Silver surfers flock to cashback sites
Silver surfers are flocking to money-saving sites in a bid to cut the rising cost of living.
ILoveCashback.com has seen an 18% rise in the number of over 55s joining the site since November.
ILoveCashback's figures come hot on the heels of reports the average family is having to spend an extra £1,300 this year just to maintain their standard of living, according to calculations by pensions company MGM Advantage.
New National Office Statistics figures for the numbers of internet users also back ILoveCashback's findings with the biggest increases in net users being those aged 55-64, and significant increases for the over 75s.
"More and more senior surfers are turning to cashback sites to help manage their cost of living. The rate at which they're arriving on our site has grown quickly," said ILoveCashback.com, managing director, Brad Blake.
"The economic situation means people of all ages are looking to cut costs and the internet and what it can offer spans the generations more now, than ever before,'
ILoveCashback.com offers price comparison for over 9 million products with more than 1,200 voucher codes for over 1,800 UK stores.
Britons are said to use the web to shop more avidly than any other major country.
Over 75s are now also increasingly discovering the net, according to the National Office of Statistics Office
"Pushing money into the economy by quantative easing might be whittling away pensioner spending power but it seems they are turning to online shopping to save cash, too,' said Blake.
"As things get tighter for the now net-savvy older generation, this is where they can save money.
"ILoveCashback strongly supports the Government's drive to help people get online. We urge everyone to support friends and families and get them using the internet in order to save money."
National Office for Statistics state there have been decreases in the numbers of non-internet users in the internet in all age groups. The largest decreases were amongst those aged 55 to 64, where there were 86,000 fewer non-users by 2011 Q4, compared with Q3.
There also were significant decreases in non-users the other age groups, including a drop of 55,000 amongst those aged 75 and over.
In relation to income, of those adults in employment whose gross weekly pay was less than £200 per week, 8.1 percent had not used the internet. The proportion of internet non-users declines with each successively higher weekly pay band. Amongst those paid £800 to £899 a week, there were non internet-users.
