4 Dead Easy Ways to Earn Passive Income with Cashback

Updated August 2019

Despite our best efforts to save, we have to spend at least some money to survive. Groceries, hygiene and cleaning products, clothes, insurances, utilities, etc. are necessary expenses for the majority of us. But what if you could take advantage of your spending and earn money every time you spend? This is far easier than you think and I will show you how. There are different ways to earn money with cashback and the more methods you combine, the more money you make!

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Earn money with cashback apps

For grocery shopping, you can choose from a variety of smartphone apps that offer cashback. Ordinary people will use one app, if even, and waste a lot of potential cash back opportunities. I recommend downloading a whole range of them and see for yourself which you find useful. Using cashback apps is free, by the way. Personally, I use Shopmium, GreenJin, and Checkoutsmart. If you sign-up to Shopmium with the code q2766a, you will also get a free Nutella jar.

Using these three apps, I manage to make up to £5.00 cashback per month. This does not sound like much but uploading a receipt after shopping takes less than a minute and is super easy. I am just a single person, so if you shop for your family, you can obviously make much more. It also depends on where you shop. Most cashback is limited to big supermarkets such as Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and ASDA.

Cashback payout

Regardless of the free Nutella, Shopmium is my favourite cashback app. They pay out automatically after approval which is usually within two days. With GreenJin, you can claim your cashback once you have built up £1.50 and withdrawals can take approximately two weeks. Checkoutsmart will only let you withdraw penalty free once you have reached a total of £20.00 in cashback. This can take a few months to build up depending on your spending.

Stacking cashback

To make the most of your cashback apps, you need to combine offers and stack cashback. Simply find a product that is on offer on more than one cashback app. Then, submit the receipt to all apps that offer cashback for the item. Once I bought a pack of ice lollies for £2.00 and got £2.50 cashback for it. You are reading correctly, I got more cashback than the ice lollies cost me. Now £0.50 and free ice lollies are not that much, but over time, it all adds up.

Earn money with cashback websites

What if you need to renew your car insurance or want to buy a new laptop? Cashback is not limited to groceries but can be obtained for all kinds of purchases. Sometimes you can even get cashback for starting a free trial of something! Cashback websites are FREE and easy to use. Before I buy anything, I always check Topcashback, Quidco and OhMyDosh! for cashback offers. Signing-up to these through my links will give you a special sign-up bonus so you will earn money before you even start. Note that Quidco also offers cashback on groceries, but it is much better for other purchases.

Note that you cannot stack cashback as you can do with cashback apps. This is because cashback websites require you to sign-up up or make a purchase via their link. You can only follow one link for one sign-up/purchase. However, there is also the potential to earn much more cashback per purchase as some offers are very generous. So far I have made over £400.00 cashback from Topcashback, Quidco and OhMyDosh! Most of this comes from Topcashback who seem to generally have the best offers. On the other hand, OhMyDosh! also lets you earn cashback for taking out free trials and completing other smaller tasks.

Matched betting

Cashback website also offer numerous cashback opportunities for online casino sign-ups. You can profit from these with my low-risk casino guide.

Cashback payout

After you have made your purchase (be sure to disable any Adblocker), your cashback will track as “pending”. Once the cashback website has confirmed your cashback with the retailer, it will be “payable”. How long this takes depends on the offer. Some become payable within three weeks while others may take six months. A small number of cashback purchases may not track correctly and you have to manually put a claim in. This is very easy to do but it may take up to two months (or longer) until your cashback is added. Either way, what counts is that you will get the money eventually!

Earn money with cashback credit cards

Now to take your cashback game to the next level, you need a cashback credit card. With one of these, you can combine the cashback from apps or websites with the cashback you obtain when making a purchase with your credit card. I recommend Tandem. Personally, I was rejected by them as I have not been in the UK for long enough. I will need to build up my records and apply again next year. Therefore, my recommendation is based on this article. As always, you should do your own research!

Top tip: Check whether you can pay your rent through a credit card. This may be possible, for example, if you are with a housing association. You can then get cashback on your rent! If I could do this, I would effectively safe £25.00 of my rent.

Credit card disclaimer

Please note that you should only get a credit card if you are responsible with your money, are debt free. Also, you need to be able to pay the credit card off every month. If you do not pay off the card in full each month, the interest will wipe out any cashback benefits. If you do not wish to sign-up for a credit card or are rejected, do not worry. As I mentioned previously, I do not have one myself either. There are plenty of other ways to make money!

Earn money with cashback current accounts

If cashback credit cards are not for you, you may instead want to try a cashback current account. Also, nothing stops you from having a cashback credit card and a cashback current account! Santander 123 currently offers 15% cashback for purchases with selected retailers and for utilities. NatWest will give you 2% for household bills and 1% for purchases at selected retailers. Banks frequently change their current account of offers. It may be worth to do a quick google search yourself and see if you can find better offers. Let me know if you do!

Be aware that some banks may charge you a monthly fee. You will need to calculate whether the cashback outweighs the costs of the account.

If you are interested in increasing your bank balance, read my comprehensive list of 100 ways you can make money. Whatever you do, I recommend to always check for cashback before you buy anything.

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Jennifer