Q1. How easy, or difficult, did you find it to understand Incahoot PLUS from the information provided on the Incahoot website? Was there anything in particular that was difficult to understand?
Quite easy to understand. I haven?t used any other cash back sites before so came to this with new eyes and found it easy enough to understand the concept and what was available.
Q2. What, if any, other information would you have found useful to have on the site?
If I were paying for this I would have wanted a sneak preview of some of the offers available. Obviously not the ones that you don't need to prove incahoot membership, but the cashback, vouchers and discount links which are only available to members would have encouraged me to sign up. In fact, I did look at the incahoot site previously and without KNOWING which stores were linked did not bother signing up. Having seen it now I know that most of the cashback reloadable cards are for stores which I frequent and so have ordered some.
Q3. How easy, or difficult, did you find it to navigate and use the Incahoot PLUS website? Did you find any specific areas particularly difficult? If so, why?
It seemed quite easy to look around. Very slow to load up at times, being in a rural area my internet is not always as it should be but this has been one of the slower sites I have been on lately.
Your search function is a bit rubbish, while on the fashion discounts page, with a number of retailers discount offers showing on the page I typed a few of their names into the search function to be told no discounts matched the search criteria, so something has gone seriously here. Searching for Argos as an example, only gives the 3% cashback store link up, and not the reloadable card link, it should really bring up ALL links to Argos.
Q4. What did you like about the Incahoot PLUS website? What did you dislike? What would you like to see improved?
Good, but quite basic. It had the feel of a well constructed small site which has grown significantly but hasn?t been updated to reflect the new size. A simple alphabetical list of all the stores for which offers are available would be useful.
A highly annoying thing I found is that the information for ?reloadable cards? available by clicking on the tab link at the top of the page gives no indication that there is a card processing fee for both credit and debit cards for loading money onto cards. Only when reading about the 50p processing fee on another person?s feedback did I have an inkling that there would be further fees apart from the initial purchasing fee. I had to find it by linking to the ?reloadable card? link at the bottom of the page which shows a little blue ?fee? link which then gives details of all the fees. This is very poor, and actually quite deceptive. Even putting in ?fees? in your search function only bought back several offers rather than any information on fees. I would be interested to know whether topping up all reloadable cards at the same time would incur a one off 50 p fee or a fee per card being topped up. I am assuming it is a whole of transaction fee but it doesn?t make it clear. Also interesting to note that if I topped up £20 on a reloadable card it seems it would be cheaper to pay by credit card than by debit card.
When viewing the discounts, you are able to jump ahead by up to 9 pages, but can only go backwards to the previous page.
Search function needs a LOT of work.
5. Have you used any discounts/offers through Incahoot PLUS so far? If yes, which ones? If no, are there any you are likely to use soon?
I have bought some reloadable cards and intend on using them. (People may worry about losing the card, Perhaps an insurance option?) I may buy vouchers, but that will probably be more for gifts.
I have had a look at the local discounts. The ones immediately in my area are of no real use to me. I will probably look up services in other areas before going there to see what is available, but can only do that if I know a postcode. Would be better if you could type in the name of the city instead of just the postcode.
I will probably use some of the discount links at some point. There are lots there and as searching is unreliable I don?t know if the stores I frequent are actually listed here.
6. From your first impressions of the service so far, how likely, or not, are you to recommend the service to a friend/relative? Why?
I would recommend it, with caveats. For people struggling with money it will be difficult to find the upfront money to purchase reloadable cards and vouchers. It is worth it to me because I do my shopping at Sainsburys. The online links to stores which will then give a cashback will, however, still be very useful, but perhaps not £29.99 worth of use.