Users of the Topcashback website have less than two months to swap their earnings for Tesco Clubcard points before the payout option is withdrawn, amid wide-ranging changes to the supermarket's loyalty scheme.
Currently Topcashback members can convert up to £50 cashback earned through the site per year into Clubcard points, but from Sunday 31 July they'll no longer have this option.
For every £10 you can redeem 1,000 Clubcard points. These are transferred to your Tesco Clubcard account and vouchers for the points are sent out every three months by Tesco. Once you have the vouchers you can then choose to 'boost' them or spend in store as normal
While the maximum conversion via Topcashback is £50 in Clubcard points, that amount can then be doubled, tripled or even quadrupled under the Tesco Clubcard Boost scheme, to be used on days out, restaurant meals, cinema tickets and more.
Tesco's departure from Topcashback may also impact users of travel reward-points scheme Avios, who swap their cashback to Clubcard vouchers and then convert them to Avios points.
Check out our guide for more on the pros and cons of cashback sites.
What's changing?
Currently Topcashback users earn cashback by clicking links through the site and they can then withdraw the cash they've accumulated.
As well as simply transferring the cashback to their bank account, users can also opt for other payment methods, such as Amazon vouchers, which sometimes include a small amount of additional cashback.
From 31 July Topcashback members will no longer have the option of swapping their cash into Tesco Clubcard points, although Topcashback says withdrawal options with its other partner companies will remain in place.
How do I convert my cashback into Tesco points?
There's no minimum amount of cashback that you can convert into Clubcard points, but the maximum is £50 per year.
Some cashback can't be withdrawn as Tesco Clubcard points, depending on the terms and conditions of each deal, so it may not appear as an option in the withdrawal list. It generally tends to be financial and insurance companies that don't allow this, but you can always check by seeing if Tesco is available as a payout option.
To swap the cash into cashback you need to:
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Log on to your Topcashback* account, click 'My Profile' and then the 'Payout Details' tab in the navigation box on the right-hand side.
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Scroll down to the 'Payout by Tesco Clubcard' header and register your Clubcard number.
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To request a payment, click 'Payout' at the top of the page and select Tesco Clubcard points from the list.
You won't be able to request a payout within 72 hours of adding your Clubcard details, so bear this in mind before making changes.
If you have more than £50 cashback in your account, you can still try to convert the value into Tesco Clubcard points. You need to log in to your account and go to the 'Payout' section, then click the option at the top to 'Split your payout by merchant' to see a list of all your cashback transactions.
You can only split by the amount each company has given you, eg, if you have £10 from one company and £5 from another the 'split by merchant' amounts could only be £10 or £5. If one company has given you more than £50 in cashback you won't be able to swap this to Tesco Clubcard points.
Once you've swapped your cashback into Clubcard points, see how to make the most of them in our Reclaim and Boost Tesco Vouchers guide.
Why's it changing?
As revealed by MoneySavingExpert.com in April, Tesco will announce a raft of changes to its Clubcard scheme this year.
Tesco has already told customers the current double-up promotion, running until Sun 26 June, will be its last. It has, however, confirmed the Boost scheme (where you can swap vouchers for up to four times their value for restaurant meals and days out etc) will remain.
It seems as though Tesco's parting of ways with Topcashback is yet another of the changes.
Topcashback, meanwhile, is suggesting the soon-to-be discontinued Tesco Clubcard option is not particularly popular with its users. It said since the option was made available in February 2013, just over 58,000 customers have used it – out of a possible 5.4 million.
Adam Bullock, director of Topcashback UK, says: "We have been speaking with our members who have previously used Tesco Clubcard as a payout option to find out what they used their points for, and most of them were transferring points into air miles, restaurant vouchers, or to fund family days out.
"With 23 other payout options on Topcashback, most of which have added bonuses, the majority of these options are already directly available as a payout method on the site. Topcashback is also currently exploring new ways to enhance the payout offer and will hopefully have some exciting news to share soon."
