Wowcher - February 2026

This week’s Watchdog VT examines concerns about Wowcher, the discount website that sells heavily reduced deals through third-party merchants. Whilst many offers appear genuine, the investigation looks at cases where digital subscription deals left customers out of pocket, after turning out to be scams.

Nicola from Hertfordshire bought a 12-month Spotify Premium subscription for £35.99 via merchant Software News Limited. The login details she received appeared to belong to someone else, and Spotify later confirmed the deal was fraudulent. Although Wowcher refunded her, similar complaints have appeared online.

Watchdog also heard from Anne in Northumberland, who purchased a 12-month YouTube Premium subscription for £49.99, from the same merchant. After receiving incorrect logins and replacements, instead of a refund, she eventually got her money back. But the listing remained live and had reportedly been bought by more than a thousand customers, despite this type of subscription not being allowed for resale, in the UK.

Tech expert David McClelland says these logins often come from cheaper overseas markets or potentially stolen credentials, and that listings should be removed quickly once flagged. We put this to Wowcher and it said.

When we wrote to Wowcher, it said it was sorry to hear of Anne’s experience. It said it had been investigating the YouTube deal, listed on its platform by Software News Limited, before Watchdog wrote to it. Wowcher explained that the deal was uploaded to its site via a new integration the company had recently launched with a European marketplace platform. It said it will be improving its internal vetting processes to ensure that these types of deals, where merchants are attempting to exploit regional price differences in breach of reseller rules, cannot be sold on its site. It confirmed that the deal has now been closed.

We also wrote to Software News Ltd but it didn’t respond.