Get up to £100 off a mobile phone

Here's how a few extra clicks of your mouse can get you as much as £100 off your next mobile phone contract ...

If the Oxford English Dictionary created a new entry for the word 'cashback-aholic', I'm pretty sure there'd be a three word definition: Szu Ping Chan.

I've been a cashback addict for nearly a year now, and have spent the past few months buying everything from a holiday to a rounders' set via cashback sites.

My latest cashback adventure - a new mobile phone deal - has landed me one of my most handsome rewards to date: 60 of your best British pounds.

But, if you play your cards right, you can earn as much as £100 cashback by buying your mobile phone through a cashback website.

This should not be confused with a dodgy cashback deal where you have to send off your bills every month to get your money back. Earning cashback through a cashback website is a straightforward process which doesn't involve you doing anything other than clicking your mouse.

Here's how it works:

Finding your feet

If you've never used cashback sites before, the number of sites and the number of different deals on those sites can quickly overwhelm you.

With a list longer than a cringe-worthy Oscar speech, sites including Quidco, TopCashback, RPoints, PoundPig, Ei42, GreasyPalm, WePromiseTo, CashbackKings, KidStart, GiveOrTake and even Nectar eStores are getting in on the act.

Each site is different. While some pay cash, some will give you vouchers, and some even let you donate your earnings to charity. You can read more on the mechanics of cashback sites in Top cashback websites.

You can sign up to as many sites as you want, and there's no obligation to use them. However, many sites set minimum earnings amounts before you can claim your cashback.

A good way to see which site offers the best cashback is to use a search engine such as Smartcashback.co.uk, which scours a range of cashback sites to find the best deals for you.

So, back to the task at hand: mobiles. The most logical place to start perhaps is pay monthly deals.

All the major players offer cashback, the hard part is finding which cashback sites pass most of it onto you.

Here's how much cashback you can earn from five different cashback websites if you take out a pay monthly contract with a new phone:

TopCashback, which calls itself the UK's most generous cashback website takes the top spot alongside Quidco and Cashback Kings,

At the other end of the scale, it seems WePromiseTo has nothing but a load of empty promises, as it offers just half the cashback of the other sites. But it's not the worst: Ei42 offers even poorer rates.

So, we may rabble on about Quidco and TopCashback quite a lot here on lovemoney.com, but in my experience, these sites are easy to use, reliable, and more importantly tend to have the best cashback rates.

So how much can I earn?

Cashback depends on the type of contract you get, but the general rule of thumb is the higher the monthly contract, the more cashback you'll receive.

You can also bag cashback on swanky models. For example, mobiles.co.uk pays £60 cashback on all iPhone contracts taken through Quidco, that's £20 more than its normal rate.

And it's not just pay monthly contracts that offer cashback. For the past year or so, we've seen the emergence of SIM-only contracts, and how they can save you money if you're willing to forfeit getting a new phone.

In cashback terms, they can be a nice little earner too, and in many cases, you can get more for a SIM-only contract than a bog standard contract deal.

For example, both Quidco and TopCashback offer £100 if you take out a 12 month SIM-only contracts with O2.

That's the equivalent of five months' free line rental. Add that to the fact you get a massive 800 minutes and 1600 texts, plus your choice of a free add-on, and I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

It's not just 12 month contracts you can make money from. There's cash up for grabs on one month contracts too. For example, Quidco offers £25 cashback for anyone who signs up to a Vodafone 30 day contract costing £15 a month.

But over the past few months, providers have cottoned on to the fact you could take out the contract for one month to earn the cashback, then ditch the deal. Many sites now insist you keep the rolling contract for at least three months in order to qualify for payment.

Everyone can benefit!

There's also cashback available for pay-as-you-go users. Payouts tend to be less than traditional mobile deals, but there are some hidden gems, without the monthly commitment.

For example, Cashback Kings will give you £5 cashback if you order an Orange pay-as-you-go SIM card from them. Add this to the fact you'll get £5 free credit when you register with Orange, and you could be £10 up without spending a penny. Plus you'll get all the 2-4-1 benefits of being with Orange.

Dongle deals

Finally, where would a gadget article be without mentioning a dongle?

Dongles have become a practical solution for those who want access to the internet while on the move.

There are also some good cashback deals to be had in the mobile broadband market. For example, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange all pay up to £70 if you sign an 18 or 24 month mobile broadband contract with selected cashback sites.

If you don't fancy signing a lengthy contract, you can also cut the cost of your pay-as-you-go deal.

Quidco and TopCashback offer £10 cashback on Vodafone pay-as-you-go mobile broadband, which I think offers one of the best network coverage in the battle of the dongles.

The dongle costs £39, and comes with 1GB of downloads. More importantly, there's no time limit in which you have to use your allowance. So you can surf at your leisure for £29!

Even better is Quidco's £29.67 cashback on O2's pay-as-you-go dongle, which is currently selling for £14.67 - half the normal price.

You must top-up £15 within 30 days, but do this and you'll effectively get a free dongle and one month's free internet usage.

Remember, remember

One final thing to point out is cashback is never guaranteed, and relies on the transaction being tracked by the cashback site you're using.

In most cases, tracking will go smoothly. But you should never count on it, or you could end up out of pocket. Cashback is a bonus after all, and not the reason why you shop in the first place.

Read this great guide by Quidco for more advice on how to ensure your transactions track each time. More tips from readers are also welcome!