Clicksnap: Quidco trials service offering cashback on supermarket shopping

Quidco is trialling a new Clicksnap service, offering the chance to earn cashback on your supermarket shopping.

Cashback websites like Quidco and TopCashback offer the potential to earn hundreds of pounds a year simply by clicking through links before you purchase something online.

You can get a percentage of cashback on almost anything you might want to buy, from booking holidays to taking out a new broadband deal. If you want to learn more about cashback, take a look at my previous article: How to be a cashback king

At the moment, virtually the only thing you can’t earn regular cashback on is your supermarket food shopping. Although supermarkets are prepared to give discounts and money off for first time customers (for example, Tesco is offering £5 off a £40 minimum spend shop for all genuine new online customers), repeat grocery purchases are always excluded.

When you consider how much the average family spends on food alone, around £77 a week according to consumer magazine ‘Which?’, you can see why earning cashback on this regular spend might end up being fairly lucrative.

However that may all be about to change thanks to a new service from Quidco called Clicksnap.

Cashback on your carrots

When you shop online at Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Ocado via Clicksnap, you can earn regular money on your food shopping. 

The service has not been properly launched yet and is currently only being tested. But Quidco members can still get in and try out the system, before it is released to the general public at some point in the New Year (there is no confirmed launch date yet). Quidco is only looking for a limited number of people to help test the new system, so once 6,000 users are signed up the registration process will be closed to new users until the service is properly launched.

To sign up, visit the Clicksnap section of the Quidco website and enter your online supermarket account details. You can enter the details for all the accounts you have with the major supermarkets mentioned above.

You then visit the retailer via the link on the Quidco website and it will record your visit and award you cashback when you purchase your groceries.

At first glance, it looks fantastic and getting cashback on the food you buy week in, week out is an attractive prospect. However, the cashback is not awarded on the entire shop, but rather on eligible items. That said, with items like Coke with up to £1 cashback and bread with 20p, as well as cashback on non-food items you can buy at the supermarket like shampoo and toiletries, you could find that over time your cashback earning could start adding up to quite a considerable amount.

With Christmas looming on the horizon and the prospect of huge meals - accompanied by huge food bills – ahead, you could try to mitigate some of the costs by making sure you are part of the test group.

Other cashback sources

Of course Clicksnap will only be of use to you if you like to do your supermarket shopping online. But, even if you prefer to go out into the real world and do your grocery shopping in person, there are still ways of earning a little cashback on your groceries.

You can use a credit card that offers cashback on spending, such as the Santander 123 card that gives 1% cashback on all supermarket spending, as well as 2% on department store purchases and 3% on petrol. Using a credit card for your shopping is only going to be a good idea if you are the kind of person who pays their credit card off in full each month.

The biggest catch of using a cashback credit card for spending is the higher-than-average interest rate most cards of this variety carry. If you do not pay it off in full each month, the interest you will be paying will cancel out any cashback you earn. Be sure to read The best cashback credit cards for a full guide to all of the different cashback card options.

More on food and cashback:

The best cashback credit cards

The best Christmas present cashback deals this week

Frugal Food

Best mince pies for Christmas 2012

The big supermarkets' price checking services compared

Get value for money from all-you-can-eat buffets without getting kicked out

Are food loyalty cards worth it?