Cashback sites and apps in the UK in 2026

A UK household that uses cashback on every online purchase typically earns £200 to £500 a year back, plus sign-up bonuses and free trials worth up to £18-£22 in the first hour. This page lists the cashback sites and apps we have tested in the UK, with the realistic rates, payout thresholds and payment methods for each one. You earn money back on shopping you would do anyway - no hidden cost, no minimum spend, and you can stack two or three cashback platforms for the same purchase.

Cashback is one piece of the puzzle -- our make money online UK guide compares it against surveys, micro-tasks and other active earners.

Cashback turns the shopping you already do into a small but steady extra income - money back on supermarket trips, broadband switches, train tickets, new trainers, takeaway dinners. Used regularly, the better UK cashback platforms return £200-£500 a year, and supermarket-receipt apps add another £10-£40 a month on top of that for households that scan the right products.

This guide compares the cashback sites and apps that pay UK users in 2026 - what they cover, how fast they pay out, and what each welcome bonus is really worth in pounds. The top picks at the top link straight to sign-up. The detailed reviews below explain where each one fits, and the FAQ at the end covers the questions readers send in most often (safety, tracking, stacking, tax).

All 8 cashback platforms at a glance

This quick-scan table compares our four top picks plus four well-established UK names you will see on most cashback shortlists. Click any platform to jump straight to its review (where reviews exist - the non-affiliate names sit below the top picks).

Welcome bonuses and minimum thresholds change with each campaign - check the live offer on the platform’s site before you sign up.

Our top picks - detailed reviews

How much can you realistically earn?

The annual earnings figure for a UK cashback user depends entirely on how often you remember to click through before a purchase, and whether you use cashback for the weekly food shop as well. The numbers below are realistic ranges for a household that uses cashback consistently:

The bigger numbers in the cashback world (£1,000+ a year) usually come from one-off switch bonuses - a broadband switch with a £50-£100 cashback bonus on top of the provider’s standard incentive, a bank-account switch with a £35-£55 cashback bonus, or a similar one-shot move. Stack one or two of those into a normal year of online shopping and the year total looks very different from the steady-state monthly figure.

How cashback actually works in the UK

Cashback sites are paid an affiliate commission by the retailer when one of their users completes a purchase. The site then shares part of that commission with you. There are three flavours of how the share reaches your account:

1. Click-through cashback (the cashback engine inside Swagbucks; TopCashback, Quidco). You log in to the cashback platform, click through to the retailer from there, and the retailer flags the resulting purchase as referred. Cashback shows as "pending" within a few days and turns "confirmed" once the retailer’s return window closes - usually 4 to 12 weeks.
2. Receipt-scan cashback (Shopmium, GreenJinn). You buy a featured product, scan the till receipt in the app, and the app validates it against the offer. Cashback lands within a few hours to a few days.
3. Task and trial cashback (Cashback.co.uk, Custard, SaveBucks). You complete a paid task - a free trial, a short survey, an app install, a brand sign-up - and the task pay credits to your account. No purchase is required, although free-trial offers do ask for card details for the trial period itself.

Most UK users mix the three: a cashback hybrid for any larger online purchase, a receipt-scan app for the weekly food shop, and a rewards-style platform for sign-up offers and free trials. Each one fills a gap the others do not cover.

Three habits to maximise your cashback

1. 1
   Clear cookies and start fresh. Cashback tracking depends on the cashback site’s referral cookie being the last one set before you reach the retailer. A voucher-code site, a Google search ad or even a stale tab can overwrite that cookie. Clear cookies, open the retailer only from the cashback site, and finish the purchase in the same session.
2. 2
   Compare rates before you click through. Hold accounts on more than one cashback site - Swagbucks plus one or two of the UK names below. Rates on the same retailer vary by a few percentage points, and the higher rate rotates between the platforms. A 30-second side-by-side check on any purchase over £100 is 30 seconds well spent.
3. 3
   Finish the purchase without leaving and coming back. Switching tabs to a comparison site, going back to a previous order, or pausing for a discount code can break tracking. If cashback fails to register, raise a "missing cashback" claim with the receipt and the cashback site’s reference. Most platforms resolve legitimate claims, but turnaround is slow.

Other UK cashback names worth knowing

Beyond the four platforms reviewed in detail above, four other names show up on most UK cashback shortlists. We have not signed our own affiliate partnerships with these (the sign-ups above are the ones we earn from when you join), but the picture would be incomplete without them - and on a one-off purchase you may want to compare them with our top picks before clicking through.

One of the longer-running UK cashback sites, with over 5,000 UK retailers including Amazon, Tesco, Argos, eBay and Boots. Cashback rates run from 1 % to roughly 20 % depending on retailer and campaign, with regular boosted rates on travel, insurance, broadband and bank-switch offers. Minimum payout £5; redeeming as Amazon credit adds a 2 % bonus. Welcome bonuses change frequently - around £18 after a qualifying first spend is the current standard, but always check the live campaign.

The second cashback account most UK shoppers hold alongside TopCashback. Around 4,500+ UK retailers and 1-20 % rates depending on the merchant. Welcome incentives have run between £16 and £18 in recent campaigns. Minimum payout starts low (£1-£5 depending on method) and Amazon redemption again carries a 2 % bonus. Rates between Quidco and TopCashback are rarely identical on the same retailer, which is why both belong on the same shortlist.

A different shape of cashback: instead of clicking a link before you shop, you buy featured supermarket products at any UK retailer, scan the receipt in the Shopmium app, and the cashback lands in your wallet. The catalogue rotates around new-product launches from supermarket brands - 1-20 % is the usual band, with selected 100 % cashback offers (a full refund on a specific product) appearing most weeks. Minimum payout £10 by PayPal or bank.

A smaller receipt-cashback app focused on health foods, drinks and personal-care products at Waitrose, M&S Food, Holland & Barrett and similar retailers. Cashback on a featured product runs from 50 % up to a full 100 % refund on selected launches. Payouts start at £5; new users get a free first product on sign-up. Monthly earnings sit at the modest end - usually £5-£25 - and that is realistic, not the headline.

Are cashback sites and apps safe in the UK?

The established UK names on this page have run for years and pay out on schedule. Swagbucks and SaveBucks are long-running rewards businesses with public Trustpilot histories. The two practical risks are not "scam" risks but "annoyance" risks: tracking can fail on individual transactions, and free-trial offers have a paid window after the trial period that you have to remember to cancel.

The cashback site never sees your card details - the purchase happens on the retailer’s checkout. Welcome-bonus claims should be read carefully, though: a "£10 sign-up bonus" is usually a £10 cashback bonus that unlocks after a qualifying spend or set of tasks, not a £10 voucher dropped into your account on registration.

Frequently asked questions

£200-£500 a year for a UK household that signs into a cashback site before every online purchase and uses a supermarket-receipt app for the weekly shop. Heavier users who include broadband switches, bank-switch offers and travel bookings comfortably clear that range. The big platforms quote totals north of £700 in their own marketing. Treat those as a ceiling rather than a typical figure.

Yes - and you should. Hold accounts on at least two of the platforms above (the standard combination is Swagbucks plus TopCashback or Quidco) and add a receipt-scan app for groceries. You cannot, however, claim cashback twice on the same transaction - only the last referral cookie before the purchase counts.

Pending cashback shows in your account within a few days of the purchase. It moves to "confirmed" once the retailer’s returns window closes - usually 4 to 12 weeks. After that, withdrawal to PayPal, bank or a gift card takes anything from a few hours (receipt-scan apps, Custard RapidPay, SaveBucks priority requests) to a few days (standard bank transfers).

The usual reasons: cookies from another affiliate were set after the cashback click, the purchase went through a different device or session, an ad-blocker stripped the tracking parameter, or the retailer excludes the specific product or category from cashback. File a "missing cashback" claim with the date, order number and value. The larger platforms resolve a majority of legitimate claims.

HMRC’s published guidance treats discount-style cashback from regular consumer purchases as a discount rather than taxable income - the same logic as a supermarket loyalty refund. The position differs for cashback paid against business expenses, for referral rewards above small thresholds and for sign-up bonuses that come without a related purchase. If you are unsure, check the HMRC guidance for your specific source of cashback or speak to a qualified adviser.

Often, but not always. Some retailers exclude orders that use third-party voucher codes from cashback. Read the cashback site’s note next to the retailer logo before you click through. If a code is allowed, the higher of (a) the cashback or (b) the voucher discount is usually the cheaper route, not both stacked.

For UK groceries, the receipt-scan apps do more than the click-through sites: Shopmium across all supermarkets and GreenJinn for Waitrose, M&S Food and Holland & Barrett. Add Cashback.co.uk or Custard for the occasional grocery-related sign-up offer.