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October 28, 2024   |   Articles

Christmas savings schemes: boost your supermarket spending

Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Iceland and Co-op all offer Christmas schemes, and there’s a trick to get the bonus without risking your cash

The idea behind these supermarket savings schemes is to help people gradually save up some money that can be used at Christmas when food bills are usually higher.

As an incentive, some supermarkets offer a small bonus, normally between 2% and 6%. But you can take advantage of a loophole where you can get the full bonus paid out, yet you’d only need to “save” your cash for a day or two.

Here’s how they work, and how to get the best return possible.

This article might contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund the blog. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or the blog’s independence. Read more here.

Why I’m not a fan of Christmas saving stamps

First, these are marketed as alternatives to saving at a bank. Well, any money held in a bank is protected if the bank goes bust. If these supermarkets were to go under or you lost the gift card or voucher once it’s been paid out, you’d lose all your money.

You’ve also got less flexibility of how, when and where you spend your savings via these schemes. They tend to require you to spend your stamps in December, and obviously you can only spend them at one retailer.

Not only does that restrict the supermarket you use, but if you have an emergency you can’t use the money you put into stamps for any other reason. You might also not get change from your vouchers, pushing you to buy things you don’t need to hit the voucher value.

There are other options for people who want to save regularly in the build-up to Christmas, with banks and building societies currently paying rates of up to 6%. You can find the best rates in our summary.

So generally I’d say stay clear. But there is a trick where you can avoid most of the pitfalls but gain the free bonus.

Getting the most out of Christmas bonus schemes

Here’s the cash hack. The bonus on these cards isn’t paid until a set bonus day. So it’s only the amount saved on that date that counts. Plus there’s no requirement to save each week or month to use these schemes.

This means you can instead pay in as much as you can (up to the set limits) just before the scheme closes. Literally on the final day if you want.

Say you put in £120. You’ll then be entitled to the same bonus as someone who’s saved £10 a month since last Christmas.

Until you do this, you should be paying your money into a high-paying current account. So you’ll have earnt money in those accounts too. Double win!

But just make sure you’re aware of the risks and limitations with each card, such as deadlines to spend the money on your supermarket Christmas card.

The Christmas saver schemes

We’ve explained each of the main schemes and their deadlines below. But before you try this trick out yourself, do make sure you can spend the amount you save at that supermarket in the time given.

We are talking about small amounts of money unless you buy multiple cards. So it’s only worth the effort if you are shopping at those retailers anyway.

Asda Christmas Savings Card 2024

You can collect your card in-store, and then register it online.

The deadline to add funds onto an Asda Christmas Savings Card is 5pm Sunday 10 November 2024. The bonus will be applied by 9am on Monday 11 November.

The bonus increases the more you save

  • £1 bonus when you save between £30 and £79
  • £3 bonus when you save between £80 and £129
  • £6 bonus when you save between £130 and £179
  • £9 bonus when you save between £180 and £229
  • £12 bonus when you save between £230 and £279
  • £15 bonus when you save £280 or more (max amount per card)

With this and all the other schemes, those savings are not cumulative. So put £80 on the card and you’ll only get £3, not £1 for the first £70 and another £3 for getting over the £80 threshold.

However, you don’t need to put the money down gradually – you can do it in lump sums. We’ve found that you can put up to £140 in at a time, so you can make two payments to get the full amount available.

The most effective way to do this is to keep your cash in a savings account, and then pay whatever you can afford by 10 November to earn the bonus.

With the highest level (£280) it’s the equivalent of 5.3% extra free. If you only save £79 it’s 1.25% extra.

There’s no limit to how many cards you can have. This could be useful if you’re short of hitting the bottom of a new level. For example, it’s better to have two £30 cards than one with £60.

Also you can use them all year round, not just in December.

BEST VALUE: £280 earns £15 = 5.3% bonus

Asda Rewards Cashpot 2024

Asda has an additional Christmas savings scheme for Asda Rewards members.

The Christmas Saver Cashpot is a feature in the Rewards app that works by allowing you to transfer money earned from your regular Asda Cashpot to the Christmas Saver Cashpot. The maximum amount you can transfer is £300 in total.

Until 3 November, some customers have the opportunity to earn a £5 bonus in their Christmas Saver Cashpot by completing a mission. If you have a bonus mission, you’ll find it in your Asda Rewards app. The missions vary by customer – we’ve seen a mission to earn the £5 bonus by completing one shop over £40 and also a mission to shop twice before 3 November to earn the bonus.

You can transfer money into your Christmas Saver Cashpot until 3 November 2024 and you can convert your Christmas Saver Cashpot into vouchers to spend at Asda, in-store or online, from 8 November until 31 December 2024, after which they will expire.

Co-op Saving Stamp 2024

You buy actual physical stamps with the Co-op scheme. Each stamp costs £1 and you put them in a booklet which you can use at the till whenever you want.

But to get a bonus (£2) you need to have filled a full book, which is 48 stamps. Hand this over at the till and you’ll get £50 knocked off your bill. That’s the equivalent of 4% extra. This bonus is only available in December, though you can use and buy the stamps every month of the year.

There’s no limit to the number of cards you can have, so you can have multiple cards to add stamps to. But make sure you don’t lose your cards as there’s no protection.

So the best option here is to buy 48 stamps just before you want to shop. Stick them all in, then hand it over. As with Morrisons, you will need to spend the full amount. So that’s a shop of £50 or more.

BEST VALUE: £48 earns £2 = 4% bonus

Iceland Bonus Card Christmas boost 2024

This scheme from Iceland runs all year so isn’t technically a Christmas scheme, but the loophole works the same. You get £1 for every £20 you add to your account, worth 5%.  The bonus should be added within 48 hours.

This year, the Christmas bonus is available if you are invited to take part by email. If you hit the savings target of £100 by 4 November, you’ll get a £10 Christmas bonus on top of the standard bonus. You should receive your bonus by 22 November.

The £10 Christmas bonus must be spent by 23 December 2024.

You can use the app or pick up a temporary card in Iceland stores, and will be posted a full card once you register online.

It’s a limit of one Bonus Card per invited customer and there’s a maximum of £1,000 that can be added to your card. Cards expire 24 months after you last use them.

BEST VALUE: £100 earns £15 = 15% bonus

Morrisons Christmas Savers 2024

The Morrisons Christmas card is linked to the Morrisons More app. Morrisons Christmas Saver stamps are purchased in-store by asking the cashier to add your chosen amount of digital stamps to your account. You will need to go online to monitor and manage your savings.

The cut-off point to buy stamps is 31 October 2024. The total saved and bonus added will be converted into a voucher to use in-store or online. You have to select on your My Morrisons account which you want. If it’s in-store you have to collect them yourself.

You also can’t get change from a voucher. So if you have a £100 voucher you need to spend £100 or more in a single transaction at the till.

The maximum bonus you can get is £6. It’s calculated as follows

  • £1 bonus when you save between £49 and £96
  • £3 bonus when you save between £97 and £145
  • £4 bonus when you save between £146 and £193
  • £6 bonus when you save £194

The biggest return is £3 when you spend £97 or £6 when you add £194, gaining you 3%. I’d be wary of adding too much to this card as you need to spend your voucher in a single transaction, and there’s the end of the year deadline to spend it.

BEST VALUE: £97 earns £3 = 3% bonus

Sainsbury’s Christmas Club 2024 (including Argos)

The money you save on the Sainsbury’s Christmas Club card can be used online and in-store at Sainsbury’s and Argos. The bonus is worth 5% on every £50 you save.

The deadline for this one is 1 November 2024. Whatever you have on the card by 11:59 pm that evening will be used to calculate the bonus. There’s a minimum of £50 and a maximum of £500. Here’s how much you’ll get:

Card balanceBonus Value
£0.00 – £49.99£0.00
£50 – £99.99£2.50
£100 – £149.99£5.00
£150 – £199.99£7.50
£200 – £249.99£10.00
£250 – £299.99£12.50
£300 – £349.99£15.00
£350 – £399.99£17.50
£400 – £449.99£20.00
£450-£499.99£22.50
£500 and over£25.00

You can only add money to the card in a Sainsbury’s store, both at a normal and self-service checkout.

The bonus will be added to your card by the end of November and you’ll have until the date printed on the card to use it.

BEST VALUE: every £50 earns £2.50 = 5% bonus

Tesco Christmas Saver 2024

The Tesco Christmas Saver 2024 is live so you can start saving now. Here’s how it works.

You’ll need to opt in to switch your usual Clubcard vouchers for Christmas vouchers before 17 October 2024. 

To earn a Christmas bonus, you can top-up your Clubcard with money throughout the year via the Tesco app or Clubcard website, up to £360. Just click on the Christmas Savers banner on the app or website and select top up now. Bonuses are calculated as follows:

  • £1.50 bonus when you save between £25 and £49.50
  • £3 bonus when you save between £50 and £99.50
  • £6 bonus when you save between £100 and £199.50
  • £12 bonus when you save £200 to £360

You get the top-ups and any bonuses sent as vouchers in your November Clubcard statement, alongside any Clubcard vouchers you’ve earned. You can then spend them in Tesco online, in-store or on petrol. You can’t boost them with Clubcard partners.

Clubcard vouchers and top-up vouchers are valid for 2 years, and the bonus vouchers are valid for 3 months.

BEST VALUE: £100 earns £6 or £200 earns £12 = 6% bonus

Saver scheme deadlines

To make sure you don’t miss out, here are the last dates to add money to the schemes for 2024:

SupermarketLast date to add moneyMaximum bonus
Tesco17 October 20246%
Morrisons31 October 20243%
Sainsbury’s1 November 20245%
Iceland6 November 202420%
Asda10 November 20245.3%
Co-op31 December 20244%

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October 23, 2024   |   Articles

How to get free Amazon returns

The reason you choose when returning an item can affect how much money you get refunded

Amazon’s dominance and often low prices means you’ve probably bought something from the online giant over the last few years – even if, like me, you’ve been trying to support local businesses.

But what happens if you don’t want or need something you’ve purchased? Well it’s pretty easy to return something online with Amazon. But one of the steps is more important than you probably realise – the reason why you want to make the return. Pick the wrong one and you may end up having to pay the postage.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Amazon’s returns policy

As with most online purchases from any retailer, you’ve 14 days after you get the goods to return them. You don’t have to justify the return. In most cases, Amazon actually extends this period to 30 days.

A few items can’t be returned, generally anything that’s been customised or is perishable. You also can’t return media (such as CDs or DVDs) that have had their seal broken. You can read about these and a few other exemptions on Amazon.

But just because you can return a purchase within this time, it doesn’t mean it’ll be free.

Andy Says: Think twice if you’re returning to a small retailer

It’s worth noting that the refund rules apply across all of Amazon. But not everything you buy with the retailer is actually sold by them. It might not even be dispatched by them.

When you buy from third parties, they’ll obviously have to shoulder the costs of returns. And this can make quite a difference to their profit margins. 

So if you are returning the item because it genuinely is one of the chargeable reasons, consider whether you really should opt for a free option instead.

If it’s sold by Amazon though, I’d say it’s fair game to get them to fund the return costs. If it’s “fulfilled by Amazon” or sold by another shop, then it’s best to pay to return (as long as it’s not their fault).

When Amazon will charge you to return an item

There are three options you can choose which will mean you will get your refund minus £3.99. These are:

  • Accidental order
  • Better price available
  • No longer needed

The first one is easy to do with Amazon’s “One Click” buying option. I know I’ve accidentally hit that button when browsing but realised in time to cancel the order before dispatch. But if you’ve not realised until the package arrives at your front door Amazon wants to charge you the cost of sending it back.

This is possibly also the option you’d choose for any mistakes you made – perhaps you selected the wrong colour or didn’t properly read the description.

The common theme with the other two options is that you’d rather not keep the purchase, either because you want to pick it up for less elsewhere or you simply changed your mind. In each of these instances, Amazon is saying yes you can get your money back, but we’re going to charge you for having to bring the items back to the warehouse.

It is possible however, to avoid these charges by choosing one of the other options instead.

When Amazon won’t charge you to return an item

Now if you’ve brought something that is broken or faulty then Amazon has to either offer you a replacement or a full refund. And you’ll also get the delivery cost back. You will have to explain how it or the packaging is broken.

You can also get a free return and full refund if an item has arrived after it’s estimated despatch time. This is a really useful one. I think lots of people shop on Amazon for the fast delivery, often when they’ve left something to the last minute. And if a delay means you get something too late, then it’s worth returning the items and getting the full refund.

But what if it’s not damaged and arrived on time? Well, there are alternatives reasons you can choose, including the following:

  • Incompatible or not useful for the intended purpose
  • Performance or quality not adequate
  • Description on website was not accurate
  • Unauthorised purchase

I think the first three here are all justifiable selections if what you’ve bought isn’t what you hoped it would be. I wouldn’t use unauthorised purchase unless this really has happened – which could well happen if you’ve got kids talking to your Alexa smart speaker!

A final group where you can get free returns, and all your money back, is anything categorised as clothes, shoes, jewellery or watches. With these, you have to be able to try something on, so it’s near on impossible to know if it’s right before you order. If you’re not with Prime, here are some tricks to save money on your Amazon delivery.

What happens if you paid for speedier delivery?

One caveat with these reasons for returning is that you’ll only get the cost of the cheapest delivery refunded. Now, if you’re a Prime member buying from Amazon then this is irrelevant, as you won’t have been charged delivery.

But non-Prime members, or anyone buying from a third party might have paid extra. Of course, if the item is faulty you will get all the money back.

How to return purchases to Amazon

It’s actually very easy. Go to the orders section of your Amazon account and find the item you want to send back. Choose one of the reasons above which gives you free returns, then select whether you want a replacement or a refund.

If you choose refund you can have the money put back on your payment card or added to your Amazon account. Credit to your account will happen as soon as the item is received. If you choose your card, it’ll take 5 to 7 days.

Then you’ll be able to choose your return option. You can drop your parcel off at a number of drop off points including a Post Office or an Evri ParcelShop or arrange a collection. You don’t even need a label for some options, as they can be provided when you hand over your package.

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October 23, 2024   |   Articles

Is it worth selling old books, DVDs, games and CDs online?

We review which site is best for selling DVDs, books and CDs

Over the years I’ve accumulated hundreds of CDs, books and DVDs. Yet thanks to Spotify, Netflix and my Kindle they’re just gathering dust. So if you want to sell books, CDs or DVDs then trade-in apps may be your answer. We put the market favourites to the test to see if you’ll make pennies or pounds from your unwanted items.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Sites to sell CDs, books, games and DVDs

I looked at three different companies which all promise to buy your unwanted physical media and also compared these to what you could potentially make on eBay and Amazon Seller.

The apps I used were:

  • Music Magpie
  • We buy books
  • World of Books (known as Ziffit at the time of writing)

All three also work by entering details into a website if you don’t want to use a phone.

I also looked for others out there and it seems that MoMox and Zapper are not currently up and running.

How these buying sites work

  • Just scan the barcode with your phone and instantly receive an offer (or not) for your media.
  • Reach the minimum amount – one of the frustrations with some of these apps is you can’t trade in until you reach a minimum amount. This figure ranges from an achievable £5 through to £15, and when many items are offered to you for 10p, that’s quite a few to sell before you reach the threshold.
  • Package and post – once you’ve accepted the figures for the trade, you need to box the titles up. Most allow you to drop the box off, though some will collect by courier. There isn’t usually a charge for this.
  • Wait for payment – you only get paid once the items have been received and checked. With CDs, DVDs and games in particular this involves a condition check. If they aren’t of the desired quality you might get less cash, or even none at all.

How the trade-in apps fared

Having just moved house, I was still clearing out as I unpacked boxes and found books, CDs, DVDs and sheet music books that I hadn’t touched in years. So I grabbed five of each and used the apps below to see just how much money I could make. You can sell computer games too but I didn’t have any to sell.

I’ve summarised the results in this table so you can see how Ziffit (now World of Books), Music Magpie and We Buy Books compared:

Trading appAmount offered (for 24 items)Minimum payoutExtra incentives
We Buy Books£3.92£1510% extra with code APP10
World of Books (was Ziffit)£3.41£510% extra for new traders with code WELCOME10
Music Magpie£1.52£510% extra with code GET10EXTRA

We Buy Books

We Buy Books accepted a few more items than the others (10 out of 20) but offered slightly lower individual prices. And the funny thing is, quite contrary to their name, they didn’t accept any of the five books I tried to sell! That said, I’ve used them to sell books before and had some success, mostly 10p offers but I did get a random £6 offer for a grown-up version of a Where’s Wally book!

I was disappointed this time with their offer prices for the sheet music books. Most offers were around 50p which I guess is better than the price they offer for most books, but the one I found could possibly sell for around £25 on Amazon, they only offered just 12p for!

Summary: OK for sheet music books and DVDs but didn’t accept any of my reading books. It would take quite a lot of products to get to the £15 minimum for payout, so not great if you only have a few items to sell.

World of Books (was Ziffit)

Ziffit, as they were known as at the time of research, were good for their offers on the sheet music books and DVDs but only offered 10p on one book and made zero offers on the CDS. In total, they made offers for 9 out of the 20 items with prices ranging from 10p to 50p, so nothing to shout about. 

Summary: Good for sheet music, although don’t expect any offers higher than 50p. The £5 minimum payout is much more achievable and good if you have fewer items to sell. Not great for CDs or books in this particular case.

Music Magpie

Music Magpie would only take 7 out of 20 the items and the prices they offered were very low – in fact the best offer they gave was 40p for a Shawshank Redemption Blu Ray. They didn’t accept any of the books and offered just pennies for the sheet music books. They gave more offers for CDs than the other apps, but don’t expect anything big, the maximum was 22p.

Summary: Better than Ziffit and Music Magpie for CDs, but low prices across the board. £5 minimum payout is easier to achieve, so good if you’ve only a few items to get rid of.

Are these trade-in apps worth it?

From my test the answer is generally no. This kind of physical media just doesn’t hold its value, and with people also not really buying these items second hand, these websites don’t always offer a price which makes it worthwhile.

But you will get larger amounts for special editions, rare items, recent releases and textbooks, though you’ll probably get more for them on eBay.

And if you’re struggling for extra cash and don’t think you have the time to eBay your unwanted items, then these sites may just be the quick answer you’re looking for.

Are Amazon Seller and eBay better?

Since none of the buying apps came up trumps, I thought I’d compare their offers to what I could get elsewhere. CEX doesn’t buy books, but you can list these on eBay and Amazon (through Amazon Seller).

Obviously this is based on an estimate of what you could potentially make. For eBay, I looked at the same items and what price they are currently offered for. And for Amazon Seller, they give you the price after fees for the lowest price the item has sold at.

Other things to take into account are the photos, listing and packing for making Ebay sales, which all takes time and it would have to be done for individual items (although you could possibly sell in bulk). For Amazon Seller, if you go down the route of FBA (fulfilled by Amazon), then there are the storage fees to take into account if the products don’t sell.

And with both eBay and Amazon, there’s no definite sale. You could be holding on to the items for months or even years.

That could be an issue, unlike with the apps mentioned above where you have a definite income (once the products have been received and assessed).

How much could I make?

So what can I potentially make from Amazon Seller or eBay? Amazon Seller to me seems the best to go with but it requires some work. For the 20 products I’m planning to sell I could potentially make around £70 and on eBay about £60. But neither of these estimates are reality until the products sell.

Both estimates are a lot higher than the £3 odd offered by the buying apps above. The biggest difference in price I found between the trade-in apps and Amazon, was for a City of Angels music book. This was worth 43p on Ziffit and 12p on both We Buy Books and Music Magpie, yet Amazon predicts it could sell for £24.65.

That said, both Amazon Seller and eBay do require a lot more effort and man-hours than the trade-in sites, but I could make more money from them if my items go on to sell. But for convenience, the question is whether I should just take the £3.92 offered by We Buy Books!

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October 23, 2024   |   Articles

What to do with old coins and banknotes?

There are an estimated 76 million old £1 coins still in circulation and £7.2bn in old notes

How many old notes and coins are still in circulation?

A BBC Wales investigation found that a staggering £7.2bn of old-style banknotes were still out there.

The breakdown of old notes was:

  • 110 million £5 notes
  • 62 million £10 notes
  • 171 million £20 notes
  • 52 million £50 notes

And there are coins too. The current pound coin, with its many sides, two colours and other anti-counterfeiting measures has been around since May 2017. The old round coin stopped being accepted in shops six months later.

At the time there were thought to be 500 million of the old coins in circulation, so the fact there are still 76 million out there is surprising. There’s a good chance many of them are lost forever, but a huge chunk of that £76 million pounds has to be just sitting in our homes.

The best bank switch bonuses

Check out my list of all the offers you can get when opening a new current account

What to do if you have an old £1 coin

If you find an old pound coin, you won’t be able to use it any shops or businesses. And you won’t be able to exchange them for the new pound coins either.

But you will be able to pay them into accounts at banks, building societies. If you don’t have your bank near you, or it’s someone like Monzo or First Direct with no branch, then you can also deposit old round pounds at the Post Office.

So if you track any down, then simply pop into your branch with your bank card and get it added to your balance. There’s a chance your bank could have a minimum number of coins to make a deposit

Before you do that, it’s worth a quick check on somewhere like eBay that you don’t have a rare version which could be worth more.

What to do with old £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes

If you have a UK bank account, the easiest way to exchange your old banknotes is to pay them into your bank account at a local branch or Post Office. There are also 48 Post Offices that will swap old banknotes, even if you do not have a bank account.

You can also take your old notes in person to the Bank Of England in London or send them via the post for a swap.

Where to look for old coins and notes

If you haven’t checked for the old coins or notes, here are a few of the less obvious places you might have forgotten to check.

Your kid’s room

Soon after the old pound coins stopped being legal tender, my then seven-year old niece shared she had a small pot full of them that she was saving. In the end it turned out my dad (her granddad) had already switched them over to the new version. But it shows that if you’ve got kids with a money box or small purse they could be hoarding some old coins.

Winter clothes and bags

If you change your wardrobe with the seasons, then there will be some clothes – particularly coats – you’ve not used for six or more months. Check the pockets and check the bottom of bags.

Occasional use bags

A bit like the winter clothes, you might have bags you rarely use. It could be a posh handbag or a small one for weddings and nights out. You might have a sports or gym bag that’s not been used all summer. Basically anything you’ve not used for a while but you might put cash in!

Random change jars

We’ve got a couple of these at home and I tend to forget they are even there. Since I hate having loose change I tend to empty my wallet whenever I get some. This is usually onto random surfaces, which my wife then moves into a jar. It’s mainly pennies, but you could have a pound or two buried within.

Your glove compartment

Though most car parks are going cashless, you might have a few quid hidden in the glove compartment.

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October 23, 2024   |   ArticlesReview

Deliveroo Plus – is it worth it?

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 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. And did you know that Amazon Prime customers also get Deliveroo Plus included in their subscription?

But is paying for a monthly membership going to save you any money? Here’s our take.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

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 below.

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 for close orders, but this may increase for restaurants further away — more on this below
  • 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 for close orders, but this may increase for restaurants further away — more on this below
  • Minimum order for free grocery delivery: £15

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, 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.

There is also an invite-only membership known as Deliveroo Plus Diamond, which gives you all the benefits of Gold membership plus free priority delivery on eligible orders and your full order value back as credit if your order arrives more than ten minutes late.

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.

Though you’ll get free delivery if you reach the minimum spend, there is still the service charge to pay – although this is reduced with the Deliveroo Plus Gold membership.

What is the extended delivery fee?

In April 2024, Deliveroo announced that it would be introducing a “small extended delivery fee” when drivers need to travel further (we think this is for ones four or more miles away) . We asked Deliveroo for more information on this and were told that the fee “applies to [Deliveroo] customers and primarily depends on how far the rider needs to travel to reach the customer. This fee will be discounted, exclusively for Plus customers, so members will pay less than other Deliveroo customers.”

We’ve taken a look at the app and it appears that the delivery cost for these restaurants is significantly higher — more than twice the cost a lot of the time. However, the minimum amount for delivery is also higher — and in the seven restaurants we checked, if you order above the minimum delivery, the delivery fee is removed.

However, order below the minimum order and you’ll pay a significantly higher delivery fee and a small order fee — these came to more than £10 at all of the restaurants we tried.

Deliveroo Plus discounts

Deliveroo Plus free trial

You can often 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 with 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.

Our podcast

Listen to Cash Chats, our award-winning podcast, presented by Editor-in-chief Andy Webb and Deputy Editor Amelia Murray.

Episodes every Tuesday.

Listen now

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.

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 support@deliveroo.co.uk.

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.

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.

Read next

October 21, 2024   |   Articles

Why you need more than one bank account

Having one bank account isn’t just risky, it could be costing you cash.

Lots of people only have one current account. And if they’ve not yet switched it for some free cash, they’ve probably had it for a long time.

But limiting yourself to a single account – whether through loyalty, indifference or simply not knowing you can have more – is a bad idea.

And opening up new accounts can bring benefits when managing and accessing your money – and even making some extra cash.

Keep reading or watch this video to see why I think you should have more than one account. 

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Can you have more than one current account?

Let’s get this cleared up first. Even though many think they can only have one, there’s actually no limit to how many you can open from different banks. You might even be able to have more than one from the same institution.

Due to my job, I’ve got a number of current accounts (it’s actually up to 23 now), but most of you won’t need anything near that many. In fact even just having two can be enough. 

And there’s very little risk in opening and running multiple accounts. I’ve shared a few things to consider further down the article.

10 reasons to have more than one current account

Here are the main reasons I think you should open up extra accounts.

If your bank has technical issues

We rely so much on online and app banking nowadays that not having access for even a few hours can be much more than an inconvenience.

The TSB debacle a few years ago saw people unable to access their wages or pay their rent. Though the length of time the TSB systems were down has been an isolated incident, occurrences of website crashes and app downtime for hours are increasingly frequent at a number of banks.

And the risk of this happening to your bank is the number one reason why I think you should have at least two current accounts. In this second account put enough money in there that you can cover essentials for a few days. If you can put more, then even better.

Make sure that this second account isn’t part of the same group as these tend to share technical systems. So If you’ve got a Halifax account, make sure the second isn’t Lloyds, and visa versa. And the same for Natwest/RBS. I think First Direct and HSBC have different systems but it’s can’t hurt to do the same.

To separate your savings

When I was younger I was guilty of just having all my money in one account – savings and spending. Which meant that I didn’t ever really know how much I had in savings, and it was possible to “accidentally” dip into those funds with everyday spending.

The answer to avoid this is to open up a separate account and move all your savings over. Then set up a standing order to regularly move more money each month.

You could of course put this cash in a normal savings account, but the top rates right now are in a handful of current accounts.

You can get 6% on up to £4,000 with Santander, while there’s 5% for one year on up to £1,500 with Nationwide’s FlexDirect. You can also get even better rates, between 6.17% and 7% in linked regular saver accounts with First Direct, Co-op Bank, Lloyds, Nationwide and NatWest that require a current account with that bank.

These are far higher than you’ll get anywhere else for cash savings right now. I’ve written more about the best place for savings here.

The best savings accounts

Check out our list of the highest paying regular, easy-access, fixed and ethical savings accounts

To keep your overdraft debt separate

This trick also works if you have a huge overdraft. If you’re regularly in the red, it can be hard to track how much if you’re also spending out of the same account.

But if you open a separate account for your everyday spending, you can begin to treat and manage the overdraft debt as you would any other owed money, such as a loan or credit card. That’ll help you focus on clearing it (especially since you’re likely paying a huge 40% interest on that cash).

To protect your cash from scammers

Sadly there are more and more scams aimed at your bank accounts. From fake phone calls through to phone thefts, you’re at risk if you have all your cash sitting on one place.

Of course, if a crook does get access to one account, they might also be able to access others at the same time, so make sure your accounts are protected in advance.

To manage your money with someone else

Every couple manages their money differently. Some only have their own accounts and that can work fine. But joint accounts are particularly good for join expenses.

You need to have a chat with your partner about what works best for you, and it could be a joint account is a bad idea – especially since it will link you on things like your credit report.

For help with budgeting

I think it’s worth having a separate account too for your everyday spending. You only move over the cash you want to part with, whether on a weekly or monthly basis. Ultimately this will stop you overspending and also help you keep track of where your cash is going.

There are certain accounts that make this a lot easier. Monzo, Chase, HyperJar and Starling are all really good banks for this as they also have additional pots or spaces to further break down your spending.

To make some money

If you only want a maximum of two bank accounts a really good option is to make sure one of them is going to be making you money.

There are plenty of accounts offering freebies such as Disney+ and cinema tickets or even money each month. The more of these you have the more you’ll get.

The best is probably a cashback current account. One from Chase will pay you 1% back on everyday spending via the debit card. The other from Santander earns 1% cashback on your bills. Unless you don’t pay things like Council Tax, energy or broadband bills then you will make money.

To keep switching

I’ve made a lot of cash by switching from bank to bank and nabbing incentive bonuses each time. Now some people struggle with the idea of switching once, let alone repeatedly, and in part that’s because they like the bank they are with.

Well you can get around this by having a separate account that you just use for switching. The offers come and go (there have been none during lockdown), but there’s no harm having an account ready for if/when offers appear.

The best bank rewards and switch bonuses

Check out my list of all the offers you can get when opening a new current account

If you need to go into a branch

I’d also try to ensure one of your accounts – and again this can work if you only have two accounts – has a branch that you can physically walk into if you need to. 

Though I rarely need to go into a branch these days, there are times I do. In the last year I’ve had to take out a large amount of cash, sign forms and pay in cheques (though as I wrote some banks allow you scan cheques via the app). And only a few years ago I popped into a Halifax after there were some fraudulent transactions on my card. 

Yes you can cover a lot of this online or over the phone, but I like the option to go into a branch if I feel the need. And if you’ve multiple accounts it’s easy enough to make sure one of those is local.

For fee-free overseas spending

A final one to add to your wallet is an account with Chase, Starling, HyperJar, First Direct, Monzo and others all offering fee-free spending abroad. Here’s more in guide to specialist travel cards.

Multiple current accounts and your credit score

Before applying for a new account, make sure your credit report is up to date and there aren’t any obvious warning signs. This is because you will be credit checked each time you open an account (except with Monzo, Chase or Starling).

It’s worth spacing the applications out rather than doing them all at once. And if you’re thinking of applying for a mortgage in the next six months it’s wise to just hold off until that has gone through. But the risk is minimal.

I’ve written more about how bank switching impacts credit scores here.

Andy’s Top Current Accounts

  • Starling Bank for everyday banking (review)
  • Chase Bank for cashback on spending (review)
  • Santander Edge for cashback on bills (review)
  • Halifax Rewards for free cash every month (review)

Opening up additional current accounts

It’s very easy. You simply pick which account you want to open and go through the application process. You’ll enter details about your address history and income, and share ID such as your passport or driving licence.

Some accounts will let you do this completely online, and will absolutely be the case for digital only banks such as Monzo, Starling and Virgin Money. You’ll probably need to upload photos of ID.

Others might require you to visit a branch with ID to complete the process. I can’t say which ones will and won’t ask for this, but this happened for my Natwest and Barclays applications.

How to manage multiple current accounts

Some benefits that come with additional accounts require things like additional direct debits or minimum payments in every month. But there are tricks to manage this.

You might also struggle to keep tabs of your many accounts, but some banks let you add on accounts from other banks, while there are apps like Snoop and MoneyHub which aggregate all your balances onto one screen. Password managers such as Bitwarden also allow you to safely store all those different passwords and usernames.

And those only really become issues if you are having lots of accounts. If we’re talking about opening just two, three or maybe four accounts you shouldn’t have any problems.

Read next

Our podcast

Listen to Cash Chats, our award-winning podcast, presented by Editor-in-chief Andy Webb and Deputy Editor Amelia Murray.

Episodes every Tuesday.

Listen now

October 20, 2024   |   Articles

John Lewis price match: how it works

You can claim the difference back if it’s cheaper at Amazon and 24 other shops

In 2022, the ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ price match promise disappeared. Though they did replace it with the ‘Price Drop Refund’, it wasn’t the same.

Well the good news is the John Lewis Price Match is back. Here’s everything you need to know about the new scheme.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

What is the John Lewis price match?

At its most simple, if you buy something from John Lewis and find the price is lower at any of the following retailers before you buy or within seven days after purchase, John Lewis will refund you the difference.

The department store uses AI technology to price match 25 high street and online retailers, including: 

  • AO .com
  • Amazon
    • Electricals only: tech, TV & audio, computing and gaming, small and large home appliances, mobile and smart tech, and beauty/dental electricals
  • Apple
  • Argos
  • Asos
  • Boots
  • Currys
  • Dunelm
  • Dreams
  • The Entertainer
  • Fenwick
  • Flannels
  • Furniture Village
  • Harrods
  • Harvey Nichols
  • Heal’s
  • House of Fraser
  • Lakeland
  • M&S
  • Mama’s and Papa’s
  • Next
  • Richer Sounds
  • Selfridges
  • Smyths Toys
  • Space NK

You can also price match John Lewis itself if the price drops after you’ve bought something from them.

It’s great to see Amazon added to the list, as before only retailers with physical premises were included. However, restricting the scheme to just 25 stores does mean you won’t be able to match prices at other chains and independent stores, in particular decent white goods retailers such as Marks Electricals or beauty brands like Benefit.

Sadly this time around the time to make a claim is much shorter. Just one week, compared to 35 days before.

Editor's Pick
More Details
Trading 212 Cash ISA
AER (variable)
5.60%
Minimum
£1
New Trading 212 customers get an increase of 1.1% AER to 5.6% for 3 months
More details ▼
Additional Info

Existing Trading 212 customers get a rate of 4.5%

FSCS Protected?: Yes

Allows transfers in?: Yes

Flexible ISA?: Yes

▲

How to claim a ‘price match’ refund

You can price match in-store or via the John Lewis website. You’re no longer able to make a claim via the phone. Annoyingly it’s a new form for every item you want to price match.

Here’s how it works depending on whether you find the lower price elsewhere before or after you buy.

Before you buy

If you’re buying in a John Lewis shop and have found the item for less at one of the listed competitors above, you just need to show evidence such as a link to a website or a screenshot, and they will match that price subject to the terms and conditions. 

If you are making a purchase online and spot a lower price at one of the listed competitors, then the easiest way to claim is by completing the purchase first and then filling out the online claim form with evidence of the competitor price. You’ll hear back within 48 hours.

After you buy

If you buy an item at a John Lewis shop and you notice that the price has dropped at one of the major competitors listed above within seven days, you can submit a claim for the difference. 

You’ll need to fill in the online claim form, providing evidence as well as your original receipt as proof of purchase. 

If your claim is accepted, you will be refunded the difference using the original payment method, and if you used cash or a gift card for the original purchase, you’ll unfortunately need to visit a John Lewis store in order to receive your refund.  

If you made your purchase online, then it’s the same process as above using the online claim form and if approved you’ll get your refund within five days.

And just like their price drop refund, they also price match against any price drops of their own within seven days. So if you notice they’ve lowered the price of something you’ve bought from them within the time frame, be sure to submit a claim for the difference.

What products are price matched at John Lewis?

John Lewis price matches identical items, which means it must be the same make, model, size, colour, version and specification.

The product in question must also be in stock online and ready for delivery from the competitor as well as from John Lewis. 

It’s important to know that where there is an additional charge such as a competitor’s delivery fee, that this is also taken into account in the price match. 

With Amazon, John Lewis will only price match electrical items sold directly by Amazon (not marketplace sellers) and they don’t price match lighting, electrical toys, baby monitors or any non-electrical items.

What’s not price matched at John Lewis?

Sadly you won’t be able to price match against:

  • clearance offers
  • multi-buy offers
  • special member prices including loyalty discounts
  • flash sales such as lightning deals
  • prices with a voucher code
  • exclusive prices
  • trade prices
  • against any obvious pricing errors
  • competitors that are closing down
  • concession brands like Nespresso, Jo Malone and Longchamp

Some of these are more important to note than others. Previously you could match voucher codes, so it’s a shame that’s been excluded.

Watch out too for against additional services such as extended warranties, fitting or disposal, as these won’t be included in the price John Lewis match.

They also don’t price match any financial services like foreign currency purchases, though that’s not something you’re likely to see with any of the 25 listed retailers apart perhaps M&S.

How you get the refund

Unless you buy in-store and the match is agreed upfront, you won’t get the money knocked off the initial price you pay. Instead you’ll pay the full whack, and the difference will be paid back to your original payment card within five days.

Why it’s worth doing a price match at John Lewis?

Obviously if you can get something for less elsewhere, you’ll save money. But that’s not the only reason. 

John Lewis gives a minimum 2 year guarantee on all electricals and 5 years on TVs at no extra cost, which is something you often pay extra for at competitors.

They also have good customer service so if anything was to go wrong with your purchase, you’ll find the whole warranty process easy to navigate with them.

So in essence, you’ll be getting the best price as well as the best service. But they’re not the only retailer to price match. Check out our list of other retailers that offer a price match.

Our podcast

Listen to Cash Chats, our award-winning podcast, presented by Editor-in-chief Andy Webb and Deputy Editor Amelia Murray.

Episodes every Tuesday.

Listen now

Top tips to make sure the John Lewis price match works for you

We’re sharing some points we learned during the last version of the scheme. It might be they aren’t as much of an issue this time, but they’re things to be aware of.

Avoid using cash or gift cards

A new one for this version of the scheme is that if you paid in-store via a gift card, gift voucher or cash and then want to later claim for a price match, then the refund can only be paid out in a John Lewis shop . That could be a pain if you don’t have one near you.

We’re checking with John Lewis whether this also applies to gift card purchases online. The claims form would suggest you’ll be ok, but the terms state otherwise.

To get around this you could obviously stick to using a debit or credit card. Or if that’s not possible try to only part pay with gift vouchers or cash and then put the rest on your debit or credit card.

This will hopefully allow the refund to go on the card and save you a trip to the shop itself. Though of course you won’t know in advance if you’re going to be able to match, and if so by how much, so you could still come unstuck.

You can still put the claim in online though, which is a big improvement on the last version where all in-store claims had to be made in-store.

Check it’s the exact same item

You won’t be able to get the money back if there’s any variation – that could be colour, size or even just the model number. So if you’re only buying from John Lewis because of the price matching, make sure it is the same before you buy.

Don’t assume something has already been price matched

When John Lewis says it’s “Never Knowingly Undersold”, that’s not true. If that was the case it would reduce items as soon as they honour a price match.

In the past I’ve had a price match approved but the price on the website has stayed the same.

This means that even when something is labelled as reduced as part of a price match, make sure you can’t get a better deal still elsewhere. And if so, then put in a price match request.

Be persistent

It used to be if you phoned up to match prices the answer could be dependent on the customer service agent you spoke to. And the same could also happen online.

This time around it’s unclear if there’ll be any human moderation of claims or if it’ll all be done using AI. Even so, if you get rejected, it could be worth completing the form again to see if you get a different answer.

That doesn’t mean “don’t take no for an answer”. You won’t be able to match everything, but if you think it’s a legitimate claim based on their criteria then it’s worth trying a second time if you are rejected.

Read next

October 16, 2024   |   ArticlesReview

Tesco Clubcard Plus review – is it worth it?

Tesco promises savings of over £400 a year but you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription

Tesco launched Clubcard Plus – a premium version of the popular Clubcard loyalty scheme – back in 2019. As a member you’ll potentially save up to £384 a year on your groceries – as well as take advantage of other features.

The idea, much like Amazon’s Prime, is to bundle in lots of services together and build brand loyalty. I’ve taken a look at what it offers, to help you decide whether it’s worth paying for.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

How much does Tesco Clubcard Plus cost?

You can upgrade to Tesco Clubcard Plus for £7.99 a month. You’ll be able to cancel it for months you don’t use it as there’s no long-term commitment when you sign up.

There’s also a free trial for your first month (more on this in a bit), which means if you do keep it you’re looking at £87.89 in year one, then £95.88 in subsequent full years.

What do you get with Clubcard Plus?

  • 10% off two big shops in-store each month. Max £200 per shop. Exclusions include:
    • petrol
    • lottery
    • gift vouchers
    • tobacco
    • baby formula
    • prescriptions
    • magazines
    • stamps
    • wine that is in the 25% off when you buy six bottles promotion
  • 10% off Tesco brands on every shop including
    • F&F clothing
    • Tesco Pet 
    • Fred & Flo 
    • Go Cook
    • Go Play
    • Go Create
    • Fox and Ivy
    • Paperchase
  • Double data from Tesco Mobile for one mobile registered at your address
  • Fee-free overseas spending with Tesco Bank credit card

The best deals

Find our picks of the best offers in our dedicated deals library

Are the supermarket savings any good?

To cover the £7.99 a month you’ll need to spend £79.90 on groceries in Tesco across two transactions. That could be across one £80 shop, or two lots of £40 (or any other combinations). If that’s your regular supermarket spend that’s going to be easy to reach, possibly with just one visit. 

Ideally though you’ll want to spend more to take full advantage of the 10% discount. There’s a £20 cap per shop, or £40 per month. This means if you spend £200 on two occasions in a month, it’s possible to knock £40 off at the till every month.

Once you factor in the fee you’ll really be saving at most £32.01 each month, potentially adding up to around £380 a year.

More realistically you’ll likely spend – and save – smaller amounts, though saving some regular big purchases for when you use your discount will help.

Fortunately you do get to choose which shops you use the discount for. You’ll need to go into the Clubcard app and download a code to scan at the till. However, it is in-store only and not online.

So if you do your main shop at Tesco then this is a must, as long as you are going to spend at least £80 a month across two transactions.

Should you swap to Tesco for the discount?

If you have a Tesco near you, then I think Clubcard Plus could be a good reason to swap over – at least for a couple of trips each month.

Though it’s not usually the cheapest supermarket out there, it’s often not much more than others, and the 10% back could make enough of a difference to be worthwhile.

Double your discounts hack

You should also be able to sign up more than once per household. Yes, you’ll have to pay two lots of £7.99 every month, but if you are spending enough at Tesco it could be worth it as you’d get the discount on four shops rather than two.

Remember, as long as there is at least £79.90 spent each month on each card you are covering the fees. But only do this is you are likely to max out the two lots of £200 on the main Clubcard Plus account in your family.

Are the other features worth paying for?

If you don’t shop at Tesco then I don’t think the other features warrant the £7.99 fee on their own. But if you are already getting the fee back (and more) from Tesco groceries then it’s worth checking out what you could get.

The 10% off Tesco brands such as Tesco pets could save you a decent amount, but work out whether you can get these items for less elsewhere first.

The fee-free spending abroad credit card is a bit pointless when better bank cards exist, such as Chase Bank and Starling’s debit cards.

The double data offer on Tesco Mobile sounds good, but since it only offers 2GB or 12GB as entry-level SIM-only deals, you’re either getting too little or too much data, even with the extra thrown in. It’s better to shop around and find a SIM elsewhere.

How to sign up for Tesco Clubcard Plus

You can apply online or via the Clubcard app. You won’t get a new Clubcard – instead you’ll operate the extra savings from the Tesco app on your phone.

Tesco Clubcard Plus free trial

If you’ve not used Clubcard Plus before or haven’t had it in the last six months and not had membership for six continuous months, then there’s currently a month free trial for Clubcard Plus.

You get all the same discounts, so it could be worth up to £40 off in the first month.

You can cancel at any time during the first month and you’ll continue to get all the discounts until the next month.

Sign up to Clubcard Plus

Can you cancel Tesco Clubcard Plus?

Yep, it’s easy to cancel, and there’s no commitment past each 30 days. So remember to stop it when you’re not using it (such as when you go on holiday). You can reactivate your membership when you want to get the benefits again.

More Clubcard savings

You can of course continue to earn Clubcard points on your Tesco shopping. Here’s my pick of the best ways to earn and spend Tesco Clubcard points.

Read next

October 16, 2024   |   Articles

Amazon Prime review: is it worth the money?

Wondering whether you should shell out for Amazon Prime? Here are the pros and cons.

Amazon Prime is a popular choice of subscription, but it comes at quite a cost. Here’s what you get if you sign up and our thoughts on whether it’s worth getting and when it should be avoided.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

What is Amazon Prime?

Amazon Prime is a paid-for membership to the online giant that gives you a series of benefits that normal customers don’t have access to or have to pay more for. There’s a long list of these extras further down.

How much does Amazon Prime cost?

The free trial

Everyone can try Amazon Prime free for 30-days. It’s best to time your trial for when you think you’ll most need free delivery or when there’s a big promo event such as Prime Day, which tends to be in June or July each year; or Black Friday, which is on the fourth Friday of November each year.

Since every adult in the household can take out a free trial, if there’s more than one of you it’s possible to double up – or more. Once again, you can time these trials for times you’ll need to make more purchases, like ahead of an event or to prep for things like Christmas gifts.

You can repeat your trial a year after a trial has finished, so there’s the potential to do this every 13 months. And sometimes there’s even an offer earlier.

The annual membership: £95 a year

Amazon Prime costs a hefty £95 a year. This is a lot so you’ve got to use at least two or three of the perks for it to represent good value.

There used to be a couple of times a year where you could get the membership for around £59. These were usually in the run-up to Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday, though they’ve not happened in recent years. We always list these on our Amazon deals and discounts page, so bookmark it and check back!

The monthly subscription: £8.99 a month

If you don’t want to pay for the full year then you can opt for an £8.99 monthly subscription instead, which you can cancel whenever you want. It will work out cheaper than the annual plan if you pay for nine months or less, or practically the same for 10 months.

There’s a cheaper £5.99 option but this is just for the Prime Video streaming service and not the other features. This can be difficult to find so we have a guide to find Prime Video.

The student discount: £47.49 a year

There’s an option which gets students six months free, then three years at £47.49 a year. A monthly option costs £4.49.

To get this you need to have a student card. Sadly, the loophole where anyone could get a student card is closed, though you might be able to get an alumni card.

Again, each household member can have the trial, so you can easily double up.

What you get with Amazon Prime

Here are the key extras you’ll get as part of your subscription.

Free next-day, possibly same-day, delivery

There’s no minimum spend for delivery from Amazon when you’re with Prime, except if you want same-day delivery, where there’s a £20 minimum or a £1.99 fee. If you order from Amazon a lot, the free delivery can be pretty handy.

Normally you’d have to pay extra to get things sent through if the order is under £35, or £10 for books. The minimum amount quietly changed from £25 in June 2024, up 40%. This is standard delivery, so it takes a few days.

Generally non-Prime delivery will cost £3.99 for media (books, CDs, DVDs and games) or £4.99 for everything else. You can sometimes knock these down to £2.99 if you get your order sent to an Amazon “pickup location” such as a locker or newsagent.

So if you’re mainly thinking of Prime for delivery, you’ll need to make 20 orders under £35 in a year to break even with the pickup deliveries, or 16 at the higher £4.99 charge.

However, since not everything on Amazon is sold by Amazon, there will still be items that aren’t eligible for Prime delivery.

Two Odeon tickets for £10

Once per month, Prime members can get two Odeon cinema tickets for £10 or two recliner tickets for £15 at Luxe cinemas on Mondays to Thursdays.

There are better Odeon deals and offers available, especially when you consider that tickets at some Odeon venues are typically £5 with myODEON anyway and can be booked with Meerkat Movies, making the tickets half the price.

Exclusive access to flash sales such as Prime Day

In the middle of July (16 and 17 in 2024), Amazon marks its birthday with Amazon Prime Day. This usually features some big discounts on Amazon products like Kindles, Echos and Fire TV, as well as all sorts of other items. These deals are only open to Prime members.

The Black Friday sale which tends to run for about 12 days, if not longer, is another big sale with extra offers for Prime members.

We find that most of these deals are stock clearance or encourage you to buy things you don’t need. However, there are bargains to be found, especially if you utilise some of the extra vouchers to buy things you actually need.

Early access to “Lightning Deals”

As a Prime member, you can buy the daily deals 30 minutes earlier than everyone else. Since stock is usually limited, this could be the difference between getting the item and missing out. Here’s more about how Lightning Deals work.

TV and movies with Prime Video

There are some good exclusive TV shows such as The Boys and The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, and plenty of other box sets.

There are also some decent recent and classic movies. Amazon is making more original movies and has purchased the legendary studio MGM, so we’ll see even more films appearing just on Prime.

You can stream from your computer, smart TV or devices such as a Chromecast or Fire TV stick, or download to your phone. Don’t forget though that this costs £5.99 a month on its own, which might be a better option for you.

You can’t get ad-free streaming, though. Amazon introduced an extra £2.99 monthly charge for ad-free Prime Video in January 2024.

Pay less for your streaming

Find out which streaming service is the best value for money

Live Premier League Football

Amazon is also increasing the sports you can watch exclusively via Prime Video. You’ve recently been able to watch live Premier League football and Champions League football with it.

The Premier League matches are only over two weekends, usually in December (in 2023 it was 5/6 December and 26/27 December). This means you don’t need Prime for the full year if you only want it for football. Unlike on TNT or Sky, you can watch every single fixture on those dates. You can read more about the cheapest ways to watch football in our summary.

Ad-free streaming with Amazon Music Prime

This included streaming service is better than it used to be. It’s ad-free and has grown to 100 million songs (similar to Spotify) so there’s plenty to keep you occupied if you don’t want to shell out extra for premium music streaming.

The problem is you can only shuffle your tunes. That’s ok if you’re mainly listening to playlists (which you can create), but it can be annoying if you want to hear an album from start to finish.

You can also listen to podcasts ad-free – including our one, Cash Chats.

There is an extra Music Unlimited service which you pay £10.99 for, and there’s a £1 discount for Prime members, however, there’s a trick to pay upfront for a year to get Music Unlimited even cheaper.

Digital books and magazines with Prime Reading

Every month Prime members get access to a few thousand ebooks and magazines to read via a Kindle, Kindle app, or even your computer. There are a few big titles, such as the Harry Potter series, but otherwise don’t expect to pick up all the novels on your reading list.

The magazine offering isn’t bad, but the titles change every month. It’s better instead to see if you can get digital magazines from your library.

There’s also “First Reads” where you can pick up a free Kindle book each month from a selection of six or so titles. But don’t expect any future award-winners. You can see previous ‘First Reads’ titles here.

Games via Prime Gaming

You’ll get a Twitch channel subscription each month, along with some free PC games to play.

Unlimited photo storage with Prime Photos

Amazon’s cloud-based storage will keep the photos you take safe if your computer or phone is lost or stolen. You also get 5GB of storage for other file types with Amazon Drive – the same you get with Apple iCloud, but less than the 15GB with Google Drive.

Free Deliveroo Plus

You can sign up for a year of Deliveroo Plus Silver, which will save you money on delivery costs, worth £3.49 a month. However, there’s still a minimum spend of £15 per order. Here’s more about Deliveroo Plus.

Access to Amazon Fresh grocery delivery services

Prime members also get to order food from their local Morrisons, Iceland or Co-op and from Amazon Fresh. It’s free delivery for baskets over £60 but charges you £2 for orders between £40 and £60 and £4 if the total is under £40 or if you want the delivery within two hours.

Free Hello Fresh delivery

Prime members get free delivery on their Hello Fresh orders for a year. Delivery usually costs £4.99 for each box.

What you don’t get included with Amazon Prime

You’d be forgiven for expecting Prime to give you all the extra services Amazon offers. But no, you need to pay extra for the following:

  • Amazon Music Unlimited – an extra £9.99 a month
  • Kindle Unlimited – an extra £9.49 a month
  • Ad-free Prime Video – there’s an extra charge of £2.99 per month for this
  • Audible audiobooks – an extra £7.99 a month
  • Amazon Channels – costs vary for extra TV channels such as Paramount+ and Discovery+

What’s good about Amazon Prime

People obviously love the next-day delivery, and it’s certainly a service that other retailers find hard to compete with. And there’s much more you can get on top.

If you use most of the features that come with Amazon, you’re getting a lot for your money – effectively £7.92 a month if you pay for the year. Here’s a quick comparison of how this stacks up against some key competitors:

Prime MembershipCost with PrimeAlternativesCost of Alternative
Free next-day delivery£95Paying for delivery charges elsewhere (three orders a month at £2 an order)£72
Prime VideoIncludedNetflix (standard) at £10.99 a month£131.88
Amazon Music UnlimitedExtra £79Spotify Premium (annual subscription discount)£99
Total £174Total £302.88

We’ve assumed three online orders a month with a charge of £2. Often you’ll get free delivery from other retailers, but charges will also vary. And, you might order more or less, and delivery charges might be different too, but this gives you an idea.

With TV and film streaming, Prime Video is cheaper than Netflix, even when subscribed for full Prime rather than on its own.

And even with the extra charge for Music Unlimited, it’s cheaper than buying the same service with Spotify if you are also using the other parts of Prime.

Prime members can also get access to extra vouchers and discounts, which are great if you are going to spend the money with Amazon anyway.

What’s bad about Amazon Prime

There’s a reason that Amazon packs so much into the membership. It doesn’t want you to spend money elsewhere. If you’ve already paid for delivery with Prime, you’re not going to want to make orders with other retailers and pay for delivery, or get it later than you could with Amazon. This stops you from shopping around. And you could easily end up spending more money as a result.

In part, that’s because Amazon isn’t always cheaper. Across my year without Amazon in 2021 I actually saved money on his purchases – even when you factor in the delivery costs.

Plus, you’re much more likely to buy more because you have Prime. Not just because you’re more likely to be on Amazon more often and open to more temptation, but also because those extra discounts encourage you to make unnecessary purchases — such as on Prime Day and during Black Friday.

You also lose the friction that added delivery costs can add to your purchase, which might usually make you think twice before buying something you don’t need.

Let’s also look again at the table above. Yes, it’s potentially a huge difference in spending, but that’s assuming you don’t also pay for the other services elsewhere.

If you do want Disney+ or Netflix, then also having Prime for film and TV won’t be saving you cash – it’s an extra cost. It’s only cheaper if you ditch the others.

And if you need to shop elsewhere (not everything is on Amazon) you’ll pay for delivery on top.

Is Amazon Prime worth it?

So, does Amazon Prime offer good value for money? Well, it can, as long as you use at least a couple of the services. Most people will get enough use from the free delivery and exclusive discounts on Prime Day and Prime Video to justify the £95 fee.

However, if you end up buying more and not shopping around because you have Prime, you’re likely to spend more money having Prime rather than not having it.

Don’t forget you can still shop at Amazon without Prime. Yes, you might pay between £2.99 and £4.99 for items under £25 (it’s under £10 for books). But you’d need to order something under that threshold roughly every fortnight to cover your £95 fee. Do you order low-cost items that often from Amazon?

And of course, you need to consider where else you shop. It ultimately comes down to whether you are dedicated to Amazon or happy to shop and stream elsewhere.

If you don’t want to stop completely, then maybe you could cancel your annual membership and go monthly. And then pick and choose the months you need to use it. So perhaps it’s just around Prime Day, Black Friday and when you want to binge on some new box sets. Just see how you go!

My year without Amazon

Why I cancelled Amazon Prime membership

I actively chose to go without Amazon in 2021, so I obviously cancelled my Prime membership – even though I was paying just £39 a year.

This was largely a step to proactively support other retailers (ideally on the high street). But I also wanted to make sure my money didn’t help Amazon continue to grow its profits while it manages to (legally) avoid paying a fair rate of tax here in the UK and elsewhere.

Of course, you might think that going without isn’t possible, but I’d urge you to give it a try. I found it so much easier than I thought I would, and I’ve been surprised by how much less I bought and how much less things cost at the same time.

You can read more about my year without Amazon and how much money I saved.

How to cancel Amazon Prime

Watch this video to see how you cancel – and why you might want to think about using Amazon less.

Other ways to save at Amazon

Make sure you check out our Amazon deals and offers. This is where we’ll list flash sales, gift card bonuses and other extras. For example, you can often get a free top-up when you buy a gift card. All this and more via the link below.

Save more at Amazon

Check out the latest offers and deals to save you more money at Amazon

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