I have contacted Quidco yet again (my second contact with them ) on the 3rd of Augustas my transaction was validated on the 28th June. This is the reply I received
"Your American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card cashback query validated on 28 June 2010 and payment can take up to 120 days from that date to be sent to us from the retailer, although it is usually sooner than that. On receipt of payment your purchase will show a status of received and will be paid in the next payment run.
We have two payment runs each month - on the first working days following the 1st and 15th day of the month.
Working days are classed as Monday to Friday and exclude bank holidays (although we still answer customer queries 7 days a week). An example would be as follows:
* The 1st day of the month is a Saturday - the payment run would go on Monday the 3rd.
* The 15th day of the month is a Sunday and the Monday is a Bank holiday - the payment run would go on Tuesday 17th.
Please allow up to 5 days for a payment to reach your bank account and up to 14 days for a PayPal account
As always, please contact us again if you need more further help from us."
So up to 120 days from the date it was validated v( v( . Ridiculous.

! . Massive faux pas IMHO by Amex.
DL