Topcashback is largest cashback website in the UK with hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of popular retailers you can earn cashback with. Yet despite being able to earn £100s a year, most online shoppers
We’ve covered cashback before in the Money Savings Answers guide to cashback websites, but this time I want to take a deep dive into Topcashback specifically.
There’s literally hundreds up for grabs, and if you’re buying something (anything) anyway, then it pays to check if you can cashback on it first.
Below is an overview of my Topcashback account, so you can see for yourself how the earnings can add up over time.
In this guide show contents
How does Topcashback work?
Cashback websites operate on a simple premise: they earn a commission from retailers for directing you to their websites, and they share a portion of that commission with you in the form of cashback.
From the retailer’s perspective they are getting extra custom they’d otherwise have to attract by paying for advertising. Rather than spend that money an advertising they instead pay a middleman, in this case Topcashback to attract customers on their behalf. The middleman only gets paid when a customer completes a sale.
It’s basically free money for something you would have bought away
How to I start earning cashback?
To start earning with Topcashback all you need to do is sign up and start shopping. There’s no waiting period or approvals, or necessary hoops to jump through. The most difficult thing is to remember to always visit the Topcashback website BEFORE you buy something online.
Here’s what to do:
1 – Sign up using this link (and if you’re one of the lucky ones you’ll also get a free £10 bonus)
2 – Browse for the retailer you want to buy from, click on the link to their website and shop as normal.
3 – You’ll get the cashback into your account which you can then withdraw to your bank or Paypal once it becomes payable.
There is one important note. You need to make sure you don’t use any adblocking software, or if you should disable it when using Topcashback as it can interfere with tracking the cashback.
What can I earn cashback on?
You can earn cashback on pretty much anything you’d typically buy on the highstreet or online. My cashback is typically on things like flights (when not flying budget airlines), motorcycle insurance, clothing, and mobile phones, but there’s literally hundreds (if not more) retailers to choose from.
You can search by retailer if you’re looking for something specific, or by category. Below is a screenshot of section of the fashion category. As you can see it includes brands such as Asos, Nike, M&S (I actually bought some trousers from there using Topcashabck just a week before writing this), New Look, Debenhams etc..
There’s tons more, such as 10% of Boohoo, 3.15% at Uniqlo, 2% at River Island, discounts at H&M, Superdry, and a whopping 12% at Levi’s.
In terms of more general shopping there discounts to be had at Argos, Amazon, Curry’s, Halfords, and eBay to name but a few. The eBay one is interesting as you can also earn Nectar points so are effectively stacking cashback offers.
Ok, I’m not going to screen shot each category, or list every store, I’m sure you get the picture. But set yourself a challenge. Take a look at the purchases you made in the last month or two, and then search Topcashback and see how much you could have saved. You might be surprised, especially if you’ve spent on any big electrical items, holidays, travel or insurance.
Don’t spend if you don’t need to but save where you can
Not looking for anything in particular? No problem. Take a look at your current expense and see if you could save on those by using Topcashabck. Typically you’ll be able to earn cashabck on:
- Mobile phone contracts
- Insurance (travel, household, car, motorcycle etc..)
- Utilities (electricity, gas)
- Broadband & TV (both Sky and Virgin offer cashabck as well as others)
These are all things that you probably spend on anyway, so when it comes up to renewal check to see if you can get them cheap by going via Topcashabck.
How much can I earn using Topcashback?
Your spending is the only limit on your earnings. The most you shop online at participating retailers the more you stand to make. Of course our goal here is to save money, so it goes without saying don’t buy things you don’t need just for the cashback.
Typical cashback ranges from 2% right up to 25% or more. And cash itself ranges from a pound or two, to hundred or more. For example some of my earnings include
Dune, Virgin media, Booking.com, Three, Dell, Uswitch etc.. you might notice some declined transactions in my image above. These are where I’ve returned the product, or cancelled the order.
Over the course of a year you could earn hundreds. For example there’s £80 cashabck on a typical car breakdown policy. £40 on an an average mobile phone contract, £8 for your weekly grocery shopping, 25% on a takeaway, etc.. That’s without getting into utilities, insurance, broadband/tv and general shopping.
Use gift cards
Sometimes the retailer you want to spend with doesn’t have any offers on Topcashabck, but you can still earn cashback by buying a gift card for that retailer instead.
For example Airbnb doesn’t feature on the list of retailers or websites to claim cashback on, but you can save up to 6% by buying an Airbnb gift card via Topcashabck and using that when booking your accommodation.
Similarly, you can get 1% cashabck on sportswear and equipment at Decathlon via Topcashback, but 4.3% cashabck when you buy a Decathlon gift card which you can then use online or in store.
At the bottom of the homepage you’ll see a link for TopGiftCards – this is a really easy way to get cashback on giftcards for a wide range of retailers. All you need to do is buy the gift cards and the cashback will be added to your TCB account. When purchasing gift cards your cashback will tracked as normal and applied to your Topcashback account.
More giftcard examples:
Airbnb 6%, All Bar One 8.8%, Asos, 6.1%, Caffe Nero & Costa 7%, Currys 5.2%, Deliveroo 2.5%, Greene King 7%, Halfords 7%, Iceland 3.6%, John Lewis 2.5%, M&S 4.75%, Morrisons 2.5%, Pizza Hut 7%, Swarovski 14.2%, The Body Shop 6.1%, Uber 2.5% – and loads more!
There is also something called an “All Access giftcard” which can be used at wider range of retailers for a 5.85% discount. These include Argos, Ask Italian, Asos, boohoo, Clarks, Eurostar, FatFace, H&M, Harvester, Just Eat, Krispy Kreme, National Express, National Trust, New Look, Pizza Express, Primark, River Island, Wayfair, and Sainsbury’s.
As always with gift cards make sure you read the terms and conditions and if applicable make note of the expiry date.
Is Topcashback Plus membership worth it?
In addition to its standard free membership, Topcashabck also offers a ‘Plus’ membership. This costs £5 a year and is taken from your cashback earnings, so you never pay it out of pocket.
The Plus membership give you access to additional promotions, higher cashback rates, and pays more for referring friends. Topcashabck claims that Plus members earn up to 16% more cashback compared to the standard membership.
In my opinion Plus is a no-brainer as it can pay for itself in just one purchase a year, and could really boost your earnings if making multiple purchases or referring friends.
Refer a friend and make even more
While the savings on shopping online are great, you can also make money through Topcashback’s tell-a-friend scheme.
Once you’ve signed up to Topcashback you’ll get a unique link you can share with your friends, family, neighbour, stranger in the street etc.. If they then sign up and start using Topcashback, you’ll be given a commission of between £10-£35 depending on the promotion at the time, and your Topcashback membership.
You only get the bonus though once your friend earns at least £10 in cashback themselves. I actually like that, as it’s like you don’t get anything unless you’ve helped them save money.
From time to time Topcashback also runs offers, where the friend being referred is also given a bonus of up to £10 just for signing up. These offers come and go at short notice.
A typical Topcashabck refer a friend link looks like this:
https://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/money_saving_answers
Use cashback credit cards and loyalty cards to more discounts
If you want to earn even more cashback remember to use a cashback credit or debit card. For example the Trading 212 debit card we recently reviewed offers 0.5% cashback on all purchase, while Chase (also see our review) offers 1%.
Additionally, if you are shopping somewhere with a loyalty scheme you might also be able to get extra discounts. For example Sainsbury’s via Nectar, or Boots with the Advantage card. See our guide to the best loyalty cards to carry in 2024.
Is Top cashback legit?
Absolutely, Topcashback has been around close to 20 years and is trusted and respect website. It is headquartered in the UK but also operates in the US.
Its UK address is Temeraire House, Nelson Court, Staffordshire Technology Park, Stafford, ST18 0WQ, and can be contacted at contact@topcashback.co.uk. Its company number is 05336020, and details about the company can be found at Companies House.
Support is reasonable, and usually happy to chase up any issue with cashback no tracking, or vendors dragging their heels.
Is Topcashback taxable?
No. Money earned from cashback websites such as Topcashabck is not subject to tax according to HMRC. Rather than being seen as income, HMRC classes cashabck as a discount on the goods or services purchased.
A Topcashabck customer asked this question directly to HMRC via their community boards in 2023, and was given the short response “It is not taxable.”
Site like Topcashback
Topcashback is the most popular cashback website in the UK, but Quidco is also popular and every bit as good. There’s also Airtime rewards, which earns you discount on your mobile phone plan, and Rakuten, but it only has around 600 retailers onboard.
