Many people on TrustPilot have mentioned that the Zilch card negatives include when they choose ‘pay it all now’ and they end up paying it in installments, with an additional charge of £2.50.
However, as long as you follow the simple instructions, you should be easily able to use your Zilch rewards, and also earn 2% cashback in reward points.
However, this post is about the Zilch card negatives and there are a few.
The Zilch Card Negatives
- Once you have found the online merchant that you want to buy through on Zilch, and chosen the ‘pay-in-4’ or ‘pay it all now, earn 2% cashback’ and clicked through to the merchant (as Zilch is an affiliate marketer), if the card number is not copied into your phone and ready to paste, it will wreck the entire process (which may be why people have had issues and written negative reviews on TrustPilot. I had this experience with my first Zilch purchase through Amazon. When it came to pasting my Zilch card details into the ‘add new card’ there was no paste option. Thankfully, I had my laptop close by, so I logged into the Zilch website and managed to get my MasterCard number that way, and the transaction went through with £15 deducted off my t-shirt order, only £2.99 to pay, and I earned 6 reward points equivalent to £0.06.
- So, Zilch is not making the card transaction process easier for people. Plus there is also the fact that people need to know the CVV digits and the expiry dates. Not everyone can memorize these simple numbers, and there is no option to view the card on a phone, as the Zilch website link shows that you have already clicked through to the merchant. Very disappointing there.
- Is it safe to take a picture of your Zilch virtual MasterCard on your phone showing the entire number, expiry date, and CVV number and keep this on your phone? It will make the purchasing process easy, but it could open customers up to fraud. So this is another of the Zilch card negatives.
- Some customers have mentioned that when you choose ‘Try Zilch Anywhere’ you will be charged a fee of £2.50. Let’s see what Zilch says on their website under FAQ:
We’re working hard to bring every brand to you for free. We can do this because retailers pay us a small commission when you shop with them. Unfortunately, some brands aren’t our affiliate retailers just yet, but we still want to give you access to pay over time with them using Zilch. This is why for now, there is a small fee to shop with these retailers at this time. Hopefully, this won’t always be the case! To view these fees, tap on Zilch Anywhere when you’re using the Zilch App or select Zilch Anywhere on the website.
Remember, we have thousands of retailers where Zilch is free to use, so please check them out before shopping with this one.
Zilch Anywhere £2.50 fee per transaction Representative example APR 11.50% on a £400 loan at non-eligible stores. If you make a credit transaction of £400 with a transaction fee of £2.50 added to it, then repay it in four equal installments of £100 over the period of 6 weeks, the total amount payable will be £402.50 assuming that you do not break the agreement during this period
So as long as you are aware that when your online or in-store merchant is not listed on the official Zilch website or Zilch app, and you have clicked on ‘Use Zilch Anywhere’, you will be charged a one-off £2.50 fee. It doesn’t put me off, but it’s not feasible to be making smaller payments on a non-Zilch merchant as you may not receive enough in points to make it rewardable. However, purchases £400 and over could be worthwhile in earning the 2% cashback with the ‘Pay it all now’ on the ‘Use Zilch Anywhere’ option.
I hope this helps you to understand a few of the Zilch card negatives. However, do not let this put you off. Always search the merchants to see if your site is listed (as they will be affiliated toward Zilch and Zilch will earn on every click and purchase), or opt for ‘Use Zilch Anywhere’ when you are making larger purchases.
