I’m always looking for new ways to make money online, so when a friend of mine contacted me about 20 Cogs; I had to take a look. 20 Cogs is a cashback site which rewards you for completing offers, similarly to the likes of Quidco or Topcashback. The difference here is that you won’t receive your money right away. Instead, 20 Cogs will payout only once you have completed – you guessed it – all 20 ‘cogs’. Typically I’m skeptical of such sites, but since my friend claimed to have received around £300 when he’d finished his offers, I signed up.
My first thought before signing up was of all of the offers I’ve completed on other cashback sites. What if my Quidco exploits stop me from being able to complete all of the cogs? I used this as an opportunity to test their customer support (they advertise 24-hour responses), and sent them an email voicing my concern. Sure enough, by the next day, I received a reply explaining that all of their offers were for ‘new customers only’, as I’d thought. However, for the sake of this very post, I started anyway.
What to expect from 20 Cogs?
On signing up, I was slightly less concerned. Every cog has a number of offers available to choose from, just in case you have previously signed up to one or more of the sites. This means that even if you have spent hours on cashback sites (as I often have), you might be able to complete all 20 offers here. Better still, they update the offers fairly regularly, so even if you can’t complete any of the offers on a particular cog, just wait a few days and check back again.
The first few cogs are free offer sites: OfferX, Free Stuff, etc., requiring just a survey and nothing more. The first big one for me was Cog 5; a Gala Bingo offer which required a £10 deposit and wager in return for £30 cashback (since I have no luck with bingo at all, I lost the £10). The next, a Dr. Vegas offer requiring a £10 deposit and wager in return for £35 cashback (I actually won my roulette bet and withdrew £20 – making up for the terrible bingo luck).
A few words of caution: remember to take screenshots as you go, just in case you need to prove you’ve completed any offers. Also, remember to read each offer carefully, just to make sure you’ve fulfilled exactly what the offer requires of you. I had an offer with Lottoland that required me to stay signed up for 48 hours after a £1 deposit. After just over 48 hours, I was able to cancel my account before the weekly charge came through. The same goes for offers like graze.com – just read exactly what is required of you, and you’ll be able to move through the cogs just fine.
Intermediate Thoughts
As of writing this post, I’ve finished 10 cogs, with a total earning of £172.50 so far (which isn’t bad!). The biggest issue I’ve been having is finding offers that I haven’t signed up to before, but I had expected as much. It’ll likely be a week or so before I can finish, since I’m starting to have to wait for a few of the cogs to update with new offers. If you’ve had no previous interaction with cashback sites (or gambling sites, if you’re so inclined), then you’d likely be able to get through all 20 Cogs without a hitch.
As far as their customer service goes, I have no complaints. As I mentioned earlier, they reply within 24 hours to any query, and they try to be as helpful as possible. Also, if you have any cog that stays ‘Pending’ for a few days after you have completed its offer, a little link should appear allowing you to query the offer with just one click (you can click it again after 2 days to make further queries). This is as much as I’ve needed to do with regards to querying an offer, but as you can see, I’m only halfway through!
I’ll post the second part of my experience with 20 Cogs as soon as I’ve finished. However, if you want to get started now, you can sign up here.
(Note: this is a referral link, meaning you’ll be helping me earn a little extra by signing up through this link!)
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