Amazon has made a huge change to a popular freebie scheme – and shoppers are furious
AMAZON is making a huge change to a popular freebie scheme and shoppers have been left furious by the decision.
The online retail giant runs a shopper panel that rewards people with money off in exchange for details about their purchases.
Shoppers can submit pictures of their receipts from rival shops via the dedicated Amazon Shopper Panel app.
There's also a chance to earn additional rewards each month for completing surveys and for enabling ad verification.
As it stands, customers earn £5 each month to spend on Amazon if they upload a total of ten receipts.
But from tomorrow (November 1), shoppers will instead earn 10p for each receipt that they upload, with the maximum they can earn still being capped at £5.
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While shoppers can now earn cash for just one upload, they now have to upload a whopping 50 receipt pictures to get the maximum reward.
Panellists were alerted to the change via a notification in the app.
It read: "You will earn a 10p reward for each approved receipt that you upload - no more receipt minimum and you can still earn £5 per month.
"Receipt rewards will be periodically updated."
A screenshot of the change was shared on the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK Facebook group.
Shoppers rushed to comment and share their frustration at the change.
One said: "Oh well, it was good while it lasted."
Another social media user wrote: "That receipt ideas is rubbish."
While a third cried: "Pfft I’m not bothering with that anymore then."
Meanwhile, consumer expert Martyn James told The Sun: "Major retailers like Amazon are hoping that our focus on the upcoming Black Friday sales will distract us as they cut in to a few miserly discounts.
"But during the cost of living crisis, any attempt at penny pinching is going to go down badly."
The Sun has contacted Amazon for comment.
Are there any similar schemes out there?
THERE are plenty of firms out there who will pay you for your shopping secrets.
Senior Consumer Reporter Olivia Marshall explains.
One popular receipt scanning app is Shoppix, which can be downloaded on the App Store or Google Play.
Shoppix offers tokens in exchange for answering short surveys on your shopping experiences and snapping pictures of your receipts in the app.
You get 30 tokens per receipt and can snap up to 30 receipts a week.
Turn your tokens into vouchers for your favourite retailers or transfer the money into a PayPal account.
You need 3,200 tokens for £5.
Shop & Scan works differently, as it’s not a smartphone app. Instead, you’ll be sent a barcode scanner by post.
After each shop you must scan the barcodes of all the items and answer questions about your shopping trip.
You can earn up to 1,600 points a week, with 10,000 points equalling £10.
You are rewarded with vouchers which can be spent with brands such as Amazon, Spotify, Foot Locker, Uber and Argos.
Both Shop & Scan and Shoppix are run by research company Kantar.
How does the Amazon shopper panel work?
The Amazon shopper panel is an opt-in and invitation.
t is only open to a limited number of Amazon customers, who have to register their interest and join an waiting list.
One you receive a notification, customers can download the app from the app store or the Google play store.
To join the waiting list, you will also need to download the app and you will be sent an email when you can join.
As well as uploading receipts to earn cash, users can also take part in surveys and enable ad verification for extra rewards.
The amount you can earn per survey varies, but you will be able to see how much you can earn before you take part.
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Enrolling in ad verification - allowing Amazon to see the ads that appear on your phone - can earn you £2 per month.
If you decide the app isn't for you, you can stop using it anytime.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.
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