The Lure of Quidco

On the probably flawed and egocentric assumption that someone may read this one day, I continue the virgin blogging with a brief self examination about what is for me, a new phenomenon. I refer to the Cashback system. Its not that throughout my life I haven't been conscious of getting a good deal, its not that I was averse to some haggling but the power of the internet has changed this.

Initially you could surf around and do some comparisons on a new fridge, a car, even a house. The internet has started to make the assumption real which I and perhaps many of you, were always taught existed in the study of supply and demand in economics, of 'perfect competition'  But I remained ignorant to the emergence of Quidco and others until my daughter introduced me. She takes this to a higher art by signing up for subscriptions and trials etc collecting the cashback and then canceling before the normal costs kick in.

In case you don't know how it works, it just means that you go via their site where an array of temping discounts are offered which are payed in real money, unlike the other type, such as Nectar where you collect points which you then turn into vouchers.

Its harmless, I think, and in a few months I have registered over £20 to come, on purchases I would have done anyway in my case including hotels, ferry crossing and household linen.

My comments are however not about the facts, if you can save a little money then that's good, but it does add to the complexity and for someone like me, the time may not be an issue, for others maybe the gain isn't worth the effort but the lure of a bargain is perhaps within us all, or at least those who are not in the very rich category.

An example, I want a pub with accommodation in County Durham for one night, off for days Greenlaning, there are numerous hotel sites that will offer a choice, some will throw up the same establishments but others appear on only one. So I trawl through these comparing features, cost, location etc and find a very reasonable price £35 including breakfast, and the price on all the sites that list this pub are exactly the same. Now I go back to Quidco,  (I have avoided using multiple cash backs sites so far but clearly a very cost conscious approach would be to visit several), you can then see what hotel consolidators or operators are offering by way of discount, these range from 3% upwards and one, in this case Hotels.com, is 'on special offer' until Sunday at 12%, I go from Quidco to Hotels.com and pay, happy that I shall in due course get over £4 back, so a bed and breakfast for £31.

The mystery is where the money comes from and this is enhanced as a question when I then go direct to the pub's own website which offers the room for £65 ! So what does the pub actually end up with, what is Hotels.com cut and why can they offer 12% against someone elses 3%..........and do I really care. The idle question is what would I have got if I rang the pub direct..........well we shall never know.

It just illustrates the changing nature of the world, due to the power of technology. I sometimes do some Computer training for older people who are confused about the internet, email etc and examples like this above are useful to demonstrate one reason why they should get a computer and be on line, but when they ask why it works...............I move swiftly onto to Ebay, but that's another story.