Free money in the UK | Genuine ways to make extra money for free

Get £5 for opening a Monzo Account

I’ve always been a big fan of Monzo and I was encouraging people to open a bank account with the online bank long before they reintroduced the £5 sign-up offer.

That’s right, you can get a completely free fiver by opening a Monzo account. Not only is this a cracking free cash offer, but Monzo is one of the best bank accounts around. Check out my review if you want to know what all the hype is about!

Earn free money with Trading 212

The Trading 212 app is something I’ve been promoting over on Instagram for a while. If you use my sign up link and follow the steps outlined below, you’ll get a completely free share.

This is free money for UK people only.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Download the app using this link
• Enter your details. It will probably ask for your National Insurance number. Don’t panic if it does. This is totally normal practice. The site does this to prove that you’re a UK resident
• Go to the orange ‘investing’ section of the app. This is super important. You need to ensure you’re in this section, because if you’re in one of the others, you won’t get your free share
• Deposit £1
• Wait…
• You will be given a free share within a couple of days. This part is a bit of a lottery. You could end up with a share worth between £7 and £8 (Under Armour shares seem common), or you could end up with a chunkier share. My friend got a free Nike share worth around £80!
• You can cash the share in after three days and you’ll be able to send the cash back to your bank account 30 days after you originally received the share

Once you’ve signed up, you’ll get 20 referral links that you can share with friends and family. Each time they sign up, you both get a free share. 

Trading 212 is an investment app and I’m not advocating trading. If you decide to, that is, of course, up to you. But regardless, this app is a really easy way to make decent cash. So far I have withdrawn £103.14. That is completely free money. I decided to send mine to my emergency savings fund, so it’s given that account a nice boost and I’m earning interest on top!

Make money with Freetrade 

This app works in a similar way to Trading 212. Your share could be worth up to £200. Again, this is free money for UK-based people.

Here’s what to do:

• Sign up here and open a Freetrade account
• Deposit £1 and wait for your mystery share to appear in your account
• In 7-10 days your free share will hatch and you’ll see what you’ve been awarded. In my experience, the free shares tend to be revealed on a Wednesday
• Sell the share and withdraw the money

You don’t, of course, get free stuff for nothing. Apps like this offer incentives because they are hoping that you’ll start using their platform to invest money. Unless you know what you’re doing, I’d suggest that you sign up for the free share, cash it in and transfer the funds to your bank account!

Earn free money with Airtime Rewards

Airtime Rewards is a cashback app where you earn money off your phone bill, just by shopping with partnered retailers, as you usually would. You do have to spend this money on your phone bill, but as you pay for that anyway, this is as good as getting free money.

Once you’ve downloaded and set up the app and set it up (it isn’t difficult), you will passively earn free money that you can put towards your phone bill. It’s really is that simple. Use my promo code for an additional bonus: YKQDXNCK and read my full review if you’re you’re interested in finding out more about how it works.

Make free cash with loyalty schemes

I’m not about to suggest that you go out spending money in order to earn some reward points. But we all spend money, so it is worth signing up to the loyalty schemes that your favourite shops offer. If you’re going there anyway, then you may as well benefit from the freebies that the store is offering customers.

If, for example, you’re a coffee drinker then you need to sign up to the Costa Coffee app. Once you’ve downloaded it, you’ll get 100 points (worth £1) and then an additional 200 points (worth £2) when you buy your first coffee. The points add up quickly on this app and you can then spend them in Costa Coffee. I know this one isn’t technically ‘free money’, but it is free coffee, which is a pretty damned good alternative if you ask me! Getting stuff that you’d buy anyway is as good as free money in my eyes!

Some times, shops that have loyalty schemes run special promotions which effectively result in free cash. For example, Nectar will occasionally give out free points for opening their app, or spinning a virtual prize wheel. They also gave customers an annual opportunity to double up to 10,000 points (worth £50 in cash). This meant you could potentially get £50 in free money by using this promotion to its full advantage. This tended to happen around the end of October and once you’d done this, you could spend the money on toys, clothes, electricals and homeware. The last double-up promotion ran from Wednesday 28 October-Tuesday November, 2020. They cancelled it in 2021, but we hope the event will return in 2022.

Boots also run double-point promotions, but remember, this is only a way of making extra cash if you were buying it anyway.

Make free money with cashback 

Cashback sites are another great way of getting free money if you’re based in the UK. You click from your cashback account throgh to an online retailer and then you receive a kickback once you’ve made your purchase. You can use virtually any device, but obviously the purchase needs to be made online. 

If you were buying the item anyway, then cashback websites offer genuine free money that you wouldn’t have seen if you’d bought direct and hadn’t gone through a cashback site. You should also keep your eye out for cashback deals and offers, as often you will be incentivised with extra bonuses. 

These types of websites and apps are brilliant, because they don’t impact your consumer rights and virtually anybody can sign up for an account. If you’re a student then you’re free to join, but some companies do ask that you are over 18. TopCashback is my favourite cashback website. You can find out why here. Once you’re a member, you’ll also get a referral code which you can share with others to earn even more cash. 

More money with with Shoppix

With the Shoppix app you get points for taking pictures of your receipts. You then convert those points into money or gift vouchers. If you’re interested in doing this, then check out my comprehensive review. 

Money from surveys

If you’re looking to make some extra cash on the side, then you should consider doing online surveys. You can earn anything from 9p to £15 each time you do this. The work is irregular and you won’t pay your bills just by doing surveys, but it’s definitely worth looking into if you’re after extra cash. Prolific is my favourite way to access free paid surveys. 

Money – other stuff you can do

Some people swear by matched betting and whilst I do think that UK residents can exert free money from using that system, I don’t believe its a risk free pastime, so I wouldn’t personally recommend it. If you do decided to go down that route, then make sure you do your research and check in with yourself regularly to ensure that it’s still working for you.

Is it worth finding extra money sources?

In my opinion, free money is always worth seeking out. Using these hacks can also help you to diversify your income. But remember, if you make over £1,000 using these free money methods, then you will liable for extra tax payments. 

I’ll update this article as and when I discover other worthwhile ways of making free money.

If you’re under 18 and you’re looking to make extra money, then you may find this list of online jobs for teens useful. There are also ways to save money, which you can look into.

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