When you use a cashback website, they will, in general, take
care of everything for you. The money you earn will be deposited into your
account accordingly. If you want the money to go to a charity, they can handle
that, too. And, for the most part, they’ll be able to track cashback purchases
made from your favorite retailers. All you really have to do is sign in to
their service and start shopping “under” their name. This will let the
retailers know that you intend to get cashback, and the retailers will then
relay that information to the cashback website. It’s all very user friendly
because the user normally doesn’t have to do anything.
Occasionally, though, the process can hit a snag. You may
have signed in to your account on the cashback website, gone about your online
shopping business, and expected to see cashback in your account sometime within
the week. After a week, you still don’t see the cashback in your account. Maybe
after two weeks, you finally give the cashback website’s customer service
department a call (or e-mail). You might explain that you’ve done everything
correctly, but they might not have any record of the purchase being made.
This problem is likely caused by disabled cookies in your
web browser. Cookies are little pieces of Internet data that can remember what
sites you’ve been to, what files you’ve downloaded, and, most importantly, what
websites you’re signed in to. If you have cookies disabled, there’s a good
chance that the Internet browser “forgot” that you were signed in to the
cashback website. In turn, both the retailer and the cashback website will not
be able to track cashback purchases. This might sound like an odious ordeal,
but it’s really just a quick fix.
In fact, most browsers (e.g. Firefox, Internet Explorer,
Google Chrome, etc.) make the process of enabling your cookies extremely easy.
In large part, you’re going to find a drop-down menu at the top of the browser
that says “Tools.” In that drop-down menu, you’ll find plenty of selections,
but the one you’re probably going to want is “Options,” or “Settings.” Once
you’ve selected that, there should be some kind of tab system that allows you
to select between another set of options. In general, you’ll want to the tab
labeled “Privacy” or “Security.” There you will be able to change the options
for what your browser remembers. In some cases, you can make special exemptions
for certain sites so that cookies stay disabled for every other site.
But, really, this is the only thing you’ll be tasked with
doing when it comes to getting your cashback. If you’ve never had any issues
before, then you probably already have your cookies enabled. Otherwise, if you want
the cashback website to track cashback purchases you’ve made, then you should
definitely consider enabling your cookies.
