Dazed & Confused?

Cashback sites break out from the web

You can now get cashback on your shopping in the real world – not just online – notes Confused.com’s Owe Carter.

As incentive to tear ourselves away from our monitors, wrap up warm and actually venture outside to the shops, some sites are now offering “offline”, ”in-store” or ”high-street” cashback on purchases.

It’s a nice, simple concept: you just enter the card number of your chosen credit or debit card (or indeed cards) on the cashback site, pay for something on your card at a participating retailer, and the rewards get added to your chosen account. This is calculated as a percentage of the sale, with most retailers currently offering between 2 per cent and 4.5 per cent.

So the participating stores recognise your card number if it’s been registered with a cashback site, and they will then forward the reward. It's not like you even have to say anything when buying.

At the moment, participating stores include Debenhams, B&Q, Cineworld, Dorothy Perkins, Halfords and Blockbuster. And no doubt more will join the club in time.

So say you spent £100 on a few DIY essentials at your local B&Q, which pays 2 per cent, your cashback account would end up £2 richer.

Of the best cashback sites, Quidco offers this facility. The downside to using Quidco is that there’s an annual fee of a fiver. It’s admittedly deducted from your cashback rather than your bank account, but that fiver still rankles with hardcore money-savers.

Top CashBack doesn’t do it yet, but hopefully they will, as their site is completely free to use.

One thing worth noting before registering your card(s) at your site of choice: never give the site your three-digit security code, PIN or expiry date. You’re not actually buying anything from the site itself, so alarm bells should ring if you’re asked for anything other than the 16-digit card number.

But otherwise – happy shopping!

Digital downloads leave consumers unprotected

Buying music and movies online affords the consumer less protection than buying CDs or DVDs, Consumer Focus warns. Confused.com’s Owe Carter agrees that the laws surrounding digital music should move with the times.

 

Consumer Focus warned last week that people who buy music, films or software over the net are in a weaker legal position than those who buy media that they can hold in their hand. If a CD, DVD film or game is defective, for example, then your consumer rights are clear. However, if you’ve downloaded the media, then you may not be in such a strong position if things go wrong.

The statutory body’s research found that over half of people buying digital goods couldn’t find any information on what to do if there was something wrong with their purchase; and that almost a quarter of purchases made during the survey came with no receipt. Plus, a third of the shoppers were given no pointers as to what kind of software or equipment their downloads would actually work with. This is clearly less than ideal.

According to Consumer Focus, this is because buyers of ‘tangible goods’ in the high street are protected by law if the product turns out not to be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose or as described. Downloaders have no such protection. So if you pay for and download an album and it doesn’t play on your computer or MP3 player, you may not have the right to a refund. Considering UK consumers spent approximately £189m on downloading and streaming music last year, the law seems woefully out of date.

According to Philip Cullum, deputy chief executive of Consumer Focus: “Consumer laws on buying digital goods, whether it is streaming films, or downloading music and software, need updating to reflect the reality of 21st century life.”

This is, of course, absolutely correct. And let’s not pretend that this is the latest new thing, and that legislation simply hasn’t had a chance to catch up; there has been an official UK Download Chart since summer 2004. Consumers need to have the reassurance that, as technology moves on, their rights move with it.