Top cashback options

Saving your money and getting things cheap is great. I think most of us can agree on that, even if the money that you save on food and other necessities goes onto tonnes of alcohol. Please don’t get as drunk as me – remember to be a responsible drinker or have responsible friends.

Below I will list my top cashback options that I use for cashback when shopping as a student. I’d like to note that I have used all of these and that these are my opinions. I have not been paid to write this article, nor is it likely I will ever be.

Everyday Shopping

Shopmium (up to 100% off)

You can get a free box of Pringles with my referral code: w2492e

This generally has a few different food items on discount from a range of supermarkets and sometimes there are even free items of food. All you need to do is download an app, and scan your receipts. So far I have made £28.70 in cashback. It all adds up. On top of these discounts, watch out for the Shopmium events, where you can make even more money back.

There are also online offers in the app but these are likely already covered by something like UniDays.

Curve (1% for 90 days)

This is not a permanent cashback option, but for the first 90 days of holding a curve debit card you can get a 1% cashback on 3 selected retailers which you choose from a large list – Apple is included. The nice thing about a curve card is you only have to carry one card with you and can pay with any of your other cards. You also have the option to turn on ‘anti-embarrassment’ mode on, so if one card declines it try to charge to another card. You can also ‘time-travel’ to move a payment from one card to another once per payment. I have written a full review of the Curve Card here.

I plan to use this past the 90 days just for ease of managing all my debit cards.

There are also some other offers for specific stores/companies that change irregularly – higher cash backs (up to 20% but no choice of retailers). Curve is not a bank account (since you link all your cards to your curve account and pay through these on your curve card)

With my referral code you are able to get £5 on opening an account, although I think there are some £10 affiliate welcome offers so if you want to have a look for these feel free: DL8ML7AN

Crypto.com (1%)

I can no longer honestly recommend Crypto.com

On top of a curve card, you are able to get a Crypto.com card. This is only advisable in my opinion if you are moderately versed in cryptocurrencies. Although the cashback can be withdrawn to normal money it gets paid out in $CRO which goes up and down regularly. If you are not keen on the ups and down of it, you can move it to a normal currency or back onto your debit card, though this will take regular effort.

This is a permanent – at least for now – 1% cashback on everything you buy and is a visa prepaid debit card. I link this up to my Curve account, and then fund it every so often. Unfortunately to fund the Crypto.com card you will likely have to use a direct bank transfer which is more risky then card payments. I would advise not funding it with too much money at once, though it should be mostly protected once on your card, though not to FSCS standards.

Note that the app is moderately weird and the way to deposit takes more effort so this is not an easy one to use though it’s a pretty good cashback. With my referral you are able to get $25 on staking a certain amount of money in cryptocurrency for 6 months (£300). Not an easy referral offer nor one that I used on signing up. This also nets you an upgrade to a 2% cashback and a 100% cashback on Spotify purchases. I was more happy just sticking with the 1% card so didn’t get a referral when signing up myself. You can find out more on crypto.com/cards.

Clubcards / Loyalty Cards

Make sure to get a clubcard for the supermarket you shop most at – all the major supermarkets like Tesco, Lidl, Sainburys have them. There are generally exclusive deals for clubcard holders and although it’s not always that much, it adds up.

Tesco’s pays approximately 1% of all your purchases in points. You can then exchange these points with Tesco’s partners to get up to 1.5x the value of your points.

Online shopping:

UniDays
This is only for students, but has a few decent cashback choices.
TopCashback
For anyone – definitely worth having an account just to see what cashback you can get.
StudentBeans
This has discounts but most are already covered by UniDays, so you may or may not want to sign up to this.
Honey
I feel like I should mention this here. Honey is great for finding discount codes, and sometimes you can get cashback in Honey Gold.

Virgin Media Broadband

When shopping for broadband (and other bills), it is easy to get discounts. I managed to get 100Mbs Virgin broadband on a Virgin Media discount for £27 each month. On top of this discount, by using referral codes and a virgin media promotion code, I managed to get £100 total cashback bringing the actual monthly cost down to £18.66 each month, which is actually extremely good for this speed of broadband. As a note, it is no longer possible to get a 12 month Virgin media contract so unfortunately for student’s this isn’t so useful.

You can get £50 Virgin media cashback too by using a referral code: http://aklam.io/7ptTCt

If you also find a promotion code which you add directly to your virgin media basket, it is likely that you will get both cashbacks like I did, note that the Aklamio referral offer is paid directly to your Paypal whereas the Virgin media promotion code was applied as credit.

Note I will be updating this post as I find more offers and cashback choices for myself. Although I have put referral links in this post, all my reviews are unbiased and I do use all three of these regularly. Let me know if you have any good cashback options.

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