The 20Cogs website was recently closed down but they are back already and have rebranded as cashback.co.uk. There are a number of reasons why they potentially closed and chose to come back with an almost identical website just under a different name. Let’s find out what happened to 20Cogs and why they are now called Cashback.
What is Cashback.co.uk?
Cashback.co.uk is an identical concept to 20Cogs. You complete 15 different tasks from level 1 to 15 and in return receive a cash reward. Once all ‘levels’ are completed you are able to cash out your cashback to a bank account. The levels you need to complete include things like completing surveys and signing up for free trials. Once you have completed a task for Level 1 you can then move on to Level 2. You need to complete all 15 tasks in order to cash out.
You get a £5 welcome bonus when you join Cashback and also get a further £2.50 for answering 3 short and quick survey questions.
Sign up to Cashback for FREE today and get a £5 Welcome Bonus!
(Don't forget to set a reminder in your phone to cancel any free trials you sign up to)
Task Examples
An example of some of the tasks for Level 2 and their pay out value include:
- Sign up to Amazon Prime’s 30 day free trial – £5
- Try Tastecard for 2 months free and get 2 for 1 meals at your favourite restaurants – £3.50
- Sign up to FreeClub & get access to all of the latest freebies – £2
Tasks range in value often depending on how much effort is required. For example, some of the higher value tasks include switching your energy provider for a £40 reward.
My problem with Cashback.co.uk
I have a few problems with the 20Cogs / Cashback concept. I originally completed 20Cogs back in 2019 and not much has changed since then. Here are some of the problems I found with the Cashback earning website.
Sign Up Offers
Some of the tasks you need to complete are sign up offers. They require you to sign up to a website and stay a member for a set period of time. Now if you forget to cancel your subscription after the trial period has ended you will be billed for the next month of that membership. If you were only making £5 from the task and the subscription renewal was £7.99 you would be down by £2.99.
A lot of Cashback.co.uk promoters suggest setting alarms and reminders on your phone so you don’t forget to cancel the membership after the trial has ended. This is always a great idea and something I did when I completed the original 20Cogs offers. But I still managed to accidentally forget one alarm and my subscription for Hulu renewed.
Unwanted Purchases
Some of the offers require you to purchase items such as a Taste Card or a Smol trial box. If these are items you would have purchased anyway or wanted to try then it’s an easy to offer to do. For me these were things I didn’t want or had no interest in so it was a lot of unnecessary mail coming to the house.
Spam Calls and Emails
By completing tasks on Cashback.co.uk you are also giving over your personal information. The brands you complete tasks for can then contact you regarding future offers or to try and get you to stay signed up for their product. This was the most annoying thing for me. I was inundated with spam emails and even had phone calls from some of the companies.
Slow Payout
The first task you complete is a quick survey and £2.50 is immediately added to your balance. After this the tracking element of the tasks you complete is very slow. For some of the tasks you are even required to send a confirmation that you have signed up for something to the Cashback.co.uk team. This adds even more hassle to the process.
Even when you have completed tasks some of them may still show as pending for 30 days. You need to wait for each level to be classed as completed before you can cash out.
Offers are too similar
A lot of the offers available on Cashback.co.uk are identical to those that were available on 20 Cogs. A lot of the tasks require you to be a brand new subscriber or member to complete. Therefore if you have previously completed 20Cogs you wouldn’t be able to do Cashback as well.
A lot of the offers revolve around very popular companies like Amazon and HelloFresh which many people are already subscribed to. This would mean you wouldn’t have much choice when completing tasks for each level and minimising the amount of money you could make.
Is Cashback.co.uk worth it?
In Summary if you’ve previously used 20Cogs or if you are already signed up to things like Amazon Prime, Tastecard and HelloFresh then there probably won’t be enough tasks available for you to complete. When I completed 20Cogs I made around £50 for a number of hours work. Overall it just wasn’t worth my time. Whilst cashback.co.uk claim you can make around £150 the amount you make is likely to be a lot less than that, unless you are willing to switch energy providers that is.
Why did 20Cogs rebrand to Cashback.co.uk?
I don’t know for certain but I truly believe it was down to bad press. A number of websites had written articles about it in a negative light and it’s hard to win people over when so many people have something bad to say about it. I also believe they had some trouble with job search websites as there were lots of listings advertising 20 Cogs as a ‘make money from home’ job opportunity, which of course was not the case. The adverts for 20Cogs as a job opportunity also did the rounds on Facebook and there was lots of comments calling it a scam.
Cashback vs Cashback.co.uk
Cashback and cashback.co.uk are two completely different things. Cashback is a legitimate way to make money when you purchase goods online or in-store. I use a mixture of Topcashback, Quidco and Airtime Rewards to make money on my every day shopping. Cashback.co.uk is not ‘cashback’ in the traditional sense as it’s something you can only do once, whereas normal cashback can be made everyday.
It’s definitely something worth looking into if you’ve never heard of cashback before. Here are some blogs posts I’ve written on the topic:
- How to Save Money on your Phone Bill Every Month with Airtime Rewards
- Make Money Every Time you Shop
- How I Never Pay Full Price for Anything
Why do people promote Cashback.co.uk?
For every person you refer to cashback.co.uk you will get 10% of the earnings that they cash out. So if you referred a friend and they cashed out £50, Cashback would pay you £5. This does not come out of your friends earnings but is paid out by Cashback. As you can imagine if you were referring numerous people to Cashback a day then the payment you would get from them would add up quickly.
Are you looking for other ways to make money online?
You’re in the right place! I cover so many different ways that you can make money online that are all tried and tested by me!
Here are some of my favourite ways to make extra money online:
- Matched Betting – I made £1839.36 in my first month with this side hustle!
- Blogging – Starting a blog can be an extremely lucrative side income, my blog has grown to become my full-time job.
- Surveys – I make around £500 a year completing surveys.
- Free Money Offers – These are great for a quick cash boost and if you refer your friends you can make £1000’s