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

Australian_banknotes_in_wallet-001

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

Chromecast Launches in Australia: Price Comparison

neil on 28/05/2014 at 3:11 pm, filed under OzBargain

chromecast

Chromecast is a digital media player developed by Google. The device, a 2.83-inch (72 mm) HDMI dongle, plays audio/video content on a high-definition television by directly streaming it via Wi-Fi from the Internet or a local network. (Wikipedia). It was officially launched today in Australia.

Earlier this month, Dick Smith erroneously put the Chromecast up on their website for preorder for $49 which was later pulled down. Today, it was officially back up on their site for $49 + shipping ($54 shipped). This is 30% more than what Amazon sells it for in the US. So where can we get it cheaply?

 

Store Pickup/In Store Delivered
Play Store N/A $53.50
Dick Smith $49 $53.95
JB $49 $53.95
Fishpond N/A $49 N/A
eGlobal N/A $63.96
Techrific N/A $64.89
DWI N/A $66

Prices as of 9/7

Looks like if JB Hi-Fi’s website is correct then you can pickup the Chromecast for $49. It seems probable that Dick Smith and other retailers will follow shortly. We will update this post regularly but check on the latest Chromecast deals on OzBargain. Found somewhere cheaper? Let us know or post it on OzBargain.

 

P.S.

To access Netflix & Hulu you will need an unblocking service. Getflix is $3 ($1.95 for 12 months) per month while Unblock-US is $5USD per month.  Check out this how-to guide from Reddit.

Update:

30/5:

  • Dick Smith is offering free shipping . Additionally, they are now available in store.
  • Fishpond has dropped their price to $49 shipped however the delivery time is 22-25 days.

8/6:

  • Fishpond has no stock.

8/7:

  • Dick Smith 1 day sale brings Chromecast to $43.95 delivered.

 

 

 

 

April Fools: OzBargain acquired and changed to CatchBargain

scotty on 01/04/2014 at 9:04 am, filed under OzBargain

tl;drOzBargain has been acquired by Catch of The Day. We will change our name to CatchBargain and all staff will move into The Catch Group’s Melbourne office.

This is a re-post of the announcement on OzBargain.

The Story

OzBargain is currently in its 8th year of operation. Started as a little humble blog back in 2005, and these days hundreds and thousands of Australians flock to OzBargain everyday to share, discuss and discover the latest Eneloop deals, Domino’s pizza coupons and cheap Steam games that you never will find time to play. Yada yada yada. Yes I know many people already know about the history of OzBargain and the rest probably don’t care. History is not that interesting anyway — we ought to focus on the FUTURE of OzBargain. That is what this post will be about, concerning what lies ahead of our beloved website.

Continue reading »

January Flight Deals

neil on 21/01/2014 at 2:35 pm, filed under Travel

Jetstar Airplane

Here is a selection of the top flight deals in January. The best deals this month are flights to Asia with connections to Europe.  North American and domestic flights deals aren’t that great so let’s see what next month brings us.

Fly to Europe:

Fly to Europe for $1000

386666_663387159837_1233943325_nTo get these flights, you need to fly Scoot to Singapore then take a flight from Singapore to Frankfurt or elsewhere in Europe.  Adioso produces a cheap one way fare of $169. Kayak produces a round trip airfare of ~$1024. Total $1193

A “direct” flight costs $1431 via Kayak.

Alternatively, you can take an Air Asia flight up to Kuala Lumpur for around $308  and then take a flight from KUL to Istambul for $752. Total $1060

A “direct” flight costs cost $1562 via Kayak.

 

Fly to Paris $1485, Athens return $1495, Venice $1695 on Qatar Airways

venice For comparison, a direct flight from Melbourne to Athens costs around $2000 on other airlines. Keep in mind Qatar Airlines is a 5 star airline.

 

 

 


Fly to the US:

Fly to LA/San Francisco from $1090 Return

sanfranNext closest price fare for $1289 via Adioso

 

 

 

Fly to LA from Melb/Brisbane  Business Class Only $4913  with Virgin Australia

Fly to the US  with Qantas Companion Sale – Business & Premium Economy

 

 


Fly to Australia & New Zealand:

Fly around Australia: Melb to Adl, Hobart, Sydney $30 and More @ Tigerair

Fly to Auckland & Christchurch RETURN ex Melb $230, ex Syd $234 (Fly May/June)

Fly to Auckland  $329 Return from Melbourne via Emirates

 


Fly to Asia:

Fly to Tokyo (from Melb) Return $544, Osaka Return ex Melb $502, Syd $495, Adel $447, Perth $418 @ Air Asia

tokyo-2Once you are in Kuala Lumpur, you can often pick up a cheaper flight to Europe and other parts of the world. On my last trip to the US, I flew to Osaka via Jetstar and then directly from Osaka to NY. Currently, a flight from Melb-Osaka is about $492 (returne) and a flight from Osaka to NY is around $1150 for a total of $1642.  A “direct” flight for the same time period comes to $1728. So instead of having a really long flight, you can split the flight into 2 segment and also see Japan for a similar price as flying direct.

Fly to Bali or Jakarta from $605

Fly to Singapore or Bali Per-Sin $169, Mel-Bali $249, Adel- Bali $199 Plus Loads More via Jetstar

Fly to Singapore from Perth $119, Sydney or Gold Coast to Singapore from $169 and more with Flyscoot


Do your own research and check out the travel wiki or the travel forum for websites and tips on booking cheap flights. Also, check out this forum thread on tips to getting an upgrade to Business Class.  

 

 

OzBargain Zeitgeist 2013 : Top stores, deals and comments

neil on 09/01/2014 at 2:38 pm, filed under Stats

2013 was another successful year of deals, posts, and comments on OzBargain.

Overall OzBargain Stats for 2013 (vs 2012):

Pageviews: 210,501,797 ( Green_Arrow_Up.svg 35% )

Visitors: 69,696,557 ( Green_Arrow_Up.svg28%)

Browsers:  Chrome: 40.89% ( Green_Arrow_Up.svg8%) , Safari 21.65% ( Green_Arrow_Up.svg1%), Firefox 17.79% ( Red_Arrow_Down.svg6%), Internet Explorer 11.24% ( Red_Arrow_Down.svg5%), Opera .74 ( Red_Arrow_Down.svg.4%)

Top Referral Traffic: Whirlpool 1.53% Facebook 1.1%, Twitter .51%, Oursteps .34%, EcoGamer .27%

 

Deals:

dealchart

  Deals not reaching Front Page Front Page Deals (>19 votes) Vote Average
2011 11222 4008 16
2012 15023 3973 16.31
2013 21046 5115 17.63

Published: Green_Arrow_Up.svg 27.4% | Front page Green_Arrow_Up.svg 23.3%  | Green_Arrow_Up.svg 25.5% Removed Deals | Vote average: Green_Arrow_Up.svg 7.5%

——————

Highest voted deal:

MS Office Pro Plus 2013 or Office Mac 2011 for $15 or $30 with Hotmail Email @ MS HUP+894

Store with the highest pageviews:

Dominos  495,815 pageviews

Deal with the highest pageviews:

MS Office Pro Plus 2013 or Office Mac 2011 for $15 or $30 with Hotmail Email @ MS HUP 100,200 pageviews

 

 Deals posted by store:

 

Store 2013 2012 2011 2010
Dick Smith 1062 625 455 236
Amazon.com 915 668 176 29
iTunes/iOS app deals 657 662 417 136
Harvey Norman 582 370 265 108
JB Hi-Fi 526 414 310 178
Woolworths 515 275 170 102
Target 483 135  129  71
Big W 461 416 465 134
Coles 446 247 225 168
Officeworks 423 226 236 138

 

top_deals_2010-2013

 Note: Amazon.com was split into Kindle book deals and Amazon.com deals.

Front Page deals (2013 vs 2012)

For the third year in a row, the iTunes store (iOS apps) is the most popular store on OzBargain. Despite Android phones and tablets being significantly cheaper than their Apple counterparts, the demand for iOS apps and books hasn’t diminished.  In a positive note for Australian retailers, Bing Lee, The Good Guys and Target greatly improved their positions on the list. Amazon.co.uk dropped 6 places due to increased postage costs from the UK and an unfavorable currency rate with the Australian dollar. Udemy debuts in 11th place with 82 front page deals posted in only 6 months of existence on OzBargain.

Store Front Page Deal Rank vs. 2012
iTunes/iOS app deals 227
Dick Smith 218
Kindle Books 181 NEW
Amazon.com 170 Red_Arrow_Down.svg 1
Woolworths 149
Big W 114 Red_Arrow_Down.svg 2
JB Hi-Fi 106 Red_Arrow_Down.svg 1
Coles 101
Target 99 Green_Arrow_Up.svg 9
Harvey Norman 93 Red_Arrow_Down.svg 3
Google Play Store 84 Green_Arrow_Up.svg 11
Udemy 82 NEW
Officeworks 82
Dominos 69 Green_Arrow_Up.svg 2
Shopping Express 64 Green_Arrow_Up.svg 3
Amazon.co.uk 54 Red_Arrow_Down.svg 6
The Good Guys 49 Green_Arrow_Up.svg 9
Steam 49 Red_Arrow_Down.svg 1
Kogan 48 Red_Arrow_Down.svg 7
mygroceries.com.au 43 Green_Arrow_Up.svg 1

 

Where did the popular retailers come from?

While the majority of stores that made the front page were Australian, there seems to be a 4% drop year to year.  It’s a worrying sign for Australian retailers.

Country 2013 2012 2011
AUS 187 (74.5%) 168 (78.1%) 155 (82.4%)
US 31 23 16
UK 15 11 10
HK 5 3 3
China 1 4 2
France 0 1 0
Italy 0 1 0
New Zealand 1 1 0
Cypress 1 1 1
Sweden 1 1 1
Ireland 0 1 0
Malaysia 2 0 0
Netherlands 1 0 0
Singapore 2 0 0
Austria 1 0 0
Brasil 2 0 0
Canada 1 0 0

 

Deals by Country: Retailers that made the front page >2 times in 2013

map

Deals by Country: Retailers that made the front page >2 times in 2012

Deals that made the front page by country in 2012.

Deals by Country: Retailers that made the front page >2 times in 2011

Deals that made the front page by country.

Maps created using Gunmap.

Comments:

commentsgraph

2013 vs. 2012: Published Green_Arrow_Up.svg21.8% | Removed Green_Arrow_Up.svg16.2%

 

Top 10 Positively voted comments:

  1. rt1 thanking OP and stating he bought 3 Nissan 370zs. +350
  2. whiteflame thanking commenter for the picture of their cat. +282
  3. montorola correcting a commenter’s grammar. +226
  4. 100 responding to an anti-Samsung comment in a Samsung deal. +219
  5. jv pointing out that not accepting returns is illegal. +174
  6. revolushenary thanking OP for the thesis-like description. +137
  7. risto “correcting” the grammar in the previous comment. +135
  8. mely doubts any headphones for $5 would be any good. +121
  9. strand0410 doubts the fashion of Beats by Dre headphones. +110
  10. figarow offers a sympathetic condolence to the rep.+115

Top 10 Negatively voted comments:

  1. mikinoz thinking $.50 for a glass of tap water was cheap. -382
  2. ajdj10 who thought posting a deal for a duty free store at an airport was a waste of time. -366
  3. ozdesi who reckons everyone already knew about the most popular deal of 2013. – 280
  4. bill.zheng hating Samsung products on a Samsung deal. The following comment was the 4th most popular comment of 2013. -176
  5. paintoad joking that the worst thing about the Nexus 4 is that the OS is Android. -147
  6. jv joking that Telstra’s free calls to the Philipines are to Telstra’s call centres. -144
  7. mikinoz still arguing his point from his most negged comment. -137
  8. consumersheep chastising a user for making a stupid comment. -129
  9. mikinoz still arguing his point… -101
  10. mo danish getting negged for saying the word Apple. -100

For more stats, see the wiki.

Free Access to Regus Business lounges worldwide

neil on 28/11/2013 at 8:00 am, filed under OzBargain

 

2013-11-21 14.30.05_thumb

View from my pod: City view on the left, a Mac for people to use, SKY News on TV

Earlier this year, a deal was posted on OzBargain which allowed you to upgrade your Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer program from red status to silver. The benefits are minimal for Australians for one exception: Free membership to Regus Businessworld Gold.

Here are the important features you get from a Regus membership:

  • Walk in access to business lounges and cafes
  • Free internet access and refreshments on every visit

Regus business lounges can be found all over the world. For Australia, there are 4 in Melbourne, 12 in Sydney, 4 in Brisbane, 1 in Adelaide4 in Perth,  1 in Canberra, 1 in Surfer’s Paradise, and 1 in Wollongong. On this occasion, I visited the branch at 120 Collins St., Melbourne.

 

Layout: It’s fairly straightforward. Give your card to the receptionist who will then swipe you in. You are free to sit anywhere in the business lounge. I decided to sit in one their pods which is equipped with a power outlet and Ethernet port. You also have access to a kitchen where you can heat up food or sit and do work. Lounge configurations do vary as not all locations have pods and some only have just seats. Two televisions were mounted in the lounge showing SkyNews.

2013-11-21 16.21.05_thumb

 

Internet: All lounges are equiped with Wi-Fi which when connected, you will simply need to enter your Regus card number when prompted. Keep in mind the Wi-Fi is unencrypted, so it’s wise to enable a VPN. There is no limit on the number of devices you can connect to the Wi-Fi as I managed to connect both my laptop and iPad. There were no issues with speed. For those without Wi-Fi, you can connect via the Ethernet port. While free Wi-Fi may not be a big deal in Australia, in places like Japan where  Wi-Fi (paid or free) is rare, having a Regus lounge to pop into can be handy.

2013-11-21 15.05.06_thumb

 

Refreshments: Any snacks or soft drinks will cost you money (honour system) however coffee and water are free. The coffee was made by a machine that not only grinded the beans automatically but was also capable of making cappuccinos, espressos and a couple other types of coffee with just a press of a button.

2013-11-21 16.20.37_thumb

 

View of the city. Phone and Mac at your disposal.

2013-11-21 16.28.29_thumb

You can still get a free Regus Businessworld Gold membership via United Airlines.

Note from the T&C:

Should you use more than ten days in a single Provider centre per month we reserve the right to charge an additional usage fee.

Don’t expect this to be your permanent office but for the occasional user who needs to do work, study, or just chill out, the Regus business lounge is good value for money ($0).

Click Frenzy 2013: More quantity but less quality

neil on 22/11/2013 at 3:10 pm, filed under Click Frenzy

102936--clickfail-ignites-web-stormClick Frenzy had its 5th shopping event on Nov 19. It seems that with every new event there is less interest by everyday consumers. That didn’t stop the PR crew from recruiting a reporter from Fairfax to publish 6 Click Frenzy articles in a course of 7 days. Strangely there was no coverage from News Limited Papers. They even created a PR stunt stating that they are threatening legal action against Kogan for jumping on the frenzy bandwagon without paying Click Frenzy. The press regarded these vague legal threats as a PR stunt to promote both sales yet the media still published the story.

In terms of OzBargain, we had 45 official Click Frenzy deals posted on OzBargain (up from 23) with 9 of them reaching the front page.  Interestingly, we had 16 unofficial Frenzy deals posted of which 5 made it to the front page or about 31%. In the Father’s Day Click Frenzy event, 3 unofficial deals made it to the front page.

 

Event 2012 Mother’s Day EOFY Father’s Day 2013
Front Page 4 3 10 8 9
All Deals N/A 18 33 23 45
% 16.66% 30.30% 34.78% 20.00%

Nine front page deals is on par with the last 2 events however the doubling of all ClickFrenzy deals compared to the last event is an interesting statistic. An increase in the amount of unofficial front page deals may support the position that you don’t need to be part of a paid shopping event to have a good deal. In either case, Click Frenzy continues to add more good deals for OzBargainers.

*Official deal means that it was a deal listed on Click Frenzy’s website. An unofficial deal is not listed on their website in which the retailer refers to a Frenzy deal.

Useful Money Saving Tips from OzBargain Commenters

neil on 19/10/2013 at 5:25 pm, filed under OzBargain

freeimage-4971654-web

Earlier this week, we ran a contest to find the most useful tips of 2013. Here is a selection of comments:

Continue reading »

This Fortnight in OzBargain: Sept 4 – Oct 18

neil on 18/10/2013 at 1:24 pm, filed under OzBargain

Popular (Not Expired) Deals of the Week

174

132

129

120

116

See more popular deals ->

Continue reading »

This Week in OzBargain: Sept 27 – Oct 4

neil on 04/10/2013 at 2:59 pm, filed under Weekly

 


Popular (Not Expired) Deals of the Week


 

174

132

129

120

116

See more popular deals ->

 


Hot Topics


SCAM sites using .com.au domains

There appears to be a loophole in .com.au registrations that allows anyone with an ABN to register a website even if it isn’t the registrants ABN.  These sites are pretending to sell various items where all they are doing is collecting unsuspecting Australian consumers money.

http://www.affordableappliances.com.au/

http://www.directcamerawarehouse.com.au/

http://www.thefoneshop.com.au/

http://www.xtremegopro.com.au/

http://www.totaltelevisions.com.au/

http://www.hdcameras.com.au/

Please avoid purchasing from these sites or if you have purchased from these sites, please comment in this OzBargain thread.

 

50% Wii U at DSE

In a surprise to many, Dick Smith decided to sell the Wii U at 50% off ($214). It’s unusual for a console less than a year old to have such a significant discount.

 

In the chart below, it took the original Wii around 4 years to reach a 50% reduction in price.

chart_1

 

Below is the chart for Wii U prices. It has taken less than a year for the Wii U to be reduced by 50% in price.

chart_2

It may be a rough ride for Nintendo as it feels mounting pressure from Playstation and XBox sales.

 

New fees for 28 Degrees Card

28-degrees-mastercard_4d532bbbef80c

OzBargainer favourite credit card, 28 Degrees,  has now closed its popular withdrawal loophole that allowed customers to load the card with a positive balance before traveling overseas in order to get free withdrawals. From January 1, 2014 a $4 or 3% fee (whichever is greater) will be charged on a cash withdrawal.  Citibank offers an alternative option for the time being.

See more forum posts ->

 


Picture of the Week


1146866_10151986614579131_360491138_o

If this is free when I buy a meat pie, you will have all of my business. What do you reckon? Via http://redd.it/1n5ol9

 


Stay up to Date with Deals & News



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This Week in OzBargain: Sept 9 – Sept 16

neil on 16/09/2013 at 12:47 pm, filed under OzBargain, Weekly

 


Popular (Not Expired) Deals of the Week


 

718

176

143

Ashphalt 8 iOS FREE for The Weekend

Posted September 13 tag Gaming

142

Free Original Glazed Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (One or Dozen) – September 19th

Posted September 13 tag Food & Grocery Expiry Expires September 19

115

See more popular deals ->

 


Hot Topics


Election & The NBN

Last weekend, we had a change in government. While it seems the majority of Australia is happy with the Liberal party in charge, there is no joy at the Liberal’s NBN plan. Under the previous Labor government, they pushed  FTTH (Fiber to the Home) whereas the Liberal government is pushing FTTN (Fiber to the Node). While using FTTN will save money for the government, this will also result in slower speeds compared to FTTH.

Kogan Price Error

A Samsung Galaxy S4 4G for $439 delivered? Sounds too good to be true. The deal was posted on September 10 at 6PM. Kogan’s customer service seemed to indicate at the time that the price was correct and not an error. The deal was at 600 votes and was on track to be one the most popular deals on OzBargain. The next day Kogan went into hiding, deleting tweets that indicated that the deal was legit and not responding to questions on whether it was a price error. Later on the 11th, emails were sent out canceling the order. This was no coffee mug part II but at least Ruslan will have another OzBargain story for Shoptalk.

Melbourne Meetup

The original Melbourne meetup was scheduled for May of this year. The day before the event, council revoked Bumper Action’s function license and we were forced to cancel the event. Bumper have moved into new premises a couple blocks closer to the city. They are putting the finishing touches on their new location and we hope to start planning a redo meetup in October.

See more forum posts ->

 


Picture of the Week


1184981_10151951321234131_321025766_n

Choice is running a campaign to help consumers spot fake merchandise. The counterfeiters are getting a lot better at creating fake products that are very difficult to discern from the real merchandise. However, there are always little things that give it away. Can you spot the fake?

 

 


Stay up to Date with Deals & News



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Click Frenzy: Good Deals or Just a Marketing Exercise?

neil on 22/08/2013 at 4:21 pm, filed under OzBargain

Click-Frenzy-ecardI don’t think there is much doubt that OzBargain lists more good deals year round than any single shopping event like Boxing Day or Click Frenzy. While Click Frenzy is a big marketing exercise, do the events provide good deals?

The first incarnation of Click Frenzy was so popular that their website and related retailer’s websites were inaccessible.  OzBargain received so much traffic that it took down the website and forced us to upgrade our network link from 10Mbps to 30Mbps. While OzBargain had 3,800 concurrent visitors during the event, clickfrenzy.com.au had 58,000.

Click Frenzy fixed their website issues for their next 3 events. While the Mother’s Day event was a fizzler, the EOFY event was popular with 10 deals making it to the front page. In their latest incarnation, there were 23 deals posted with 8 making it to the front page.  There were also 3 “unofficial” Click Frenzy deals that made the front page.

clickfrenzy-graph

Event Original Mother’s Day EOFY Father’s Day
Front Page 4 3 10 8
All Deals  N/A 18 33 23
% 16.66% 30.30%
34.78%

While the majority of sales listed on Click Frenzy’s site were underwhelming, the deals posted on OzBargain were good. At the end of the event, OzBargain received 8 to 11 more great deals that we wouldn’t have if it weren’t for this event. More good deals are a win for OzBargainers.

Pictures from the “Pick a Spokesperson” Competition

neil on 19/08/2013 at 4:43 pm, filed under Competition, OzBargain

Here are some of the entries for our “Pick a Spokesperson” Competition. Which is your favourite? Let us know in the comments.

1st Place: YTW: Scrooge McDuck (9pts)

ozbargainspokespersoncompytw

 

2nd Place:  100: Bender suicide machine (8pts)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_booth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-vRpQ0YyYo

benderozb

 

3rd Place: gotbean: Obi Wan (3pts)

KvydK4b

 

Honourable mentions:

Dr. Zoidberg by 100

zoidozb

 

Montgomery Scott , Leonard McCoy, & Pavel Chekov by YTW

ytwscotty

 

Jessica Simpson by YTW

ytwjessicasimpson

 

 

Zoolander by aerona

W3Z8KIE

 

 

Ozzy Osbourne by silverrat23

ozzy_ozbargain

 

 

Bill Gates by sash213

ozgate

 

Larry Emdur by YTW

ozbargainspokespersoncompytw2

 

Trainspotting by MemE

ozbargaincomp

 

 

Angry Birds by greenpossum

ozbargain-angry-birds-1920x1080

 

Alan ( Zack Galifiniakis) from The Hangover by Goonos

ozbargain3

 

JV by Aggregate

ozbargain2

 

Ron Burgundy from “Anchorman” by unkown

ozb1

 

Eugene Harold Krabs by bossmode

ozb

 

Ocean’s Eleven (2001) by 2Cheap2Pay

ocean-s-eleven-visaff-02-h

 

MacGyver by Scotty

mcgyver

Terry Crews by exc3312nce

KZavFxf

 

Ruslan Kogan by MITM

kogan

 

Terry Crews by exc3312nce

Ka5Y0Af

 

Cameron Ling by Food

foodlingy1-page-001

Stephen Dank’s High Performance Training Academy by pup

dank_phixr

PriceSlice Added “Post on OzBargain” Button

scotty on 14/08/2013 at 11:37 am, filed under OzBargain

A month after Lasoo added Share with OzBargain link on their catalogue offers, PriceSlice has also added the link to the products they are tracking, to allow their users to quickly share a big price drop with the OzBargain community.

For example, go to any “Computers, Electronics & Appliances” product page (eg, this Kenwood 2DIN 6.1″ Monitor With DVD Reciever from JB Hi-Fi with 41% off price drop), and you’ll see the orange button Post on OzBargain there.

Post on OzBargain

Clicking on that the Deals Submission Form will open on a separate browser window/tab, with title, URL and related store already filled. Just need to fill out the rest of the form to post a new deal on OzBargain!

PriceSlice has been a useful resource for many OzBargain where it keeps track of price history on quite a few Australian retailer sites. See their complete shop list here. You can easily search for products and set up alerts when a product you are watching for gets a price drop.

This Week in OzBargain July 12-July 22

neil on 23/07/2013 at 2:22 am, filed under Weekly

 


Popular (Not Expired) Deals of the Week & a 1/2


 

186

Totally Irreverent Closing Down Sale $10 T-Shirts

Posted July 18 tag Fashion & Apparel

170

149

121

120

See more popular deals ->

 


Hot Topics


New Features

We rolled out a few features this week:

  • Front Page Deal SubscriptionUsers can get notificated by email as deals hit the number of default front page votes (currently 20).
    To subscribe, go to ‘My Account’ -> ‘Subscriptions’ and click on ‘events’ submenu tab, then check the checkbox for ‘Notify me by email when… A deal reaches the front page’ and save.
  • Filter Front Page and New Deal Listing by CategoryUsers can opt to only show deals for certain categories for front page and new deals pages.
    To customise your deal listing, go to ‘My Account’ -> ‘Settings’ -> ‘deals’ submenu tab, choose the categories you want and save.
  • Private Messaging for Store RepsWe’ve also automatically turned on private messaging for representatives as soon as they post a deal with ‘I am a Store Representative’ checkbox. They are not allowed to disable private messaging if they have posted a rep deal within the last 180 days.

CPL vs. Social Media

Earlier this month, user lucksmith bought a computer from CPL. According to the user, the computer was damaged in transit. CPL allegedly told him that he should take his issue up with Australia Post. Not liking the response, he posted a thread on OzBargain, Reddit Melbourne, and Reddit Australia. It made the front page on all three locations.

While CPL have agreed to refund lucksmith, there was doubt cast upon the user’s claims from the rep. It’s a lesson to all companies. Don’t argue or dispute a customer’s claim in a public forum. Even if the customer is wrong, do what you can to make the customer happy. While the comments in their latest deal suggested people wouldn’t be shopping at CPL, there are currently 72 positive votes for the deal.

Tip: Block Seeing Deals from Specific Stores or Users

Tired of see Udemy posts? Don’t have an iPhone? Block seeing iTunes deals entirely.

  1.  Go to the store page (e.g. iTunes Store deals)
  2. Select one of the deals that you hated most.
  3. From a list of cryptic looking options under the main deal description, locate “Hide from Listing” and click on it
  4. Click on the checkbox “Hide deals from store iTunes Store

Be gone! No more iTunes Store deals on the deal listing pages!
See more forum posts ->

 


Picture of the Week


1073911_10151809186969131_1236222113_o

Is this the most expensive scarf in the world. Guess what? You can still buy it from David Jones at a bargain price of $99,999 with free shipping.

 

 


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