Cashrewards Shock Closure

Cashrewards is no more. Closing suddenly & without warning.

The Sudden Closure of Cashrewards

Well, that was unexpected. Cashrewards announced on September 8th 2025 that they will be closing down, effective immediately. If I were drinking coffee when I received their email that morning, it would have been spat over my laptop in a dramatic fashion.

The email, that was sent to all members (aledgedly including some members with closed accounts) announced that they will stop offering deals as of that morning and switching their website off completely on October 24th. This is an incredibly quick turnaround for a large, seeminlgly healthy company to cease trading.

Cashrewards is (nay, was 😭) Australia's largest cashback platform by far, with over 2.5 million members. Their sudden exit from the market left many shocked and confused, promting many questions such as why?, why so sudden? & importantly, what does this mean for any funds remaining in our accounts.

What Happens To Existing Funds?

According to Cashrewards, any remaining funds will need to be withdrawn before the site goes down late October, if you haven't done so by that point, funds will withdraw automatically to your default linked bank account or PayPal account on file.

Any remaining funds past this date will need to be processed manually by emailing support@cashrewards.com

Once December 12th hits, Cashrewards will apparently attempt to contact those with funded accounts.

What About Pending Cashbacks?

Transactions that are pending as of September 11th will be automatically approved, releasing the funds, ready for withdrawl.

What this sounds like to us is that even those transactions that you weren't sure would go through (using external promo codes, product categories not covered etc.), but tried anyway, will go through regardless of their legitimacy.

What The Hell Happened to Cashrewards?

This is still not entirely clear, at the time of writing, no public statments have been released about the reasoning for the sudden closure. Here's what we do know:

• Cashrewards was founded in 2014 by Andrew & Lorica Clarke
• They grew gradually over the years and eventually partnered with ANZ to offer integrated deals
• ANZ's venture capital partner, "1835i", acquired the business in 2022, investing around $100m
• Reportedly, ANZ was unhappy with the performance of the business, leading to the closure

One question that we have lingers: Why just cease operations and not sell the business? I'm no expert, but even if the business wasn't growing to their liking, underperforming or even haemorrhaging money, surely a database of 2.5 million engaged consumers still has a lot of value to a prospective buyer.

Nonetheless, this is what they've decided to do and while it does give us one less cashback option when searching for cashback deals, there are other options around for Aussie consumers.

While more options make a competitive landscape, leading to better deals, perhaps this paves the way for new platforms to enter the market.

Alternatives to Cashrewards

Australian alternatives to Cashrewards exist, they may not all be Aussie companies, but are active the the Australian market.

Shopback

The Singapore based platform, now the largest one on the Australian scene by member numbers (~1.5 million), offer competitive deals and occasionally some impressive boosts.

TopCashback

TopCashback started in the UK and expanded to Australia in 2023. Their baseline cashback deals tend to be pretty good, in many cases just edging over the competitors (staying true to their name).

Cashback Australia

The new kid on the block, popping onto the scene in 2025. Pretty good timing to enter the market, right? Cashback Australia does appear to be an Aussie startup and while the brands offered are limited right now, we expect more to be added as they grow.

See our full write up on Cashback Australia.

Simply Best Coupons

Last (and to be honest, also least) is Simply Best Coupons. This platform rarely offers higher cashback than the others, but is good to keep in mind as an option for those occasions it does or for some of the more unique stores supported by the site.

Frequent Flyer Platforms

Don't forget to also consider frequent flyer points. If you use them well, they could be even more rewarding than a cashback offer. See tip #2 in our 3 Tips To Maximise Cashback article.

Signup Bonus Offers

If you're new to any of these sites, be sure to check for any signup bonuses. Here are the current bonus links for a little boost to get you started.

Conclusion

Existing Cashrewards members should withdraw any remaining funds as soon as possible and consider the other platforms available.

They will be missed from the Aussie cashback landscape, but it's not the end for us cashback hunters. Plenty of options still exist for great deals. Rewardist helps to keep track of those options in one place.

Rewardist don't represent Cashrewards in any way and this article purely reflects our opinions, we just like to do the deep diving for you to help maximise your cashback & rewards when shopping online.

We hope you found this article helpful. Happy Shopping!