Why do you shop online? Of course, the answer is going to be that you are keen on saving time as well as money by shopping online from the comforts of your home or even while being on the move. The most important thing being tonnes of useful deals or discounts that you get on various e-commerce portals (online retailers). An additional way to save money through online shopping is by making use of top cashback websites or apps.

In this article, we shall go through some of the best ways to earn cashback from well-known cashback sites and mobile apps. Also, we shall understand the process of shopping online via cashback websites and know how they work.

How do the cashback sites work?

The best cashback sites on the web are all genuine and help you earn good amount of money back after few days / weeks of your online shopping transaction. All you need to do is register for free with some of the popular cashback sites from the web or via their mobile applications. Then, whenever you plan to shop online from your favorite e-tailers, you can login to the cashback site and visit your online merchant from that site to shop normally as you always do.

For example, you can see the Tesco merchant cashback details with relevant links available from my Topcashback UK site account.

Before you login from the web, you should delete your cookies and browsing history to ensure that the cashback site is able to track your transaction easily.

Once you complete the purchase of any product online from your preferred shopping portal visited via the cashback site, your transaction is tracked within few minutes and you shall receive a notification email from that cashback site on your registered mail id. Within few days or weeks, you shall receive the cashback amount (based on the percentage mentioned on the site) in your cashback site account. The best part is this cashback amount is received on top of any other discount voucher or coupon code that you may have applied. You can choose to redeem this amount in numerous ways like NEFT transfer, gift voucher, etc. Isn’t that simple?

Top Cashback Websites for Online Shopping

Let’s have a closer look at some of the cashback sites that help online shoppers to save extra money across various countries of the world.

1. 1. TopCashback (USA, UK and India)

   
   This generous cashback site has a great reach across the world with online presence in countries like USA, UK, India, etc. Depending on which country you are from, you can click the appropriate TopCashback site link below and start earning cashback:
   Official TopCashback Site for USA
   Official TopCashback Site for UK
   Official TopCashback Site for India

   This site claims to offer the ‘highest cashback guaranteed’ and more or less lives up to this claim for cashback deals from most online merchants. TopCashback’s popularity can be gauged from the fact that it already has more than 4 million members worldwide making use of its online cashback services. It offers cashback deals from over 3500 e-stores in USA (including Groupon, GNC and Walmart), 4300 e-stores in UK (including Argos, Tesco and Debenhams) and 200 online stores in India (including Jabong, Myntra and Indiatimes Shopping).

   

   You can search for any online merchant via this site and there are chances it would be listed here along with a fixed cashback percentage it offers for different categories. Sometimes, the online merchants have a fixed amount mentioned as cashback offer. You can also get useful discount coupon codes for various merchants from this site. This site does not restrict itself to money back offers or best rewards only when you shop for a product. It also features ‘Free Cashback Rewards’, which enables you to earn money without making any purchase for certain offers. For example, you can earn some amount for simply registering and completing a consumer survey from some site. Likewise, you may be asked to register on a dating site if you wish to earn small amount of free money. Similarly, for USA and UK (OnCard in-store cashback), it also offers in-store coupons with select merchants.

   

   If your cashback is not tracked for any online shopping transaction via this site, you can approach their dedicated support team by submitting a relevant ticket on the site itself with details about the transaction. This will help you to resolve your issue or make sure you do not commit a similar mistake next time round. The TopCashback referral schemes offer good motivation to you to refer your friends, family or colleagues to this site in a bid to earn some extra bucks. Another major advantage of this site is that it does not have a minimum cashback amount limit for redemption. This entitles you to redeem just about anytime and for any amount.

   For UK, TopCashback offers two different membership plans: Basic (free) and Plus (£5 annual charge). As a new member, you get free trial of TopCashback’s Plus membership for 30 days. This plan gives you 5% additional bonus on all cashback rates offered on the site. Thus, a normal £100 cashback deal for Basic members will give £105 to a TopCashback Plus member.

   The reason I have listed this cashback site first is because it seems to offer some of the highest cashback rates for a lot of merchants in comparison to rates offered by other cashback websites. You can even get cashback from TopCashback app available for free download on Android or iOS.

   The TopCashback India site is easily among the top 5 cashback sites in India giving stiff competition to Cashkaro.com, Pennyful.in, etc. with higher cashback rates.
   

2. 2. ShopAtHome (USA)

   
   This is another popular cashback site for USA that covers money back offers and coupon deals from more than 3000 online sellers. Some of the well-known merchants offering cashback deals here are Kohl’s, BestBuy, Target, Walmart, etc. They not only contain more than 1,20,000 coupons (printable coupons, local coupons, restaurant coupons, etc.) from over 50,000 stores, but they also provide cashback, exclusive deals as well as rewards that can easily be redeemed later for free gift cards. In terms of cashback rates, it is almost similar to TopCashback, with the two often competing with each other.

   

   ShopAtHome does have a minimum threshold of $20 that your cashback amount needs to reach, before you can redeem in the form of a rebate check. It also has a ShopGold Rewards section that enables you to earn ShopGold points for referring your friends, taking surveys, playing games, etc. These points earned can be redeemed for useful gift cards only. If you do not wish to miss any important cashback deal or coupon, you can make use of their notifications received on ShopAtHome browser app (popular as coupons and cashback savings app) and ShopAtHome mobile app for Android or iOS.

   

   For further details, you can access the official ShopAtHome website.
   

3. 3. Quidco (UK)

   
   Similar to the kind of competition that ShopAtHome offers to TopCashBack site in USA, Quidco offers stiff competition to TopCashBack site in UK with significantly higher cashback rates. With Quidco, you can earn some cashback every time you shop online from more than 4300 retailers listed here. Some of the top e-tailers offering cashback deals on Quidco are Boots, Groupon, Tesco, Hotels.com, Sportsdirect.com, TheTrainline.com, etc.

   Like TopCashback UK website, Quidco too offers two different membership plans – Basic (free) and Premium (£5 annual fee). The Quidco premium account entitles you to get your cashback quicker in addition to loyalty bonuses. Apart from the premium account charges, there are no hidden costs involved with your Quidco cashback account. You can redeem your cashback earned in the form of cash, PayPal deposit, or an Amazon gift certificate (including a 2% payout bonus for basic members and 6% for Premium members).

   

   Quidco also has a dedicated page for free cashback offers. For example, you can get a free Gocompare.com home insurance quote and earn Quidco cashback amount of £2.15. It also offers in-store cashback. To be eligible for in-store cashback offers, you need to register your credit card or debit card with Quidco and start spending. For certain offline merchants, you may have to upload the in-store purchase receipt to be eligible for the in-store cashback from your Quidco account.

   You will be delighted to know that as per a recent update by Quidco, it is possible for you to open up or increase rates with certain retailers (as listed on the site) by ‘activating’ them first on the Quidco website or via Quidco’s iPhone app or Android app. So, there are numerous innovative ways to earn few extra bucks for your shopping habits using Quidco. You can visit its official website here.

   
   

4. 4. Ebates (USA, Canada, Russia, Singapore, Korea and China)

   
   The Ebates cashback website offers an alternate option to save money while shopping online in various countries. To get the relevant cashback offers from online merchants in your country, you can register for free at the corresponding Ebates site link shared below:
   Ebates USA
   Ebates Singapore
   Ebates Canada
   Ebates Russia
   Ebates Korea
   Ebates China

   

   To register on Ebates for free, you also get a $5 sign-up bonus. With the major operations of Ebates based in USA, you get access to valuable cashback deals from various online sellers (more than 1800 in USA). Some of the top online e-commerce merchants include Nordstrom, Sephora, Amazon, Groupon, and so on, offer good cashback percentages to Ebates members. You get the sign-up bonus of $5 when you make your first purchase on Ebates.

   

   Once your Ebates cashback account reaches a threshold of $5, you get paid (every 3 months) via checks or Paypal deposits. I found this to be a slight disadvantage as you cannot immediately redeem any amount (over $5) and have to wait for the periodic payment cycle. Do you agree?

   If you decide to be as generous as the cashback site itself, you can even donate the amount earned to charity. A unique feature offered by Ebates is the “double cashback” deals, which entitle you to double the cashback amount (or percentage) that certain retailers normally offer. You can also install the ‘Ebates Cash Back Button’ on your browser to receive timely notifications about useful cashback offers and coupons without logging into your Ebates account. To help online shoppers earn more, this site also offers an ‘Ebates Cash Back Visa Credit Card’.

   You can install Ebates free mobile apps based on your OS platform as listed under:
   Ebates for iOS
   Ebates for Android
   




5. 5. Swagbucks

   
   If you are one of those who have often wondered about ways to earn money online, then, Swagbucks is probably the ideal platform for you. It is not only pays you cashback for online shopping, but also rewards you for doing various online activities like taking surveys, answering daily polls, playing games, searching the web, and so on. Thus, Swagbucks is a cashback-cum-rewards website that helps you earn extra money for completing online tasks. With the unique Swagbucks cashback system, you earn virtual currency (labeled Swag Bucks) instead of points. You can redeem these Swag Bucks earned in return for retail gift cards, PayPal cash, or similar other rewards. You can even find an online coupon code published on Swagbucks.com, that offers some discount.

   In order to start earning rewards, you can install a simple Swagbucks search toolbar. You can also use the Swagbucks Android App or Swagbucks iOS App for your mobile device.

   If you are a new member, you may earn up to 30 free Swag Bucks to start with. The popularity of this site can be gauged by the fact that it has more than 13 million members and has already paid over $96,681,032 in user rewards (or free online gift cards). It offers another unique opportunity to earn more via sweepstakes (known as Swagstakes). You can enter Swagstakes utilizing the cashback or rewards you have earned in your account to get more rewards in the form of Swag Bucks giveaways, monetary gift cards, etc.

   

   Another unique feature of Swagbucks is the “Accomplish Channel” option in the Web version. It allows you to set your own daily cashback goals as well as monitor / track your progress towards such listed goals. How cool is that?
   

The above list just mentions some of the most popular sites offering amazing cashback offers to online shoppers in different parts of the world. There are many more useful cashback sites such as ExtraBux.com, FatWallet.com, Befrugal.com, etc. The list is long and keeps growing every year with the increasing demand for online shopping globally. As an online shopper, you need to be smart and use these cashback tips to save good amount of money online. So, the next time you plan to buy a product online, do make sure to check the relevant cashback site for your country. Happy Shopping!