How to earn up to £299 cashback on your last-minute summer holiday including booking trick and 5 minute spending hack

EARNING cash from your sunlounger may seem like a fantasy… but what if I told you it’s possible? You could make hundreds of pounds of cashback when you book a hotel, flight or holiday package this summer and spend using your credit or debit card. We asked top deals experts how you can use the perk to make £299 on your next getaway. You could be missing out on earning hundreds of pounds when booking your summer holiday Credit: Getty We reveal the best cashback websites and cards you could use to maximise your returns Credit: Getty Cashback gives you a small amount of money back when you make a payment using a reward debit or credit card or through a cashback website. These websites work by acting as middle-men and earn commission from retailers by directing you to their online stores. They then give you a chunk of this commission back as cash. Meanwhile, cashback cards give you a small percentage of your spending back in cash or as a discount on your bill. If you’re not already using cashback to make payments or book trips then you could be missing out on hundreds of pounds of rewards each year. For example, members of cashback website TopCashback earn more than £300 a year. Consumer and retail expert Kate Hardcastle MBE said when it comes to cashback there are some useful savings people often overlook, particularly when booking a last-minute holiday. She explains: “Last minute doesn’t automatically mean cheaper, but it can mean more opportunities to be tactical. “Travel companies may use enhanced cashback or incentives when they want to shift a particular inventory.” Here top money experts explain the tips and tricks that can help YOU save when jetting off this summer. Hunt down hidden deals and perks – £115 Look for hidden deals and perks in the rewards section of your bank or credit card apps Credit: Getty Before booking anything, check the rewards or offers section of your bank or credit card apps and activate anything relevant. Banks give you these rewards so you make big purchases using your card instead of another payment method. They often offer rewards for hotel groups, airlines, car hire or travel companies. For example, American Express customers can get £25 of cashback when they spend £125 or more at Premier Inn, which works out as a 20% saving. If they spend £250 or more at Booking.com then they can get £40 back, effectively saving 16%. You can also get up to £75 cashback when you spend £300 or more hiring a car with Enterprise rent-a-car. If you were able to use both the Booking.com and Enterprise rent-a-car reward offers then you could earn £115 in cashback. Meanwhile, Revolut allows you to collect points which can be redeemed for air miles to spend with airlines including British Airways Executive Club and Vueling Club. You earn up to 1 point for every £1 you spend and can exchange them for the equivalent value in air miles. I earned £300 cashback on my holiday to Turkey Nicola Horsley, 54, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, recently earned £300 of cashback when booking a holiday to Turkey this September. The savvy shopper, who works in admin for the NHS, said: “I’ve always been a thrifty traveller. My husband Caven, 58, and I travel a lot as we like music and we follow bands all around the world. “I like to get the best prices I can to make my money go further.” The couple are planning to go on an anniversary trip to Turkey in September. Nicola booked the accommodation through Hotels.com via Quidco. It cost £1,369 but she was able to get £148 in cashback. She also got £126 cashback from Hotels.com and £15 for booking the airport car parking. Her easyJet plus membership saved her around £131 on the trip. Meanwhile, Nicola also recently booked an easyJet package holiday to Morocco using cashback website Quidco and when she arrived, there were people at the hotel who had booked through Tui and paid £600 more. Nicola is also savvy when it comes to booking flights. She said: “I log into Skyscanner via Quidco. If I click through, it gives me 20p even if I don’t book anything. “Quite often, the cashback rate on Quidco is 10%. I always wait until it is 15 or sometimes even 20% so I get the best rate that I can. “Often the cashback rate goes up on a Sunday so if I’m looking to book something, I’ll wait and check it at the end of the week.” The savvy shopper has even cancelled a booking and rebooked it when the cashback rate has gone up. Nicola also makes sure she’s not missing out on savings when she’s abroad. She said: “I use a cashback credit card for spending money and that will probably earn me another £75. “It’s like free money. I can’t understand why more people don’t do it.” Kate said: “The biggest cashback mistake is treating it as an afterthought. “It only takes two minutes but on a £1,000 holiday those small checks could put a meaningful amount back into your pocket.” Make sure to check every credit or debit card you have before choosing which one to pay with. The one you reach for first may not be the one offering the best reward for that particular purchase. Liz Edwards, commercial director at moneyexpert.com, adds: “Many current accounts (Santander Edge, Chase, Barclays Blue Rewards) offer cashback on selected retailers, including travel providers). “But this often needs activating each month so it’s worth a quick check before you book anything.” Don’t leave money on the runway – £116 Always check cashback websites before booking flights and jetting off Credit: Alamy Always check cashback websites including Quidco and TopCashback before making a big purchase, including booking a hotel or a flight. You could get up to £37.50 of cashback when booking a Jet2Holiday to Greece through TopCashback. There’s also up to 7.5% cashback up for grabs when booking a British Airways Holiday through the website. Or you could get up to 20% cashback when booking a train journey on Trainline through TopCashback. Quidco currently offers 9% on bookings made via lastminute.com and 2% on Tui holidays. You can earn up to 12% cashback on Europcar if you need vehicle hire abroad, which would give you £36 cashback on a £300 booking. Meanwhile, you can also earn up to 10% on Expedia bookings, earning you £80 on an £800 holiday. If you were able to combine two of these deals then you would earn around £116 in cashback. “Search individually for airport parking, airport lounges, car hire, transfers, travel insurance and airport train tickets,” Kate explains. “Everything you buy even before you leave can potentially generate cashback.” The percentage you could earn can vary hugely by retailer and category, but the total cashback you could get can soon add up. You may get a low cashback rate on a flight but a much better rate on a hotel, package holiday or other travel products. It’s also important not to be seduced by an up to 10% headline, Kate warns. “Check what your particular booking actually qualifies for,” she explains. “Think of cashback as another layer of price comparison. Finding the cheapest hotel is only half the job.” Meanwhile, sometimes retailers temporarily boost rates around promotional events, payday periods or bank holidays. If you’re booking last minute then check major cashback sites immediately before you pay as rates can change. Kate recommends: “If you see an unusually strong rate on something you already intend to buy, it can be worth acting on.” Stack your savings to maximise your returns – £58 Stacking your cashback could help you double your returns Credit: Getty Another hidden way to increase the cashback you can earn is to stack your deals on top of each other. For example, you could book a hotel through a cashback website, then pay with a reward credit card to earn double cashback. “Stack where the rules allow it as this is where the numbers can become much more interesting,” Kate said. “Imagine a £1,000 hotel booking offering 5% cashback through a cashback site. That’s £50. “If you can legitimately combine that with a payment card offering another 0.75%, that’s another £7.50 and you’d earn a total of £57.50 on the same booking.” For example, you could book accommodation on Hotels.com via Quidco – and receive cash back from both sites. There may also be loyalty points involved depending on where and how you book. “A good price, cashback portal, card reward and loyalty points can sometimes work together,” she said. “The important thing is to check the terms rather than assume they will.” Find savings from your sun lounger – £10 You could earn cashback when paying for items while away, including ordering drinks from your sun lounger Credit: Cultura Creative (RF) Cashback doesn’t necessarily stop when you board the plane. If your card rewards overseas spending, restaurants, shopping, transport and other holiday spending may all potentially earn you money. NatWest offers a travel reward credit card, which offers 1% cashback on eligible travel spending and no foreign transaction fees. The Lloyds Ultra Credit Card is also a great option for travellers. It features zero foreign exchange fees on purchases and uncapped cashback of 1% in the first year. There’s no annual fee. “Spending £1,000 on your trip at 1% cashback could earn you another £10,” Kate explains. “But with this comes an important warning. “Never chase 1% cashback on a card that is charging you 3% in foreign transaction fees. You’re losing money.” Kate also said when a foreign card machine asks whether you want to pay in pounds or the local currency – the local currency is generally best. Consumer expert Martyn James adds: “There are a wide range of debit and credit cards that provide cashback as you spend, and these can be great when you are abroad. “But beware, you’ll have to pay in full each month as the APR rates can be astronomical.” What are the pitfalls to watch out for? Watch out for hidden pitfalls when using cashback and only spend money you were going to anyway Credit: PA Always compare the price you can get through a cashback website with the best price you can get when booking directly through a hotel’s website. “This is my biggest consumer warning,” Kate said. “A £500 hotel offering 10% cashback sounds like a £50 saving. “But if exactly the same stay is available directly for £430, you haven’t saved anything – you’ve spent £20 more.” Make sure to always look at what’s included. If you book directly with a hotel then you may get breakfast, parking and better cancellation terms or loyalty benefits. These could be worth more than the cashback you save by booking through a loyalty website. “Cashback should be the bonus, never the reason you buy,” Kate adds. Meanwhile, cashback only saves you money when it’s attached to something you were going to buy anyway. “Don’t let cashback encourage additional spending,” she said. “Spending £100 to earn £10 back hasn’t made you £10 richer, it’s made you £90 poorer.” Don’t let countdown clocks or boosted cashback percentages make you feel pressured into making a purchase. Liz also warns that cashback isn’t guaranteed money in every case. “Some retailers exclude cashback on sale items or specific booking types, tracking can occasionally fail so it’s worth keeping proof of purchase, and cashback can take weeks or months to be confirmed and paid out. “If you’re using a cashback credit card, the real risk is interest. “Any cashback earned can be quickly wiped out if you carry a balance and get charged interest, so it only works in your favour if you can pay it off in full each month.”