Know the retailer.

All the retailers and merchants listed on Pennymix are reputable businesses many of which are household names. But if you come across a retailer listed in a Pennymix which you have not heard of before then this tip will help you.

If you’ve never bought from a retailers website before and especially if it’s not a well-known retailer, do a background check using Google, Yahoo or MSN etc. Just type in the name of the store to the search box and see what comes up. The chances are that any dodgy online stores will have a big list of complaints and warnings in the search results.

Look over their website for any seals of approval such as VeriSign or TRUSTe. Don’t forget to click on these links just to check they are legitimate, it has been know for unscrupulous websites to forge their approval to such organisations. A click on the link should show if it’s real or not.

Good question.

Let’s think about it this way.

If you don’t use a cashback website when you shop online how much money will you get back as a reward for shopping with each retailer?

That would be nothing - right?

If you join a cashback website and - PennyMix is free to join - then you will earn a cash reward every time you shop online.

It may only be a few pence for a CD but could be £60 - £120 for insurance.

Even the few pence cashback rewards soon add up.  Ask anyone who uses a Tesco clubcard where the reward points are only 1%,  1p for every pound spent.  But it soon adds up.

Cashback Websites are frequently recommended in the lifestyle & consumer pages of newspapers, magazines etc.  Here are just a few places where the use of cashback websites were recommended:

Radio 2 - Jeremy Vine show with Martin Lewis “the money saving expert”

The Money Saving Expert website

BBC News in May 2006

The Independent personal finance pages
The Times
Money Week

Sky News

The Sunday Times

As you can see, some very prestigious media interest is shown in this development in Internet shopping.  So it’s not the latest Internet scam but a real opportunity to earn real cash rewards when you shop online. 

 Have you joined in yet?