The screen cracked and she has been having trouble typing, cos some of the areas on the screen now does not sense the finger. So we decided to drop by the COMEX fair over the weekend.
Ok long story short, we eventually went to the XiaoMi shop at Suntec city rather than the COMEX fair as the XiaoMi shop was offering the same promotions. So she shortlisted the model which she wanted to buy, which is the same model as what I'm using. XiaoMi 4X. Retail price, $219.
So we went out of the XiaoMi shop without buying, thinking, hmm... could we get a better deal?
She always believes to buy online as it's usually cheaper. So she goes on Lazada, and applies the Citibank discount code. We used the Citibank card, cos there was a discount of 8%. Woah, it's now $201. AND she gets a XiaoMi selfie stick AND a XiaoMi portable charger. Which is the existing promo available at retail.
But wait, she also accessed Lazada via the Shopback site/app. Shopback is this cashback system which well, gives cashback if you access merchant sites VIA their site. So we went to the shopback site, then clicked the Lazada link from there. Then any purchases from Lazada, we will get another cashback from Shopback on top of whatever discounts Lazada offered. For electronics on Lazada, we got another 1.5%.
She quickly settled the deal cos we felt it was pretty good so we could continue with our walking around Suntec.
But after she did the deal, I felt a bit down. Cos... I had previously bought 2 phones this year WITHOUT going thru Shopback OR Lazada. I bought the 2 phones direct at the XiaoMi shop. Which meant that, I had kinda thrown away $40 straight out...
So note to self, always buy things online, AND always look at Shopback site first before buying things online. Shopback has a lot of links so it's always good to take a look there before doing a lot of things online.
Let me go into how Shopback works.
As said earlier, we need to go to the Shopback site first. Then click on whatever link we want to access. Like Lazada, FoodPanda, Eatigo, Deliveroo, etc.
Then a new webpage will popup, and proceed with the purchase as normal.
Different merchants will give different percentages of cashback. We purchased from Deliveroo recently at 5% cashback.
After the purchase, we will receive an email from Shopback indicating the cashback which we have earned.
Ok heres the troublesome/irritating part. We have to wait for the cashback. It's not immediate.
It takes 1-2 months for the cashback to go into the Shopback account. After accumulating $10, the cashback can be withdrawn and sent to your bank account.
It's slightly irritating, but it's similar to waiting for the monthly rebates on our credit card so... just part of the game.
So what wonderful links do we have on Shopback.
Lazada, as already mentioned. Using Citibank cards, and other promo codes, we can get great deals on many of the stuff which we usually buy at regular prices. The sad thing. There's no real need to go to retail outlets anymore. Cos it's just cheaper to buy them online. I've learnt my lesson. No point buying stuff from retail, it's just more expensive.
Expedia, Agoda, we use this for travel a lot, for booking our hotels. Since we're going to be booking through these sites anyway, might as well get another few % of cashback back. This is where we get the bulk of our cashback to push the cashback to higher levels so that we can withdraw it.
Food Panda, Deliveroo, we use this on weekends if we are lazy to go out for dinner. Once again, since we are going to use it anyway, might as well make some cashback on it.
Eatigo... Ok this is a really cool site. It allows us to book a seat at a restaurant at off peak hours at super discounts. We get discounts of 50% when dining at many outlets. We've used this for quite a number of times on weekends. The only minus point is that we will have to eat at off peak timings. Like 4pm, but that's ok with us for 50% discount. Not to mention, with Shopback, we get cashback on top of that as well. But if you're willing to accept a lower discount, you can probably book at 530pm for a 20% discount at the same restaurant. We usually like to go for gold, so if we can't get the 50% discount, we won't aim to go to that restaurant.
We were a bit upset about this, cos we have been using Eatigo without knowing it was on Shopback. It was only recently that we found out and this meant that we were throwing away a few tens of dollars of cashback from our previous bookings.
If anyone is interested in Shopback, would be nice if you could sign up via my wife's referral.
When a friend signs up, they get $5, and will also get another $5 upon their first purchase.
So straight out it can be withdrawn once the Cashback comes in.
I will earn $5 Cashback when the friend meets a minimum spend of $25 and when their Cashback turn redeemable.
This is not a sponsored post.
Once again, just sharing more ways to save.
1) Lazada... or actually just online shopping in general. If you're going to need to buy anything, go to the shop, check out what you want to buy, leave the shop, check out online sites. Lazada is a merchant site, meaning for our case, XiaoMi has a shop on Lazada, so it's like just buying from XiaoMi. Many online sites have promo codes and credit card discounts.
I also check out Qoo10, but that may or may not be an official store.
Don't make the same mistake as me. It's real cash which I had wasted.
2) Eatigo... Great discounts at off peak hours for many restaurants. After my Amex Platinum expired, we used our Entertainer app and Eatigo to determine where to go to eat. At 50% off, it's pretty hard to beat.
3) Shopback... it's kinda like a consolidation site which has many sites on it. But it gives cashback when you access the merchant sites via the Shopback site. Since we are planning on accessing the merchant sites anyway... might as well get another few % of cashback from Shopback. More free money.
Note, you must access Shopback first then take the link to the other site. It's not about just keeping Shopback site open and accessing the other site via another browser.
Now we always keep Shopback as a saved link on our brower, so as to remind ourselves to always look through Shopback before accessing any merchant sites directly.
Hope today's saving tips were useful to you.
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