M&S free foodie goodies and Quidco

May 23, 2014 | 6 comments

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Had to go to Tunbridge Wells today and ended up walking from one end of the town to the other, had sore feet by the end.

I use an M&S credit card for absolutely everything, to collect the points, making sure I pay it off in full every month. Then every now and then, I get some lovely M&S food, that I otherwise wouldn’t buy, using the points. So as kind of a reward for my sore feet, today was one of those days.

I got a huge pizza, some lovely salad leaves to go with it. A lemon tart to follow, and some lovely super fresh strawberries and blueberries. Lovely! Would show you a picture, but forgot until after we had eaten it for tea!

I get Martin Lewis’ email each week, as thousands of other people do. This week, amongst other things, he was talking about current accounts. I have been thinking of changing the account I use for bill paying as it is a Cahoot one that is in just my name, and needs to be joint names really. If one of us was run over by the proverbial bus, it would be very difficult to have any accounts in a single name. But you can’t open new Cahoot accounts, and I can’t change it to joint.

So a new account it is. The Santander 123 account costs £2 a month, which I would never normally even think about. But seeing as Martin recommended it, I did the sums and it works out very well. It pays a % into the account on council tax, water and energy bills, and any credit balance. So before I went off to TW, I did the application. By the time I got back I had an email saying it was all set up and the transfer was underway – brilliant.

I also thought it was about time I started to use Quidco, so I went through the site and I also had an email to say that it had tracked and the cash back was £35 – woohoo!

I set up the Quidco account this week and tried it the first time when renewing the car insurance, also M&S. But no email for that, so don’t know if that worked or not yet. They are very slow apparently, M&S that is, so we’ll see.

Do you use Quidco, does it track ok for you?

6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Lesley

    Sure, why not. Be glad to help you get an extra 15 quid. I’ll have a little explore on their site

  2. Lesley

    That sounds very reassuring. They have been efficient so far with sending out documents etc, so fingers crossed

  3. Jo

    Topcashback is another good one. I have Quidco as well. Sometimes the % cashback is better on one site, sometimes the other and sometimes the same on both. I’d be happy to recommend you to Topcashback at the moment as I’d get £15 extra cashback and you’d get £5 extra for M&S : )

  4. Charlotte Pountney

    We got the cashback from M&S when we changed our car insurance to them, about 3 years ago. The following year, they were still the best deal we could find, without cashback – although we set up a ‘new’ policy with them on the web as it was substantially less than the renewal price they quoted! Then we had to claim; one of us mashed the car, (thoroughly!) on a bollard. This came just as we were paying for the following year’s policy. M&S were brilliant, and due to protected no claims, the price did not go up. Half way through the year, we changed our car and I thought ‘They’ve got us now’…but we were changing a used Golf for a new Skoda and we only had to pat £15 transfer. Overall, very impressed with them.

  5. Lesley

    Hmm, yes. Good point about non paid for accounts.

    Glad to hear Quidco is reliable. I tried it once years ago, nothing happened and I lost heart. Thought it was about time I had another go

  6. Sarah

    I have been using quidco since 2005 and I very rarely encounter problems, sometimes companies are slow to pay out or track.

    Like our bills are all paid from an account in my name we keep saying we should sort out a joint account but life keeps getting in the way. I can see the advantages of the 123 account for us but I am reluctant to get a paid for current account as the more of us that have them the fewer and fewer non paid for current accounts will be available until we price those on a lower income out of the market.

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