You can pay between £3.49 and £7.99 a month to get free delivery and other discounts.
Takeaways might be tasty but they aren’t a cheap (or healthy) habit. And once you add in the service and delivery charges you get on top from the likes of Deliveroo and Uber Eats it can quickly add up to much more than you intended.
Deliveroo knows this, so it offers a delivery subscription service, which gives free delivery on orders for a monthly fee. Amazon Prime customers also get it included in their subscription.
But is paying for a monthly membership going to save you any money? Here’s our take.
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What is Deliveroo Plus?
You’re basically signing up for a delivery pass with a monthly charge. Depending on the tier you select you’ll get free delivery when you spend over a certain amount.
However, you will still pay the service charge on each order. Deliveroo also promises that members will receive extra “Plus” discounts – we’ll take a look at these further down the article.
You are only tied into one month at a time so you can pick and choose when you want to use it. However, it will auto-renew if you don’t cancel.
Deliveroo Plus costs
There are two levels you can choose between:
Deliveroo Plus Silver
- Cost: £3.49 a month
- Minimum order for free delivery: £15
- Minimum order for free grocery delivery: £25
Until 31 January 2024, the minimum order for restaurant orders was £25, so the lower £15 level will mean single people can still take advantage of the scheme.
Deliveroo Plus Gold
- Cost: £7.99 (was £11.49 a month)
- Minimum order for free delivery: £10
This £10 level applies to both restaurant and grocery orders.
You can order back-to-back free deliveries to different addresses with Gold, so you could potentially share your membership and split the cost.
In addition, from 1 May, Gold members get 10% credit back on every eligible order over £30. This cashback can then be redeemed on your next order. You can save up your cashback and stack it in one order, too.
Essentially, if you reckon you order more than £80 in takeaways each, you might make back the difference as well as get the other benefits, but this might be a fairly high threshold for a lot of households.
Other Deliveroo costs
You’ll still have to pay delivery charges if your order is less than the minimum set by your subscription level, and there could be a small order fee added on top.
In addition, as of 1 May, you’re charged an additional delivery fee when a restaurant is further away — we’re not sure how much this is yet but we’ve reached out to Deliveroo to find out. This applies to all Deliveroo customers but will be discounted for Silver and Plus members.
Though you’ll get free delivery if you reach the minimum spend, there is still the service charge to pay. And from 31 January 2024 that increased from 5% of the order (capped at £1.49) to 10% (capped at £2.49). There’s a minimum charge of 99p.
Deliveroo Plus discounts
Deliveroo Plus free trial
You can usually get one 14-day free trial per account. You can cancel at any time before the trial ends but you’ll sacrifice any remaining days left. But forget to cancel and you will get charged.
If that happens, you’ve still got a 14-day cooling off period to request a full refund – as long as you don’t use the service in that time.
You’ll see the option to sign up in the app or on the site. If it’s not there then go to settings.
Free Deliveroo Plus via Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime members can get a free year of Deliveroo Plus Silver, worth £41.88. This (as you can see above) entitles you to free delivery if you spend £15 or more on an order. Here’s how to claim the offer.
If you end your Prime membership during the year you’ll also end your Deliveroo Plus membership. At the end of the year your membership will end – unless you had a membership running before activating this offer. In that case it’ll revert to whatever plan you were on.
Amazon Prime costs £95 a year and comes with free Amazon delivery and free Amazon Prime Video streaming (among other extras). You can also get a 30-day free trial.
If you already pay for Deliveroo Plus then it’s worth considering whether getting Prime as well for an extra £53.12 could be a decent deal. But following my year without Amazon, I’ve come to the conclusion that paying for Prime really isn’t worth it.
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Deliveroo Plus rewards
These extra discounts have the potential to save you cash – but it’s a bit of a postcode lottery.
These are typically ones where you need to order a number of times at participating restaurants in a set time to get money off a fourth order – but the chances of you finding the restaurant you want to order from listed in this promotion are slim. And it could tempt you to order more than you normally would just to get a smallish discount.
If you pay for Gold you’ll also get £5 credit if your order arrives later than initially expected.
So, you probably don’t want to sign up expecting to save extra from the membership, though it’s a handy bonus if you do manage to.
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Is Deliveroo Plus a good idea?
Andy’s Analysis
Taking a look at some of the delivery charges near me, they range from 79p through to £3.49 – with the majority around the £3 mark. Have a look at your most recent orders and see what you’ve been paying each month.
I’d imagine that if you are someone that regularly orders at least two takeaways from Deliveroo over £15, then you will hopefully get your £3.49 subscription fee back after one or two orders, maybe three.
It’s a tougher sell for people who won’t hit the £15 minimum spend for the Silver option. With the cost of the next tier at £7.99, earning 10% cashback would mean you’d need to spend about £80 per month on takeaways to make the month back. In delivery charges, you’d need to order at least three times a month (probably more) to get the month back. This can be harder to justify (unless you split the membership with a friend or family member at a different address).
So do the (quick) maths to work out whether you’ll actually benefit from this scheme or whether you’ll actually be spending more than the actual deliveries cost.
But even if you think that makes sense, there are some wider issues you need to consider.
First, if you sign up for a service like this it will be really tempting to order more takeaways. And that means you will spend more.
Second, it ties you into using just Deliveroo. And if you want to order from a restaurant on another app or direct, then you’ll have to pay a separate delivery charge.
Finally, it’s actually often cheaper to order direct from the takeaway. Since Deliveroo (and the other apps) take a decent cut of the sale, prices can be higher than if you go direct. Plus you need to factor in that service charge on top. Though sadly fewer and fewer restaurants are offering their own delivery service.
So check out the websites for your faves, and see if the prices are lower, and if delivery is free. If so that sounds like a better option – plus the restaurant will get to keep more of the money.
But if you order at least once a month from a Deliveroo only takeaway and spend at least £15 each time, then the family pass at £3.49 will mean you at least break even. That means there’s not much harm giving it a go – as long as you don’t start ordering more frequently than if you didn’t have it!
How to cancel Deliveroo Plus
Simply head to your account and select the option to cancel your membership. If that doesn’t work you can email [email protected].
Avoid supermarket orders on takeaway apps
Finally, a reminder that ordering from supermarkets on Deliveroo and Uber Eats is generally going to be more expensive than doing it yourself or ordering from their own delivery services.
I’ve written in more detail about how much more this costs here.
Deliveroo promo codes
New users can also save money on their first order by using a promo code. I’ll list the best ones of these on my takeaway deals page.