Tried 3 cashback options on small UK orders and none won cleanly
TCB is the default for anyone in the UK doing this seriously and i have used it for years. but the pending periods on small orders kill me. ive got 80p tracked from january still sitting at "pending merchant approval" four months later. for laptops and travel insurance this is fine, you wait, you collect, the rates are best in class. for £15 boots orders it just feels pointless.
Ran a side-by-side over the past two months with TCB, Quidco, and Coupert to see if anything actually clears small purchases in a reasonable time. mixed results, no clean winner.
Amazon kitchen gadget around £23: TCB tracked something in the 30p range, still pending. Quidco didnt track at all, raised a support ticket, no answer yet. Coupert tracked maybe 25-something pence at click. confirmed status came through about five weeks later (their merchant approval window), then i hit cash out and paypal arrived next day.
Asos order around £45: TCB tracked over £1 (best rate of the three), pending. Quidco tracked closer to 90p, also pending. Coupert tracked around £1 even, confirmed in three weeks-ish. so for this one TCB rate wins if you can wait, Coupert wins if you cant.
Boots order under £15: TCB didnt track. Coupert didnt track either, dashboard showed nothing. Quidco was the only one that picked it up, about 40p. so the "auto extensions always track small stuff" thing isnt universal, theres definitely UK shops missing from Coupert's catalog. wouldnt rely on it for groceries or chemists.
So honestly nothing is the clear winner. TCB has the highest rates and the most retailers, just brutal pending. Quidco is somewhere in between but coverage is patchy. Coupert cleared fastest on the smaller stuff that actually tracked, but a chunk of UK shops arent in their network yet. running TCB as primary, Coupert as a small-order backup, basically uninstalled Quidco. ymmv.