Rate & Payout Methodology

Where rates come from

Every cashback rate published on QuickCashback is derived from the underlying commission a retailer pays the affiliate network. We do not invent rates or run promotional loss-leaders. The commission flows through the chain as follows: the retailer pays the network a percentage of each referred sale, the network deducts its fee (typically 20–30% of the commission), we deduct a platform margin sufficient to cover operations, and the remainder is the cashback rate shown to you.

Because commission rates change — sometimes weekly, sometimes at the start of a promotional window — the rates on our merchant pages are updated on a rolling weekly schedule with additional updates whenever a network pushes a significant rate change mid-week. The rate shown at the moment of click is the rate that governs your cashback on that transaction.

How tracking works

When you click a cashback link, three things happen in sequence: the affiliate network receives your click ID and stores it against your QuickCashback account, the retailer's website sets an attribution cookie in your browser identifying our network as the referring publisher, and our own analytics record the click for internal reconciliation. All three happen within roughly 200 milliseconds and are invisible to you.

At checkout the retailer reads the attribution cookie and, if it identifies our network as the last click before purchase, reports the sale back to the network with commission attached. The network aggregates these reports and passes them to us in daily batches. Sales appear in your dashboard as pending within 24–72 hours of purchase.

The confirmation model

Pending cashback is not yet money. It is a claim on future money contingent on the sale surviving the retailer's return window. During the pending period — typically 45 to 90 days — three things can reverse the amount: the shopper returns the order, the retailer's fraud team flags the sale, or a chargeback occurs on the payment card. All three are reported by the network and cause the pending amount to disappear from the dashboard.

Once the pending window closes without a reversal, the network reclassifies the transaction as confirmed and pays the commission to us. We then release the confirmed amount into your withdrawable balance, typically within 48 hours of the network's payment. Our confirmation-to-payout latency is a public metric — 47 hours on average over the last twelve months.

The confirmation rate

Not every tracked sale confirms. The industry-wide confirmation rate sits around 85–92% depending on category. Our own rate has averaged 91.3% over the last twelve months across all merchants. The 8.7% that does not confirm splits roughly as follows: 5.2% returns, 2.1% chargebacks and fraud reversals, 1.4% network-side data discrepancies that resolve in favour of reversal.

We publish the current network-wide confirmation rate in every quarterly transparency update, alongside category-level breakdowns for shoppers who want to know how their spending patterns are likely to convert.

Payout channels

Confirmed cashback is available for withdrawal via three channels: direct bank transfer (US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia), PayPal, and gift-card redemption at approximately 400 retailers. Bank transfers arrive within 3–5 business days. PayPal is same-day in most cases. Gift cards are delivered within 24 hours to the email address on your account.

The minimum withdrawal threshold is $10 (or currency equivalent). There is no maximum. We do not charge fees on any of the three withdrawal channels — the amount that leaves your dashboard is the amount that arrives at the destination.

Currency and exchange

Cashback is calculated in the currency the underlying sale was denominated in. If you pay in a foreign currency, the commission is reported to us in that currency, we convert to your account currency using the mid-market rate at the time of confirmation, and the converted amount lands in your balance. We do not add an exchange margin — the conversion is at the true mid-market rate.

Data we retain

To operate the platform we retain the following per-purchase data: retailer name, sale amount, commission amount, click timestamp, and cashback amount. This data is retained for seven years for accounting and audit purposes and is never shared with third parties outside the direct commission chain (affiliate network, payment processor, tax authorities when required).

We do not retain the specific products you purchased, the URL you clicked to, or any information about your browsing behaviour outside the cashback click itself. Our full data-handling practices are documented in the Privacy Policy.

Disputes and escalation

If a purchase you made should have tracked but did not, you can submit a missing-cashback claim through your dashboard within 60 days of the purchase. We forward the claim to the affiliate network with the underlying order details. Networks investigate typically within 30–45 days. About 70% of missing-cashback claims resolve in the shopper's favour, and the resulting cashback appears as pending in your dashboard.

If a claim is denied by the network and you believe the denial is incorrect, our support team escalates directly to the network's publisher-relations contact. Second-level escalations resolve favourably in roughly 40% of cases where the first-level claim was denied.

Transparency reports

We publish a quarterly transparency report covering total cashback paid, confirmation rate, average time from purchase to payout, top categories by shopper earnings, and any material changes to the payout model. Reports are archived in the blog and open to public review.