, 25% is generally for a more obscure brand!), which can't be sniffed at!
Similar to Quidco, you can earn cashback on goods and services. There is also an infrequent Snap & Save facility that offers cash back on items purchased in a supermarket, such as £1.50 back on a pumpkin at Halloween £1.50 back on an Easter Egg at Easter. This facility is free, so it's worth doing!
Keep your eye out for special competitions and promotions, with popular Christmas and Halloween promotions, where you can earn cash prizes, having a big following, with whole Facebook groups set up dedicated to help give you advice on where to find clues and answers to riddles!
Keep your eye out for their 'Global Bonus' events, where they will offer a one-day bonus when you spend a certain amount via their site /app. Usually, this is a spend £5 and get a £2 bonus type promotion. If you don't need to buy anything, purchase a £5 supermarket gift card, as this will give you cash back on the £5 gift card as well as the £2 bonus, so your £ then turns into £7.30 ish, which isn't to be sniffed at... I always take advantage, as free money is free money!
There is also a free cashback section on the site/app where you can grab free cashback for signing up for competitions and survey sites, downloading apps, registering on gambling sites, comparing insurance prices and similar, which can be rewarding; I know I made £55, (well £45 actually, after losing the tenner), on a gambling site by registering, wagering, and losing £10, but got £55 added to my TopCashback account, which was pretty easy and profitable!
The site's Top Gift Card section works similarly to JamDoughnut, where you can purchase gift cards for use at retailers and earn cashback on the purchase. The cashback on the gift cards is instant.
Like most cashback sites, the system has browser extensions you can install that will notify you of cashback rates and deals while you are browsing. This is helpful as it can be easy to forget about cashback while browsing and get into the buying mindset!
You can sign up HERE for the service; using our referral link will earn you a £10 bonus when you earn £10 of cashback!
I've earned nearly £1500 cashback via TopCashback alone! It just shows that it's not that hard to earn cashback! The beauty of cashback is making money by spending money you would spend anyway! Be savvy and think outside the box!
Complete Savings
This is an unusual cashback service as you have to pay an £18 a month subscription to use it, BUT check out my blog post on how the service works and why I do indeed pay £18 a month to be a member!
Rakuten
Rakuten is a UK cashback site that offers reasonably competitive cashback rates when compared to sites such as TopCashback and Quidco, but generally, better rates can be found, but that doesn't mean that from time to time, Rakuten actually have the best rates, and this is why it's so important to sign up with lots of different cashback sites and then compare which service is offering you the best rate when you need to make a purchase and go with the best one!
Shop through Rakuten's website or browser extension at some 3,500 stores, and in the conventional way, cashback will be rewarded to you once the retailer has confirmed the purchase. It can take a little while for the cashback to be payable (usually between 60 and 90 days), as is the case with most of these types of sites, and once the cashback is available, you can withdraw it to your bank account, once you have over £5 available.
There's nothing startlingly different about Rakuten compared to its rivals, BUT sign-up bonuses make using the cashback site at least once very worthwhile!
For example, as I write this, if you sign up using a referral link and make a purchase of £30 +Vat (so about £36 in total) within 90 days, at one of its retail partners (They have stores like Sainsbury's, so do an online shop of £36 or more and you'll get the bonus!), you'll get a £25 sign up bonus. This can take a couple of months to become payable, BUT it's £25 of free cash and so well worth signing up for!
UK Gift Card Cashback Sites
JamDoughnut - My Favourite Cashback service!
Jam Doughnut - Another fab cashback site that has amassed a significant following over the last couple of years because the service has teamed up with so many retailers and offers some great cashback rates, especially when they 'Pump Up' their rates, which is a limited-time period when they will increase cashback rates on specific retailers, for a limited time only.
These retailers are often supermarkets that get pumped up rates around a payday weekend, which can be really useful, with rates as high as 5% at Morrisons! Now, this is a gift card cashback site, which means you'll earn cashback when purchasing a gift card from JamDoughnut. This gift card can then be used to make your purchase at your chosen retailer, both in-store and often online, if the retailer accepts gift cards for online purchases (check before you buy; JamDoughnut usually does tell you if the card can be spent online!).
JamDoughnut links to your banking app (very safe!), allowing you to make a purchase very quickly. You can also pay by credit card; however, you get less cashback paying this way, so paying from your bank account is more profitable. Once you've paid for your gift card, the card typically arrives within 1 minute so that you can use that gift card almost immediately! Now, this is handy as when I go to the supermarket, I usually wait to see my total and then buy a gift card for that amount while I'm at the till, which comes through straight away, and I use that to pay.
I've then earned cashback on the purchase, and depending on which supermarket I'm in, and if the cashback is pumped up, that could be up to 5%, and being supermarket shopping is often one of the most significant household expenses, that can really add up!
The cashback you earn is instantly credited to your JamDoughnut account wallet. Once you have £10 in your wallet, you can withdraw it to your bank or use it to buy a gift card.
My favourite part of paying by gift card is that you can often cashback stack your purchase when purchasing online. As long as your chosen retailer accepts payment by gift card online, use TopCashback or Quidco to click through to your chosen retailer, then add the products to the cart, and when you go to pay, use JamDoughnut to buy a gift card for the total price and use this gift card to pay. You will then get your cashback from JamDoughnut AND cashback from TopCashback & Quidco as well! It doesn't work with every retailer, but I'm yet to find one it hasn't worked for me!
The cashback app has hundreds of different retailers from which you can earn cashback, which is fab, as you can never have enough cashback options!
They also have two gameshows you can get involved with on the app, JammyDough and Win It Back, which could win you extra cashback, plus they also have their own shop on the app, where you can buy discounted products and get an extra 10% off instant cashback on the purchase too.
We've reviewed JamDoughnut on the blog in more detail HERE. and I'll openly admit that it's my favourite cashback service and it's the one I use the most often!
You can sign up for JamDoughnut for free HERE, and if you use our referral code of PPUK, you'll get a £3 bonus for using the app for the first time!
Airtime Rewards
Airtime Rewards is another of the more unique cashback services! This service offers cashback from many UK retailers, available in your cashback account balance once cleared. Once you hit £10 of payable cashback, you can withdraw the £10.
The withdrawal process is slightly different; rather than withdrawing the cashback to your bank, the app sends the cashback as a payment on your mobile phone bill, reducing your next bill! This is the 'Airtime' part of the Airtime Rewards name!
Getting your cash back is simple enough—in fact, it's probably one of the easiest ways to earn cashback! This is due to the way the cashback service is set up.
Once you have registered with the service, you add all your debit and credit cards to the app (yes, this is safe; I wouldn't recommend this app if I didn't have the utmost trust in it!), and then every time you spend at a retailer that's partnered with Airtime Rewards and pay using one of the debit/credit cards you have registered on the app, Airtime Rewards will detect the purchase and automatically apply the cashback to your account, so it runs in the background, so you need do nothing, other than checking the app from time to time, to see if you have cashback to withdraw to your phone bill, so it's hassle-free! I seem to earn around £100 a year using this app, and recently, I seem to be buying from more of the retail app partners; I have found that for the last few months, I've had £10 available every month to withdraw, which is super helpful being that I changed tariff recently, to a sim card only offer, which costs me £10 a month. So the £10 monthly withdrawal has meant I'm paying zero for my mobile phone contract every month, which is pretty amazing!
With over 300 brands partnered with the cashback service, you will find a retailer to earn from! The app isn't compatible with every mobile phone carrier in the UK; if you find your carrier isn't compatible, contact their customer services, as I'm aware of several people who spoke to them and now receive Amazon vouchers instead of phone credit so it is well worth talking to them.
You will find monthly promotions offering you bonuses when you spend X number of times at its retailers and other bonus events that suddenly pop up out of nowhere!
Airtime Rewards also now offers competitive cashback rates on gift cards as well, usually 4%.
You can sign up HERE for the service. If you use our referral code, Q8FWLDQB, you'll get a 50p welcome bonus and another £1 if you spend at a retail partner within seven days.
Cheddar
Cheddar is a decent cashback site, and is unusual because it has an automatic cashback feature.
You sign up, register your bank account to the app, and then when you spend with Cheddar partners via your debit card for your bank account, you will automatically earn the cashback, so you don't need to remember to go to cashback sites before buying, simply shop and save!
In addition to the automatic feature, you can purchase gift cards for a wide range of UK retailers, and the cashback is applied directly to your Cheddar account within seconds, and once you have over £5 of cashback, you can withdraw it your bank.
The app works with the following banks:
Chase, HSBC, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank Of Scotland, Tesco Bank, AIB, American Express, Bank Of Scotland, Barclays, Danske Bank, First Direct, Halifax, Lloyds Bank, Revolut, Santander, Virgin Money, Wise & Starling Bank,
To set it all up, download the app and add your bank accounts. This is done by connecting the Cheddar app to your banking apps, which then talk to the Cheddar app. This link allows Cheddar to see when you've spent with one of its partners, and this will then reward your cashback to your Cheddar account.
It's not dissimilar to Airtime Rewards, where you register your cards to the app and earn when you spend; however, Airtime Rewards earns you cashback you can put towards your mobile phone bill (which, if you don't have, you should get, as it saves me well over £100 a year!), but Cheddar pays you in cash you can transfer to your bank, rather than putting it towards your phone bill, which is handy!
The app works for both online and in-store purchases, and you also benefit from frequent offers, which will save you even more!
The app reckons you could earn over £1,000 a year in cashback, which I see as possible if you are a frequent user of the Cheddar retail partners. The nice thing is how easy it is: spend as usual and watch the cashback add up, then withdraw it when you could use a bit of extra cash—it all adds up! There is a minimum withdrawal amount of £5 is low, so you won't have to wait long to make a withdrawal! You can use our referral link to download the app, which will give you an entry into the app's weekly giveaway. The referral code is PINCHER and you'll find more about this app on this blog here.
Everup
Everup is a recent addition to the UK gift card cashback market, offering competitive cashback rates to its users. It often boosts rates to be as competitive as possible, and the in-app free games that can win you coins or money is nice!
The idea is similar to Cheddar and JamDoughnut: Buy a gift card via the Everup app that you can use at a selected retailer and earn cashback on the purchase, which will go into your Everup wallet.
Once you hit £10 of cashback, you can cash out by purchasing a gift card from Everup, using your Everup wallet balance to pay or transferring the cash to your bank if you'd rather. Everup also has casino-style games on the app, which allow you to use virtual coins, (not real money), to spin roulette wheels or play scratch cards, where you can win real money or more virtual coins. There's also a daily, free-to-enter lotto game where you could win cash, virtual coins or prizes.
The virtual coins are awarded to you in addition to any cashback earned when you buy a gift card, and these allow you to play the games, and you'll also get given free spins and scratch cards to play, more or less daily.
Everup is worth downloading and signing up for. It should be checked when you look for a cashback app offering the best deal, as it's becoming a really good cashback option! Use referral code: REF-PENNY-P for 10 million virtual points to get started when you redeem your first £10 gift card!
There's a more thorough review of Everup on the blog here.
Other cashback sites well worth a mention are:
A really helpful browser extension (owned by PayPal) that automatically applies discount codes to your shopping cart to try and save you money on your purchase. If unsuccessful, it will offer you cash back if the retailer is one of its partners. The discount coupons part is super helpful and has saved me several hundred pounds in the year or so I've been using it, so it's worth the free install!
Website and browser extension/app offering competitive cashback as well as a donation to a charity of your choice when you purchase using the service. Available on IOS and Android.
Even though it's not strictly a cashback service, Kids Pass offers discounts on some big-name brands and exclusive offers. I saved nearly £7 on two cinema tickets plus got two free drinks included, with some pretty decent deals on days out available. There is a £4.99 monthly charge (£1 trial for 30 days you can cancel to get no further charges) for the service, but it's straightforward to earn that £4.99 back if you like to go to the cinema or take kids to restaurants and day trips etc.
Lets talk about cashback, what it is and how it works
These days, people are becoming more aware of cashback when making significant purchases like buying a new TV, fridge, holiday, hotel booking, or washing machine. While cashback rewards can be substantial, small everyday purchases often slip through our fingers, and we shouldn’t let that happen. It’s essentially throwing money away.
During the Christmas season, many of us make even more of these impulsive purchases than we realise or want to admit. How often do we buy a cup of coffee or a sandwich or stop by a local convenience store on our way home to grab dinner items without considering cashback?
It’s the same with Christmas. How often have we picked up something we saw while out and about that would be perfect for Christmas or a gift for Aunt Mabel without thinking about earning some cashback? Christmas is an impulsive time, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still save some money through cashback.
As a cashback expert, I admit I don’t always think about it, but we all should. We’re missing out on the opportunity to claw back some money, and every penny counts these days.
Imagine earning 1% cashback on every purchase under £10 for a whole year. How much would you have in your cashback account? I bet you’ll be surprised by the amount! Now, imagine earning cashback on all your purchases over £10 as well. That would be a significant amount of money!
The message here is that in 90% of your purchases, you could earn some cashback. Train yourself to always look for that cashback option whenever you buy something. With all the cashback services at your disposal these days, there’s no reason you couldn’t save hundreds of pounds a year. You could use that money to pay for Christmas, take a nice holiday, or buy extra treats at your local supermarket!
It doesn't matter if you are purchasing in a physical store or doing some online shopping; it's very likely that at least one of the cashback sites and apps can offer you cashback to save you some extra money.
If you have to spend money, spend it at a retailer who will give you money back from your purchase as a thank you for your business - if you went into a shop and the cashier didn't thank you for your purchase, you'd think them rude and may not return right? It's the same with retailers who don't offer cashback via a cashback site; I take it as a personal slur that they don't appreciate me spending my hard-earned money with them, and so I'll spend my money with a retailer who will financially compensate me for shopping with them as a thank you!
If you want to save money in 2025, now is the time to sign up with ALL the cashback sites to make sure you have the best chance to be able to earn cashback; signing up with different sites means you may also be able to earn a sign-up bonus adding to your cash-back rewards!
Don't forget that all your receipts can also earn you money via receipt scanning apps as well, which we covered on the blog HERE.
How do cashback apps make money?
Every time you make a purchase using a cashback site, the cashback service receives a commission, which they share with you. Some cashback companies, like TopCashback, pass on 100% of the cashback to you and generate revenue through site advertising and retailer fees. In contrast, smaller cashback companies rely on referral schemes and affiliate companies to earn commissions, which they'll split with you.
The concept is straightforward: cashback sites earn money through commissions from retailers and/or by displaying retailer advertising on their platforms. Retailers gain additional business by advertising their services through cashback sites, and you receive a share of the profits.
I’ve always wondered why retailers would pay a commission to a cashback site and you. However, after extensive use of cashback sites, I’ve realised that I’m a prime example of why retailers are embracing this concept!
Let’s consider an example: suppose I wanted to buy Levis Jeans from various retailers. Most retailers likely have similar prices, and you can easily compare prices on Google Shopping. So, why not just buy from your favourite retailer?
But what if you could earn cashback by using a cashback service? In that case, the savvy shopper would choose a retailer that offers cashback. If your favourite retailer doesn’t provide cashback, you’ll likely opt for their competition, thats what I do!
While the retailer you've now purchased will have to have paid a commission to the cashback service for the sale, they still made the sale and would they would rather earn a slightly lower profit than nothing at all. That’s why savvy retailers sign up for cashback services—it’s good business sense!
Cashback is a great way to earn some extra cash!
In my opinion, everyone should be able to earn cashback on many of their purchases, no matter how big or small! We can all use a little extra cash these days, and by getting into a frame of mind where you routinely think about how you could earn cashback on your purchase, I promise you that you'll make a decent saving on your expenses!
Yes, it can seem like a faff sometimes, especially when it's only a small amount of money up for grabs, but those 10p's 25p's and so on will all add up! It took my wifr and daughter a year or so to come around to my way of thinking; they couldn't really be bothered to worry about cashback, but I kept on about it and now they are seasoned cashback veterans!
My daughter regularly texts me to tell me she's earned X amount cashback on something she's bought, and my wife will now actively look to pay for her purchases using a gift card app, and only yesterday, she told me she was shocked to have £16 sitting in her JamDoughnut account, just from making a few purchases here and there using the cashback service! She withdrew that balance and used it to fund her work lunches for the week, and that is a prime example of how cashback can be so useful; apparently, there is such a thing as a free lunch, after all!
This post was written by Al Baker. Al is the Penny Pincher, an experienced money-saving expert with years of experience in finding you ways to save some extra cash!