Apparently there's a recession on....no seriously there is, I read it in the Daily Star the other day.
So why am I telling you this? Well I'm going to share with you a way of managing your finances WITHOUT cutting back on life's luxuries such as night outs, wine on a school night, etc.
The concept is totally proven and revolves around the fact that the vast majority of the general population spend money on the SAME things, namely Car Insurance, Mobile Phone contract(s), Broadband, Home Contents/Buildings Insurance, Credit Cards (Debt Management), Utilities (Gas, Electric, Telephone), Breakdown Cover, Current Account charges.
Irrespective of where we are in the economic cycle, it makes sense to get in the habit of ensuring that you shop around and get the best deal possible for your money. So how do you do this? In simple terms, make sure you're aware of all of the price comparison tools at your disposal; these range from well known sites (confused.com, moneysupermarket.com) to less advertised ones (mobiles4everyone.com, broadbandchoices.co.uk, uswitch.com).
So let's say you've undertaken a review of the above and decided upon the following courses of action as sound financial decision?
- Car Insurance move to Esure
- Take out new mobile phone contract with Dialaphone
- Migrate broadband to O2
- Home/contents Insurance to Norwich Union Direct
- Take out 0% Credit Card with Halifax (for movement of existing debts)
- Move Gas/Electric to E.On
- Breakdown cover to RAC
- Take out (0% overdraft) current account with Alliance & Leicester
This may save you in the region of £50-£100 per month although the company names may be different.
What if someone offered you £480.00 CASH for carrying out the transactions listed above? You'd almost certainly say yes!! Well there's nothing stopping you, you just need to sign up via quidco.com
What is Quidco?
When anyone advertises on ITV, they are simply paying money to them in return for the introduction of new custom, e.g. somehow sees one of those godawful DFS adverts and goes out on B/H Monday and buys a new settee.
Well Quidco works in exactly the same way, suppliers such as Insurance / Mobile Phone Companies, ISPs will happily pay Quidco money for introducing new business to them.
Quidco's cut of the 'commission' is the first £5 you earn in any calendar year, any other amount you earn is yours. £480 is genuinely the amount you would earned using the example above.
As a further example, let's say you were thinking of switching from taking out / switching to Sky / Virgin - by doing so via Quidco you can earn £100+. Do Sky / Virgin advertise this fact? Of course not, which is why I'm sharing this info with you today.
What's the catch?
There is no catch, you do your research, you find the best price.....but you sign-up via Quidco in order to receive cash-back.
How do I do it?
- Register at http://www.quidco.com/
- Clear your cookies (Tools / Internet Options) - this deletes any trace of you having visited this site previously and ensures you receive cash-back
- Type in the name of the Merchant "e.g. Tesco" that you wish to buy from
- Access the site you wish to visit and complete your transaction
- The purchase "tracks" against your Quidco accounts, gets validated by the merchant and the cash-back is paid typically one to two months later to you.
What I've written about probably covers less than a quarter of the potential usage of Quidco. I've been using it for over 2 years and have made nearly £1500....for making good financial decisions. You can use it for general shopping purchases too, and soon you'll get in the habit of checking Quidco before every purchase you make.
If you want to read more about cash-back sites or just learn to manage your finances better, I'd recommend you sign up to moneysavingexpert.com; get yourself on the weekly email listing and your knowledge will start to improve quickly.
Or just get in touch with me.....am happy to answer any question you have on Quidco or indeed any of the other websites I've mentioned.
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