Martin Lewis has highlighted a savvy shopper who managed to get £90 back from their regular grocery shopping, and pointed to several websites where similar deals can be found. The consumer advocate asked fans of his BBC podcast to send in stories of where they had tried "a different financial route to the norm", which paid off.
Shopper earns £90-plus in four months
One person wrote in to explain how they were generating extra cash from their grocery shopping. They said: "I do my food shopping with gift cards bought from a cashback app. In four months, we've made £90-plus just from regular shopping."
"It didn't seem much at the time, but now we have a full week's shop thanks to cashback." Mr Lewis said there are a number of cashback sites to consider, such as TopCashback and Quidco.
How the net cost rule works
He explained the process with example figures: "You buy a gift card and get £10 cashback for doing so. Effectively, if it all works and the cashback gets paid through, you're buying a £100 gift card for £90."
These sites can be used to get gift cards at many of the big UK supermarkets, including Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. Mr Lewis advised checking that a gift card will actually be used before taking up an offer. He said: "If you know you're going to spend it — never hold onto gift cards for long in case the company goes bust, then they're not worth anything — but if you were going to buy something costing £100 in three days' time and you can get a £100 gift card for a net cost to you of £90."
Cashback directed to mortgage overpayments
Another scheme, the Sprive app, allows users to use cashback to make overpayments towards their mortgage. The average Sprive user has a mortgage of around £200,000 at 4 per cent over 25 years, paying just under £1,100 a month and currently on track to be mortgage-free at 63. Someone with this same mortgage overpaying just £40 a month could save £7,980 in interest and become mortgage-free 18 months early.
Sprive can be used to buy gift cards for Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose, Iceland and M&S. Jinesh Vohra, CEO and founder of Sprive, said: "With Sprive, the cashback from everyday spending can go straight towards the mortgage, meaning people can invest in their home while also using the money they're already spending to help pay it off. Over time, even relatively small amounts of cashback can make a meaningful difference to the cost and length of a mortgage."
Tesco Clubcard to Goldsmiths conversion
Another Martin Lewis fan shared how they had "back in the day" paid for an expensive diamond eternity ring for their wife using Tesco Clubcard vouchers. Mr Lewis said this was a very good offer at the time, recalling: "This was back in the days when Clubcard converted to Goldsmiths vouchers at quite a good rate—it was actually four to one. So if you had £100 worth of Tesco vouchers, you'd get £400 in Goldsmiths."
Mr Lewis said he has heard many happy stories from people who cashed in on the offer. He said: "People would effectively shop at Tesco, have £500 to £600 worth of Tesco vouchers, convert it into Goldsmiths, and have £2,000 to spend on an engagement ring. Why not!"
