Cashback comparison 2014: Starthere vs. Qwibble vs. Shopping VIP vs. Cash Rewards vs. Chill vs. Prplness vs. Lyoness

neil on 10/07/2014 at 3:46 pm, filed under Cashback

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Image Source: Wikipedia

Cashback sites are a great way to make purchases cheaper for consumers. Some websites that you make a purchase from are willing to pay a commission to affiliate networks and other website publishers to gain sales. The idea behind cashback sites is, as a website publisher themselves, they are refunding a portion of the commission they’ve made from the merchants back to the consumer.

We last compared cashback sites in June of 2013. Since that time, Bucksback has shut down its website with no explanation and is not responding to queries.

Two new sites have been offering cashback deals to Australians. Shopping VIP opened in late 2013 with their focus on providing a small number of high quality retailers to their VIPs (aka members). Meanwhile, Lyoness is not a new company but now offers a standalone cashback service for online purchases which differentiates itself from its more controversial “shopping community“.

 

 

Starthere Qwibble ShoppingVIP Cash Rewards Chill Cashback Prplness Lyoness*
Amaysim Unlimited $40.00 $39.00 N/A $24.00 N/A $23.00 N/A
Apple 1.00% N/A 1.50% 2.00% N/A N/A 1.00%
Appliances Online 1.00% 1.60% N/A 2.00% N/A 1.50% N/A
ASOS 3.50% 5.60% N/A 7.00% N/A N/A N/A
Big W 2.00% 3.20% N/A 4.00% 3.20% 3.00% N/A
Bonds 4.50% 7.20% 7.00% 7.20% 7.20% 6.00% 2.00%
Booktopia 3.75% 6.00% 5.50% 7.50% 6%% 3.75% 2.00%
Dan Murphy’s (spirits / wine) 4.15% 5%/6.65% 5%/6% 5%/7.5% N/A 5.25%/6% N/A
Deals Direct 2.50% 4.00% 3.00% 5.00% 4.00% 4.00% 2.00%
GraysOnline (non-auction) 2.50% 4.40% N/A 5.50% N/A N/A N/A
Groupon 2.50% N/A N/A 4.00% N/A N/A 2.00%
Hotelclub N/A 9.60% N/A N/A 7.20% 6.00% 1.00%
Hotels.com -Merchant Hotel 3.00% 4.80% N/A 4.80% 4.80% 3.00% 2.00%
Kogan N/A 0.60% 0.50% 0.60% N/A N/A N/A
Lenovo 2.30% 3.60% 3.00% 2.80% 2.80% N/A 1.00%
Menulog-Home Delivery 1.50% 2.40% N/A 2.40% 2.00% 1.50% N/A
Rebel Sport 3.75% 6.00% 5.00% 6.00% 6.00% 4.00% 2.00%
Shoppingsquare N/A 1.60% N/A 1.60% 1.60% N/A N/A
Stawberrynet -New Customer 7.50% 12.00% 12.00% 15.00% 12.00% N/A N/A
Surfstitch 1.50% 2.40% 3.00% 2.25-8% 8.00% 4.00% 1.00%
The Iconic 5.00% 8.00% 8.00% 10.00% N/A 8.00% 1.00%
The Mens Shop 5.00% N/A N/A 8.00% N/A N/A 2.00%
Member Fees (annual) $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0
Minimum Cashout Amount None None $20 $5 $20 $25 $15.00
Pricematch No No No No No Yes No
Sign Up Offers No No No No $2 credit $5 credit No

Information current as of July 10, 2014.

Note: 7/8 Lyoness cashback adjusted. Lyoness appears to offer an immediate cashback rate and then a further rate that is dependent on an opaque referral scheme.

 

Starthere:

Green_Arrow_Up.svg At the founder level (former Moneybackco members), the average is bumped up to 5.5%. Top rates for 7 merchants .

Green_Arrow_Up.svg No minimum cashout amount.

Red_Arrow_Down.svg Multiple tiers of membership.

Red_Arrow_Down.svg For new or casual users (white level), average cashback rates are poor at 3.16%. Top rate for only 1 merchant (Amaysim).

Starthere

 

Qwibble:

Green_Arrow_Up.svg Competitive cashback rates (avg 4.88%). Top rates for 7 of our sample merchants.

Green_Arrow_Up.svg No minimum cashout rates. For our sample merchants, the average rate is 4.88%.

Qwibble

 

Shopping VIP:

Green_Arrow_Up.svgCompetitive cashback rates (avg 4.91%) .

Red_Arrow_Down.svg Not all of the popular merchants listed.

Red_Arrow_Down.svg High minimum cashout. You would need to make $408  in purchases to receive your first cashout.

 Shopping VIP

 

Cash Rewards:

Green_Arrow_Up.svg Very competitive cashback rates (avg 5.3%). Top rates for 17 of our sample merchants.

$5 minimum cashout amount.

 Cash Rewards

 

Chill Cashback:

Green_Arrow_Up.svg Competitive cashback rates (avg 5.3%). Top rates for 4 of our sample merchants and the best overall average rate.

Red_Arrow_Down.svg Not all of the popular merchants listed.

Red_Arrow_Down.svg High minimum cashout.  You would need to make $337 (inc $2 credit) in purchases to receive your first cashout.

Chill Cashback

 

Prplness:

Green_Arrow_Up.svg Pricematch other cashback website’s rates.

Red_Arrow_Down.svg Not all of the popular merchants listed.

Red_Arrow_Down.svg High minimum cashout. For our sample merchants, the average rate is 4.07%. You would need to make $492 (inc $5 credit) in purchases to receive your first cashout.

Prplness

 

Lyoness:

Red_Arrow_Down.svg Poor average cashback rate of 3.25%. 1.58%

Red_Arrow_Down.svg High minimum cashout.  You would need to make $462 $950 in purchases to receive your first cashout.

Lyoness

 

2014 vs 1013

Cashback averages mostly stayed the same with the exception of Prplness which dropped by almost .5% and Chill Cashback which doubled their cashback average from 2.68% to 5.35%.  Qwibble removed their minimum cashback while Cashrewards set a negligible $5 minimum cashout level. Despite a promise in the comments of last years cashback comparison, Chill has kept their $20 minimum cashout. To their credit, they have increased the amount of merchants on their site.

 


Winners & Losers

Green_Arrow_Up.svgGreen_Arrow_Up.svg Cash Rewards, Starthere (Founder Level only)

Green_Arrow_Up.svg Qwibble, Chill Cashback

Red_Arrow_Down.svg Starthere, Prplness, Shopping VIP, Lyoness

 

For the second year in a row, Cash Rewards provide the best value along with a large selection of retailers. They are also the only site to offer cashback with eBay. If you have founder status at Starthere then definitely check their site before your purchase. If you don’t have founder status then don’t bother. Qwibble & Chill are hit and miss but worth checking. Don’t bother with Prplness, Shopping VIP or Lyoness.


Always compare retailers at each cashback site before purchasing. Rates often vary and some sites list retailers that others don’t.

Footnote:

We’ve move the cashback bar to underneath the thumbnail/Go to Deal button so its easier for users to remember to claim cashback.

 

surfstich

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