MobilePhoneChecker's Cashback Guide

Cashback deals are offered by retailers in order to entice you to specific mobile contracts. Typically these are high-end packages with large bundles of minutes, texts and data. If you are a heavy user these packages may suit you perfectly, but if not these packages may still suit financially when factoring in the cashback amounts.

Types of Cashback

There are two types of cashback offered with mobile phone contracts:

Auto Cashback: Money, is sent to you at a specific period or periods, often in the form of a cheque or placed directly into your bank account. There may be certain terms and conditions applied here. For instance, this money may only be paid after a certain number of months, or only if you have not missed any bill payments.

Redemption: Money is redeemed by sending away specific bills at prescribed intervals to the retailer, who then often pay money in the form of a cheque or bank transfer. These deals require you to be particularly organised as the timescales for claiming cashback are notoriously tight. If you miss one cashback window, you may not be able to claim for the rest.

Are Cashback deals for me?

Automatic cashback deals are a no brainer. We include these in our search results by default so that you can compare them to non-cashback deals.

Redemption deals are not included by default. Whilst the savings can be huge, they are really only recommended by those that have either had a redemption deal before or feel that they are organised enough to be able to follow through with the requirements of the deal.

Redemption deals top tips

Be sure of the deal that you're signing up to before you buy. Become comfortable with the exact requirements of the cashback deal. Read through and print the terms and conditions so that you can refer to them throughout your contract.

Be organised. Do charts and make entries in your calendar noting when you need to send off particular claims. Note when you should have received cashback so that you can chase the retailer if necessary.

Keep copies of every claim that you make. Keep a copy of everything so that you can refer to it in the future if you need to.

Send the claims by recorded delivery. If the retailer doesn't receive your claim, they won't be able to process it! Having proof of delivery means that there is no question regarding receipt.