September 10, 2010

Save money as you shop

www.quidco.com

For starters if you buy anything on the Internet you should know about cashback sites. They give you the opportunity to receive a percentage of what you pay back and the best (and probably the most comprehensive ) of these is Qudco.

The process is really simple, sign up for a free account and go shopping. All you need to do is follow the links to your favourite web sites through Quidco and once you have completed a transaction you will receive some of the money back. It can take up to a month for the cash back to show on your account but it can be really beneficial. Our own editor bought his car insurance using the site and saved £100.

What’s the catch? – there isn’t one really. The only thing is that Quidco retain the first £5 you earn back each year but apart from that no charge.

If you are really smart one of the best money saving ways to use the site is a s follows:

That way you double your cash back. Not bad really.

There are a number of others around on the web so here is a link to a list of all the cash back sites we can find so far. I will be reviewing others individually in the future.

For now Quidco gets four stars – it’s free and it helps the pocket but the design is not brilliant.

Save money, learn from the experts.

www.moneysavingexpert.com

OK, firstly, if you have not come across this site you must of been living under a rock for the past few years. We’ve been addicted to the site since 2006 and it is by far the most useful site on the net today when it comes to your money and how to spend it.

Developed by Martin Lewis, a journalists with an impecable reputation, he provides a completely free web site that tells you how to get the best out of your money and where you can save money in your day to day life. Details include a weekly email with all the latest tips and trends as well as some great offers (Free magazines, cheap products etc).

Over 1.5 million people now get his email every week and he has become the true consumer champion, helping save money and take on the big corporates. In fact he was responsible for helping thousands claim back bank charges last year.

Thats all we can really say about the site apart from there are also some great forums where people go to talk about the tips and how succesful they have been – Our editor reckons to of saved over £400 last year alone so it’s well worth giving it a look.

This is definetly a five star site – it’s useful, it’s impartial and best of all it’s FREE especially if you want to keep your hard earned cash in your pocket.

Game Downloads, Reviews and News

www.bigdownload.com

A couple of people here at whatsgoodontheweb like games so we thought it was only right to find a site that has a few trailers and demos ready for download. Generally speaking you can find news and reviews on this US web site the latest games. A simple and easy navigation means that you can generally find what you want without to much hassle.

The site is backed by AOL so it has some big money behind it but don’t let this put you off – all we want now is a UK site of the same calibre especially as there are loads of games on here we’ve never heard of that look really good.

The final great feature is that you can also check out the latest games news - what’s happening and when but it does take you through to AOL – we’d rather see this as a stand alone part of the site.

We’re rating this two stars at the moment (mainly as it is US focused) but if your running the equivalent in the UK please let us know.

Find a bottle of wine

www.classicwines.com

A few months ago our editor was away skiing and met some people who ran a wine shop in Cheshire. After a week of listening about different wines, the best food to eat them with and how to store them he decided to get a few bottles in France on the way back. Now, let’s be honest, discussions in a bar late at night mean that you forget a few things so when he got home he tried one of the newly purchased bottles. Needless to say it was complete rubbish and went straight down the drain.

Since then we have wanted to find a really simple web site that will tell him all about wine, unfortunately Classic Wines is not it – it’s more of a sales site than an information site and it took so long to find things we gave up. It does have some nice reviews and the ability to search by value, region etc but what we really wanted was some good advice not a sales pitch.

If you have any site suggestions for him please make a comment below. We’re going to rate this site one star only – the reason – even if you find the wine you want it does not tell you how to buy it in the UK.

Sorry Classic Wines – make the site more world orientated and we’d love to give it a better review.


VOIP on your mobile

www.nimbuzz.com

Nimbuzz is a new VOIP service that works with your PC or Mobile – as it is so new we have very little idea what it does at the moment or even how it works.

We’re not going to rate it at the moment as we’re not even sure it works for UK users. If the owners want to contact us though please feel free to tell us more.

We’d love to know the following:

  • How does it work?
  • Can we use it in the UK?

If you have the answers please let us know.

 

Find a good pub or bar

www.trustedplaces.com

TrustedPlaces, is a local reviews social network that lets you search for, and find pubs, clubs, bars and places to eat whereever you live. Each of the listings has reviews from real people and what really they think of the places.

The only downside of the site is knowing if the reviews are real – there are far too many PR agencies writing reviews on clients not knowing that this could potentially be illegal. We generally liked the site, it was easy to find what you wanted and easy to navigate around particularly as when you want to find places to go you want to find them quickly.

The only downside is that the postcode search does not seem to work – trying to find somewhere in Cheshire it keeps giving us pubs in London !!! A long drive for a night out.

All in all we rate the site three star, it’s not the best and there could be lots more features added, but generally it is well liked – they already have lots of users and it could be the new way to sort out your next bar crawl or romantic dinner.

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