How we compare with other cashback sites

[duke]

We recently announced our mutual dividend initiative, our policy of passing on an increasing amount of our revenue as cashback. As a money-saving site which, uniquely, is owned and controlled by its members, we want to use our increasing financial strength to make our cashback rates as competitive as possible.

Having now completed a review of cashback rates across all our circa 3000 merchants, we thought you'd be interested to see how we compare with the largest two UK cashback sites. Based on comparisons done over the past 24 hours*, we can make the following headline claims:

- Across our 3000 merchants, we're offering more cashback than quidco and topcashback in over 80% of cases

* I should quickly making the following qualifications for these claims:
- Comparison is based on the highest paying product type for a given merchant, not an average of all product types.
- In some cases, the competitor site doesn't offer any cashback at all
- The difference in rates is often very marginal
- Where our competitors have better rates, these are sometimes significantly better and tend to be with the more popular merchants

That said, the claims still stand and I think a lot of cashback site members will be surprised by them. As our membership and revenues grow, we will negotiate even better rates with the eventual aim of being the undisputed best-paying site In the meantime, it does at least show that the circa 5m members of the "big two" sites would be well advised to add imutual to their portfolio of cashback sites and check our offers each time they want to earn some cashback.

And remember that every time you earn cashback through imutual, you also receive free shares - i.e. we give you part-ownership of the company!

I hope you'll help to spread this news as widely as possible - see the "Share" links to the top right and bottom right of this post

[davidlmorgan85]

Hopefully this will be spread long and far

Really happy with reading the above findings regardless how marginally higher our rates may be than the competition.

Does anyone think we can get real publicity (national news paper claim of the findings) with these form of claims, or is that move a little dangerous for us, or am I being to ambitious (or to excited), maybe all the above - ha!

[kevinchess1]

Yes V well done
I am curious how you checked 3,000 merchants against 2 companies in 24 hours though
Hope Shelly was on time and a half
The 5,000,000+ membership is probably no where near that in terms of 'Active' members
I suspect most user belong to all both sites

[kevinchess1]

I am curious how you checked 3,000 merchants against 2 companies in 24 hours though

It was actually the culmination of several weeks work (interrupted by jury service )

The 5,000,000+ membership is probably no where near that in terms of 'Active' members
I suspect most user belong to all both sites

Not sure about "most" but undoubtedly there will be some cross-over. Let's just agree that between them, they have many, many times more members than we do at present. And yet we are able to offer more cashback in over 80% of cases. Think how competitive we could be if we had 2m+ members

[Sarah]

This looks pretty good as a headline; unfortunately I suspect it won't stand up to detailed scrutiny though. Presumably these statistics don't take account of the 1% (or more) 'top-up' that TopCashBack apply for all members, or the 5% bonus they add upon pay-out by Tesco, Love2Shop or Amazon vouchers? How much lower would the 80% figure be if the TCB rates are increased by 6%? That still wouldn't be a completely fair comparison though, since TCB are happy to match imutual rates before adding their 5% bonus. Savvy shoppers will surely figure that out - the shares are the remaining selling point for imutual, but they're a harder sell than cashback!

[expressman33]

This looks pretty good as a headline; unfortunately I suspect it won't stand up to detailed scrutiny though. Presumably these statistics don't take account of the 1% (or more) 'top-up' that TopCashBack apply for all members, or the 5% bonus they add upon pay-out by Tesco, Love2Shop or Amazon vouchers? How much lower would the 80% figure be if the TCB rates are increased by 6%? That still wouldn't be a completely fair comparison though, since TCB are happy to match imutual rates before adding their 5% bonus. Savvy shoppers will surely figure that out - the shares are the remaining selling point for imutual, but they're a harder sell than cashback!

But the appeal process is more personal on Imutual . I have had cashback rejected on both the other 2 sites and all they say is that it is out of their hands. I have just had over £40 rejected by Quidco and they say there is nothing they can do

[kevinchess1]

Presumably these statistics don't take account of the 1% (or more) 'top-up' that TopCashBack apply for all members

I believe that they do take account of this, as tcb include that 1% top-up in their headline rates. For example, they offer 5.05% at Groupon - I believe they receive 5% commission so you can see that the "top up" has been automatically calculated and applied. Curiously, Quidco only offer 4%. imutual offers 8%

It is true that they offer discounts on vouchers (though in many cases imutual would still be more competitive) and I don't doubt that these options can be attractive if you're planning to buy something from said store anyway. But cash is king and I suspect the statistics would show that most members prefer to redeem for cash; these are, after all, cashback websites and savvy shoppers won't necessarily want to be tied in to spending their hard-earned cashback with a particular merchant. If tcb want to be compared with others based on voucher offers, perhaps they should rename themselves to topvoucherback

And we have our own benefits (shares, claims record, appeals process, mutual ownership and accountability, good-looking CEO) which I purposely didn't mention because the subject was specifically cashback rates.

[Richard Frost]

My experience on the coalface and searching on imutual & TCB (I have nothing to do with Quidco ripoff) is that on the merchants I use mainly, TCB come out better or the same. I will continue to use the site that is best for me. Where imutual has the best rates, I will use it. Shares have a marginal effect and may help sway me where the higher rate on another site is minimal. Imutual has to have better rates on mainline popular and not just minor use merchants to persuade me otherwise.

Having said that surely it is sensible to have a bag of sites to use and go for the one that has the best rates for the merchant you are using at that time. The only time I might think otherwise is where a site has a minimum withdrawal level that is unreasonable.

Richard gave Groupon as an example. For most people Groupon would be a site they use once. Tesco direct for example a site I use often,
imutual 2.5% across the board.
TCB depending on category up to 6.56% at the moment

[kevinchess1]

And we have our own benefits (shares, claims record, appeals process, mutual ownership and accountability, good-looking CEO) which I purposely didn't mention because the subject was specifically cashback rates.

And when did he start then

[One Eyed Snake]

Isn't it the better the imutual payout then the better the payout is from those companies like TCB who do HCP?

They will always beat imutual by paying their rates via HCP (if they are better) plus their enhancement on top! (The enhancement being a bird in the hand over the flock in the bush we have with free shares)