Last Updated Loading…

Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links on this website are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase or sign up. This comes at no additional cost to you and helps support the site.

Cashback

When it comes to passive income, few methods are as simple and low-effort. While it won’t make you rich overnight, it’s a genuinely effortless way to earn money from purchases you were going to make anyway.

What is Cashback?

Cashback platforms partner with retailers to offer you a small percentage of your spend back when you shop through their links. Think of it as a thank-you for choosing them as the referral source.

One of the most popular platforms in the UK is TopCashback — a service I’ve been personally using since July 2021.

Important Considerations

Don’t make purchases just to get the cashback! It’s important to only make the purchases you were going to make anyway, as you’ll end up spending more than you would’ve spent before, and it will no longer be worth doing.

That being said, I’ve found that it is worth having a browse through the available cashback on the website so that when I’m making purchases in the future, I know what type of products and services might have cashback offers. You just need to avoid impulse shopping when you see the offers.

📈 My Real Earnings with TopCashback

Earnings Disclaimer: The income figures and results shared on this site are based on personal experiences and may not reflect the typical user’s experience. Earning potential varies depending on many factors, and past performance is not indicative of future results.

Since I started using TopCashback, I’ve earned a total of £571.05!

That’s close to £150 a year – That’s not from extra or unnecessary spending. It’s from purchases I was already going to make—utilities, insurance, travel bookings, and online shopping.

I typically accumulate the earnings and then use it at Christmas. It can be used to go for a nice meal, gifts, or even towards a holiday. here’s an example of some of the recent purchases I’ve made:

You’ll notice that some transactions are “payable” and others are “pending”. This is because the funds aren’t released for a period of time, depending on what you’ve bought. E.g. We bought a new gaming pc from Overclockers, for which it takes 8 weeks for the purchase to be confirmed. This helps to prevent people from making purchases, redeeming the cashback and then returning the product, which is understandable.

Here’s a snapshot of My Dashboard as at 19/04/2025:

Referral Program

There’s quite a lucrative referral program, where you can refer a friend to TopCashback which gives them a £10 starting bonus, and once they’ve earned £10 of cashback you’ll receive a bonus, which is £35 as at April 2025.

At the time of writing this, I’ve only referred one friend but they did sign up and earn the required amount. It was a little while ago, and the bonus was £30 at the time, but worked perfectly and I did receive the bonus.

If you have a platform to share your referral link to a lot of people, you could generate quite a significant sum on top of your own purchases. Maybe a few people will sign up with my link from this site? I’ll let you know if they do!

Redeeming Cashback

Earnings are redeemable via Bank transfer and you’ll receive the amount you’ve generated, less any membership deductions which I’ll discuss in the next section. However, I would highly recommend sending the available funds to the Rewards Wallet. You’ll still incur the membership deductions, but you can then redeem vouchers for a large number of retailers and service providers, also get a percentage bonus on top! Here’s a small sample of available options:

My personal preference has been to redeem vouchers for Miller & Carter Steakhouse with a 15% bonus. This means that redeeming £100 returns £115 in vouchers for Miller & Carter, which I love to use on a Christmas meal!

What’s the catch?

Membership Deduction

When you go to redeem your cashback, there’s a deduction of £5 from the value to cover a years worth of the service. This means that if you were to get two payouts in a year, you would have a £5 deduction from the first payout, and no deduction on the second.

As you can see in the below screenshot, I didn’t take a payout last year and haven’t taken one yet this year, so my deduction is £10 but it is clearly specified. This cost is minimal and not something that deters me from continuing to use them to generate cashback. It’s important to note that if you never take a payout, you’ll never incur any costs. If you don’t benefit, you pay nothing.

Tips & Tricks

Get the Browser Extension

You can get the TopCashback Browser Extension by logging in to their website and clicking on the “More” dropdown, selecting Browser Extension and clicking Install Extension.