Cashback and old Mrs Cynical

You know me, quite cynical in general and not willing to trust things/people I don't know....

Well, a few months ago a went on a training course on affiliate marketing. For the uninitiated, affiliate marketing is the advertising banners that you see on websites, enticing you to click through and buy stuff.
Basically the way it works is, you click on the banner and end up buying something, the host website gets a commission for displaying the advert and generating the click through, the shop gets a sale, but takes a hit on the commission cost off their profit. Simple really. Everybody does it.

But did you know it can also work for you as a customer?

The guy running the training course highly recommended a site called Quidco.com to me. All you have to do is sign up, then remember to use Quidco, rather than going direct to the sites you're going to buy stuff from. I ain't bull-shitting you, this actually works. It's all done with cookies. Let's face it, if you were going to buy the stuff anyway, you're onto a winner if you can get a little something back.
Every time you click through from the site and buy something YOU get money back. I'm smitten.

Oh man, this really sounds like one of those get rich quick scams, doesn't it?
Just send me your bank account details and I'll do a runner. Haha....

So I've been using it for a few months now. Every Ebay purchase I make goes through there, and I get 40% of Ebay's cut. No shit! I got £20 for buying my car insurance through it. The list goes on. I only wish I'd been using it when I booked the flights for our USA trip. Dammit.
I'm trying to train Mark to remember to use it too, seeing as he's the Ebay FIEND in the house.
It takes a little while before you remember to automatically check to see if the shop you're going to buy from is on there. I was gutted that I forgot to use it to go through to the Apple Store when I bought the iMac. Coud have got £30 for my trouble, but got lost in the excitement and forgot. What a numpty.

All you have to do to use this site is pay an annual fee of £5, which they take out of your earnings, so you don't even have to pay that upfront. It takes a little while for the payments to come through. Ebay is pretty fast, some take a couple of months.

I going to shut up now. I sound like a total loon. Even I don't trust me.