The streaming service will be increasing prices again from September. Is it still worth it?
From 1st September 2020, the price of an Entertainment Pass on NOW TV will go up by £1 to £9.99 a month. The Hayu pass will go up by the same amount to £4.99 a month.
A series of price increases
These are yet more hikes in prices for Sky’s streaming service after a number over the last 18 to 24 months.
It’s the second in 12 months for the Entertainment Pass (a year ago it was £7.99), and the Sky Cinema pass jumped by 20% from £9.99 to £11.99 in April 2019.
And it’s been worse for sports fans. The Sky Sports day pass was £6.99 two years ago, but two increases since then has pushed it to £9.99 – a huge 43% extra. And 18 months ago the Sky Sports week pass went up to £14.99 from £12.99 (it had been £10.99 until February 2018).
During lockdown there have been hardly any special offers for NOW TV, and it’s been harder to pick up gift cards (particularly sports) and passes bundled with boxes too.
These tend to be cheaper than just buying or renewing a pass direct with NOW TV.
Cynically you could guess that NOW TV knew they didn’t need to entice people along with discounts while they were stuck at home.
Yes, there could be supply chain issues, but I don’t see how this prevents digital offers and even those gift cards from going on sale.
And I noticed fewer offers and less freebies even before this year, which suggests to me a strategy away from attracting new customers to one that brings up the price people pay.
Is it still worth it?
NOW TV vs Sky
At full price, these passes are still significantly cheaper than getting your TV directly from the likes of Sky or Virgin.
You could sign up to a new Sky TV package for £25 a month – £15 more than the new price for the NOW TV Entertainment pass, and £120 more a year.
Yes you’ll get extras with cable and satellite TV such as a box to record programmes, but you’re also be tied into a long contract.
A huge part of the appeal of NOW TV is you can pick and choose each month if you want a certain package or not. So although the TV and film package for a year (at full price) with NOW TV will cost you £263.76, you can easily halve that by only having the passes every other month.
And of course, you rarely have to pay full price for NOW TV!
I’ve managed to utilise all sorts of deals and tricks over the last few years that mean the cost of the Entertainment month pass is always under £5. I’ve even got it free a few times.
And though discounts have been rare recently, I’d expect them to come back to some degree. You should always be able to pay less than full price.
NOW TV vs Amazon Prime, Netflix or Disney
It’s a harder call if you’re thinking of its value versus the other streaming services.
Amazon Prime is £7.99 a month (£5.99 without the extra Amazon benefits) or £79 a year, the most popular Netflix is £8.99 a month while Disney + is £5.99 month.
All have a mix of TV and movies with a price cheaper than the individual NOW TV passes. So in terms of price and content, you will probably be better off with one of the other options.
However, it’s all about what you want to watch, and if you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, West World or other shows that are only on Sky then you’ll want to give NOW TV a go at least some of the time.
The trick is to alternate between the services and only pay for the ones you are watching. I’m actually on a NOW TV break right now as we’ve got a lot of shows to catch up on via Netflix. But we’ll come back later in the year to stream the shows we’ll have missed on NOW TV.
There’s more in this video about the different TV streaming options and getting the best value from them
Can you beat the increases
If you want to make sure you lock in passes at a lower price, then your best bet is to get a discounted gift card.
Gift cards tend to last 12 months but it’s worth checking when you buy them if there is an expiration date listed.
You can also get a bundled Entertainment pass, Cinema Pass and Day sports pass with a NOW TV smart stick for around £29.99. Though this isn’t the best price – it’s often knocked down to £20 – it’s still decent value if you need all three passes and the stick. Plus you can sell your stick to CEX – just make sure you install it and log-on first as the passes are preloaded.
If you have a problem with your passes then you can get in touch with NOW TV via webchat – though I generally find this a bit of a pain!
The other great trick is to cancel your pass – or at least go through the process. Most of the time you will be offered a pass at a discounted price. Sometimes this can be beaten by other deals, but you never know – you might get something dirt cheap.
Making your dumb TV into a smart TV will save you money.
Watching TV can be very expensive, especially if you pay for the likes of Virgin or Sky. Yes, these channels are often packaged with your broadband and phone line, but I still think you’re paying over the odds. The full Sky package is currently over £100 a month (without internet or phone).
Despite this cost, and so many streaming services, a barrier to ditching them is because people want to be able to watch programmes on an actual TV, not via their computer. But thanks to streaming sticks and boxes I ditched pay TV years ago.
Here’s how you can cut the cord with Virgin and Sky and watch the streaming services using your remote.
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.
Paid advertisement
How to make your TV smart
All streaming services work through the internet. You can of course access them all on your computer or phone, but lots of smart TVs, games consoles and DVD players will now have apps built in. We have a Samsung smart TV and it lets us watch iPlayer, Netflix, NOW TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube, rental services such as Rakuten and more.
But that’s one of the few brands which has all the services. It’s more likely that you’ll only have one or two of these if any. So how do you make sure you can watch the service you want to watch?
Well you don’t need to buy a new TV. You can buy a cable to connect your laptop to your TV, but it’s a pain to have these running across rooms. It’s better to buy a smart stick or box which plugs into your current telly.
Over the years I’ve used a fair few of them, but before I get into the options available, you need to make sure that your TV is compatible.
How to connect a smart device to your TV
You will need a spare HDMI slot (or two) on your TV. This is where you will connect the device. If you have an older TV without any HDMI slots you can buy adaptors (like this one), though the quality won’t be as good.
Next you’ll need a power socket to plug the stick or box into. Some will be able to get power from a USB socket on the TV, though I find these a little unreliable.
Plus you need to have an internet connection. Though you can hardwire in some of the devices, most require wi-fi.
Once connected you will need to follow the instructions to set up (they’re all pretty easy to set up). You then log-in to your account. If you can’t find the service you want, but it is included, you might need to add it the app. Again that’s easy to do.
Sorted? Right, here are your main options. Just to be clear, you still need to pay for the streaming subscription each month on top of the cost of the streaming device.
What about recording freeview TV?
For many the downside of ditching pay-TV is you lose your Sky+ or TIVO box. Though all the streaming sticks will let you watch Freeview content on demand, none will record. And we all know sometimes it’s nice to stack up an entire series of Masterchef to binge, or be able to skip the adverts. Sadly most streaming services, with the exception of Netflix and Amazon Prime (for their exclusive programmes at least), often have a window of four to 12 weeks to watch something. And you can’t avoid the adds on All 4, ITV Hub and My5.
Well, there’s an easy solution. You can buy a Freeview+ or YouView+ box for around £125and this will let you record any Freeview channel, such as BBC, ITV, Film Four, Dave and The Food Network.
Or you can often get the box for free with your broadband provider. As long as you stay with them for the minimum contract you get to keep the box. You might have to pay a little for the basic pay TV option. We did this a few years ago via BT and it works fine without a subscription. However, Sky and Virgin boxes only work if you are paying a monthly fee.
Sadly if you really want to record Sky channels you will need to get a contract with Sky, Virgin, BT or TalkTalk.
Watch Sky, TNT Sports, Eurosport and Premier Sports for less.
There are a number of ways to watch sport online – and to save money by doing it.
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.
Paid advertisement
Flash offers
Virgin Media Stream: add Sky & TNT Sports for £28.75 a month
If you have Virgin Media broadband you can sign up for a Virgin Media stream box for an extra £35 set up fee, and then add on different streaming packages on 30 day rolling contracts.
The pick of the option are cut price TNT Sports for £10 a month and Sky Sports for £18.75. Considering you’ll pay £29.99 via Discovery+ Premium and £34.99 via NOW (combined) for access to the same channels you’ll save a packet.
You can cancel at any time but the prices are protected for 18 months (as long as you don’t cancel). This is a huge saving – if you actually want access to all the sports channels.
BT Sport is now TNT Sports — not much has changed, except for its branding and it’s now accessible through Discovery+. You don’t have to sign up via BT, Sky or Virgin as you can get a monthly rolling contract, however there are some good deals to add TNT to your existing broadband or TV package, as well as deals for EE mobile customers. Again, I’ve got a dedicated page for all TNT Sports offers.
It’s possible to watch Eurosport online without an annual subscription to services like Sky or Virgin. The Discovery+ app is available on a number of devices, or you can watch Eurosport Player via Amazon if you are a Prime member – though with both you do have to pay extra. Here are the best offers.
There are limited sports on Amazon, mainly the odd Premier League fixture and tennis. You need to sign up to Amazon prime which is £95 a year or £8.99 a month (£5.99 if you don’t have the extra Prime services). There is also a 30-day free trial.
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.
Paid advertisement
Amazon Prime Video
You don’t need a subscription to Amazon Prime Video to rent or buy some titles. In fact, some movies and TV shows are only available to rent separately.
You have a month to start watching rentals, and then 48 hours once you first press play.
Amazon: £1.99 new releases for Prime members
Amazon often has selected new rentals for £1.99 if you’re with Prime. If you’re not already a Prime member you can get a 30-day free trial once a year.
Rentals last for 28 days before expiring, or 48 hours once you start watching.
Most months, Chili has a code that’ll get you 50% off up to two rentals or purchases, or something similar. I’ll post here when I spot these.
Chili: 20% off your first rental
The first time you sign up you should be able to get money off your first rental. The discount code is usually automatically applied at checkout, but check first. It used to be 50% but has now dropped to 20% off.
Also you might find a limited choice – many of the big titles aren’t available there.
You can buy a £3.50 Chili voucher for £2.50 from the Lidl Plus loyalty app. Terms say the credit expires on 26 October 2023 but it’s still available to buy.
The credit also can’t be used with other promotions or codes, and you can only use it to rent movies, not purchase them.
If you have Vodafone’s VeryMe loyalty app there is often a credit or offer for a rental or sometimes £10 to spend on a selection of movies. Here’s more about VeryMe and how anyone can get it.
Personally I think you should avoid Sky Store as it’s the most expensive of all the rental sites, with even SD versions of new releases costing a huge £5.49. However it’s possible to get freebies from time to time which are worth nabbing.
Sky Store: 10% off gift cards via Lidl (expired)
This offer is nowhere near as good as the discounts offered for Chili on the same Lidl Plus app.
Buy two medium pizzas and a drink meal deal from Asda stores and you can claim a free Sky Store voucher or Vue cinema ticket.
The pizza must come from the pizza counter in-store, and will be labelled as a “Movie Nights In Meal Deal”. It’ll cost £6 in total.
To claim your voucher, worth £5.49, you need to visit MovieNightsIn.co.uk within seven days of buying the food and upload a photo of your receipt.
You’ll then get sent a code to add to your Sky Store account within a week, but you’ll have a year to actually use the credit. It’s due to end 6 April 2023 but is often extended.
Thanks to the SkintDad blog for bringing this offer to my attention!
Replica football shirts aren’t cheap, and with the World Cup around the corner I’ve taken a look at how you can spend less on your official kit.
I’m a huge Crystal Palace fan, and I’ve been tempted a few times to upgrade to the new shirt, but the frequency in which the club (and all clubs to be fair) release a new design has put me off. There’s the home kit, away kit and then a third kit! And 12 months later, it’s out of date. I don’t think I’ve actually bought a new version of the shirt since my mid-20s.
Still, if you do want or need to update your shirt, or you’ve kids who are pestering you to get the latest version, then expect to pay more than you really should. £50 to £60 for an adult’s sports shirt really doesn’t justify the quality of the shirt. And the junior shirts aren’t much less. Plus there can be further costs on top!
But if you’re in the market for a 2018 England shirt, here are a few ways you can get the price down.
Watch me share these tips on Shop Smart Save Money
Shop around
The FA, so the equivalent of buying direct from the club, sells an adult shirt for £64.95 and a kids’ shirt for £51.95. Postage is an extra £4.50.
But over at Sport’s Direct you pay just £54.99 for an adult shirt and £39.99 for a junior shirt. A top saving. However, there’s also £4.99 postage on top if you order online.
Don’t pay for personalisation
If you want your new shirt personalised with a name and number then you’ll also pay extra – most of the time.
The FA adds £12 for a player and number, or for you to pick your own (max of 11 characters). Sports Direct adds £1 per character and £4 per digit. It get’s expensive!!
However, if you head to Nike, who manufacture the kit, there’s no extra charge! Yes, it’s more than a plain shirt at Sports Direct, but it works out cheaper with the addition. You can pick a selection of the current England squad, or if you want to add your own name there is a limit to eight characters. For adults this is £64.95 and for kids it’s £51.95.
A word of warning, if a shirt has been personalised you won’t be able to return it – so do try it on first in a shop.
Avoid the premium fabrics
You can actually get two versions of the new England kit, There’s a ‘breathe” version, which is the standard kit or a “vapour” version, which costs around £25 more. Are you a pro-athlete, or are you just wearing it to the pub? It’s just another marketing ploy to get you to shell out more. Avoid.
Buy an old kit
Unless you’re going to be buying a new kit every season or tournament, then whatever shirt you are buying will be out of date in 12 months. So why not just get last season’s in the sale? The 2017/18 Palace shirt was available for £20. Since the England shirts change every two years, these are harder to pick up than club shirts.
Or embrace the old styles and buy a retro kit. These still aren’t cheap, but seem to be selling for £20 or so less than the latest versions, and they let you embrace a bit of your team’s heritage. Kitbag seems to have a selection including Euro ’96 and 1990 World Cup for £34.99 before delivery.
I actually still have my classic 1997 Palace shirt, which incidentally the club has just reissued – and it’ll only cost £35…
Are you overpaying for convenience when you order a Gousto, Hello Fresh or Simply Cook box?
I get the appeal of recipe boxes. You get to try new meals, you don’t have to buy more ingredients than you actually need, and importantly, you don’t need to go to the supermarket.
They can also help those with specific diets or those wanting to keep an eye on things like calories.
And with the various lockdowns during the pandemic they’ve partially compensated for being unable to eat out – even in some cases coming from the kitchens of top restaurants.
The problem is, they aren’t cheap. The normal price can easily be between £5 and £8 a portion.
Possibly cheaper than a takeaway, definitely cheaper than eating out. But surely buying the ingredients yourself works out far cheaper?
I’ve taken a look to see just how much of a premium you’re paying for the convenience.
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.
Paid advertisement
How recipe boxes work
The recipe box format has exploded over the last year. They’re now available from specialist companies, supermarkets and restaurants.
Subscription recipe boxes
The most popular at home kits are from dedicated companies. You can either order boxes with all your ingredients, like with Gousto and Hello Fresh. Or you can just get the dry ingredients with Simply Cook, and buy the fresh food needed separately.
Most are subscription-based, but some let you order one-off boxes. You can often choose between just one meal a week or month through to something every single day. The cost gets cheaper per meal the more you order. You can usually also tailor the boxes for how many people you need to feed.
Via their websites you get to choose the meals you’d like for the week – from a preset selection that changes each week. Your ingredients and recipes are then delivered to your door ready for you to cook.
Supermarket recipe boxes
These DIY meals are not really that different to the subscription boxes – you simply pick up your kits at the supermarket rather than have it sent to you.
There are two types of recipe boxes. The main ones are off the shelf kits where you add the fresh ingredients. These range from the old school fajita ones through to make your own Bao buns.
The second type, though less common, are all the ingredients for complete meals, such as the Scratch kits on sale at stores including Iceland and Waitrose.
One downside though is that the range is a lot smaller, so you’ll be repeating yourself more often than you would with a subscription.
Restaurant recipe boxes
The newest addition has developed as a consequence of lockdowns. Many restaurants, big and small, have adapted their menus to allow you to order online.
Some of the kits are simply just reheating and assembling, others require you to do more of the cooking.
These are a lot more expensive than the other options, so really they’re a treat closer to takeaways or very occasional order while restaurants are closed. In fact when they can reopen I’m sure many of these will end.
I’ve tried two – a build your own bacon naan roll from Dishoom and for Becky’s birthday a three course meal from Smokestack. Both were really good quality.
How much do recipe boxes cost?
The first price you’ll probably look at is cost per box, which is outlined in the table below. Of course, if you order more than one box a month you’ll increase your spend.
A few might offer cheaper boxes if you go full or partially veggie.
£24 (£9.99 kit for four meals for two people plus fresh ingredients)
£48 (£9.99 kit for four meals for two people plus fresh ingredients)
But I think a better way to compare how much these boxes cost is to look at price per portion. As you’d imagine, the more meals you buy, the cheaper things get per portion.
Here are the most and least expensive options for a selection of recipe kits. These don’t take into account introductory special offers which can of course make things cheaper. I’ve listed the best of these further down the article.
£3 (£9.99 kit for four meals for two people plus fresh ingredients)
£6 (£9.99 kit for four meals for two people plus fresh ingredients)
How much do recipe boxes cost compare to the supermarket?
However, just because you’ll save money per meal by having them more often, you could well be spending a lot more overall when compared to your usual supermarket shopping.
Back in 2018 as part of the Channel 5 series Shop Smart Save Money, I visited Frankie and Scott in Peterborough to help them cut their expenses. One thing I spotted was they received a regular Gousto box.
They were spending £47.75 a month, so £573 a year, to get four servings of four meals. This is actually the cheapest box per portion, working out at £2.98 a meal per person. Which doesn’t actually sound that bad. The prices are the same in 2021.
So we had a look at the ingredients of their latest box and compared it to buying all those at a Tesco. I’ve updated the figures to check if things have changed.
We compared the prices in two ways. First, gram for gram, so what you’d be paying per portion. And then the actual spend in the supermarket to get all the ingredients.
Obviously with both this is assuming you’re paying full price for your supermarket supplies and Gousto box.
Comparing prices for a two-person, two-meal box
Meal
Gousto cost per portion
Tesco cost per portion (gram for gram)
Tesco cost per portion (actual spend)
Chicken and Hummus Bowl with Sweet Potato Wedges
£6.25 (2 people having 2 meals)
£3.41
£6.27
Chinese style Beef and Green Pepper Stir Fry
£6.25 (2 people having two meals)
£3.58
£7.69
Comparing prices for a four-person, four-meal box
Meal
Gousto cost per portion
Tesco cost per portion (gram for gram)
Tesco cost per portion (actual spend)
Chicken and Hummus Bowl with Sweet Potato Wedges
£2.98 (4 people having 4 meals)
£3.41
£3.80
Chinese style Beef and Green Pepper Stir Fry
£2.98 (4 people having 4 meals)
£3.58
£5.13
Gram for gram cost compared
This comparison is if you bought all ingredients but just costing out what you use.
The supermarket was significantly cheaper per portion than people getting just two meals in each Gousto box. Averaging the two recipes I looked at, it’s 44% less, saving £5.51 a box. Do that weekly, and it’s £286.52 more a year.
Of course, the more meals you order, the lower the Gousto price goes. But you’re still saving money with supermarket prices on the other combinations.
In fact, there’s only one box available from Gousto that works out cheaper, the huge four meals for four people box. This works out at £1.03 less a week, or £53.56 a year.
Actual spend compared
Of course, in real life you’ll need to buy all the ingredients in the size the supermarket sells them. So you have to get more than you need for many of the recipes.
The actual cost to buy everything for a two-person, two meal shop for these meals at Tesco would be £29.32. That’s versus £25 from Gousto.
With a four-person, four meal shop, that increases to £71.46. That’s a lot less per person as you’re really only buying the fresh meat and veg extra – the herbs and spices costs remain the same.
The same number of meals would cost £47.75 from Gousto if you ordered the four people, four meal box- a huge amount less.
Yet for two people ordering two boxes of four recipes (to get the equivalent number of meals), you’d pay £69.98 – only a couple of quid less.
So the boxes are better value on actual spend? Well you need to remember that extra spend at the supermarket will also mean there are leftovers on dry ingredients. Rice, paprika, soy sauce – all things you’ll likely use again, and therefore not need to buy again. So the more you cook these recipes, the lower the cost would be from the supermarket.
Get the best of our money saving content every week, straight to your inbox
Plus, new Quidco customers get a high paying £18 welcome offer
I was surprised that the boxes could actually be cheaper than home-cooked! But to achieve this you need to order a lot of meals.
They’re still more expensive than the supermarket alternatives for anyone other than a family of four ordering four different meal a box.
And that’s also only when you are comparing like for like. How many of us actually do this kind of dinner that often? Sometimes, you’re more than happy with a simple pasta or sausage and mash, which will all have a cheaper per portion cost.
So in all likelihood, most people will spend less per week cooking at home than using the boxes.
Personally I would avoid them if you live in a small household as you will be paying well over the odds.
Ok you don’t get the recipes selected for you, but there are literally thousands of new ideas to be discovered online at the likes of BBC Foodand Good Housekeeping. That’s essentially doing the same thing!
And the extra spices etc are no bad thing – especially when you think about the plastic packing these are split into on most recipe kits.
Recipe box special offers
If you do order the boxes, it’s worth taking advantage of the special introductory offers – this will also let you try all the different brands. You can often get between 25% and 50% off your first order.
From my research, the best deals tend to be where you get those promo codes and additional cashback from the likes of Quidco and TopCashback. For example a £47.75 Gousto box could only cost you £8.65. Plus, if you’ve never used either of these sites before you can claim a welcome bonus on top, worth up to £17.
If you’re interested, here’s how much the two Gousto recipes I compared would cost gram for gram at Tesco.
First is the total spend at the supermarket, then price for what you’ll actually use in the meal, then price per portion. Obviously with many of the items you’ll have herbs, spices and oils left over to use on future recipes.
Get access to cheap movie tickets for three months, and 2-4-1 meals, for just £1 with a Tastecard Plus trial.
[box]
Some articles on the blog 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.
[/box]
Going to the cinema can be expensive. I rarely pay more than £6, often less, thanks to a series of special offers, memberships and deals.
The problem is, these deals come and go, meaning you might not have one available when you plan to see a film. But there is one deal which you can use day-in, day-out at most major cinemas, saving up to 40% on the ticket price.
You might not realise though that there’s also an extra option called Tastecard Plus. Sometimes it’s included in the deal, other times you have to pay extra for it. This offers money off at cinemas, theatres and hotels. I’ve written before about how the theatre and hotel offers aren’t anything special and are available elsewhere, so I wouldn’t get excited about those.
But the cinema ticket offer on Tastecard Plus is a different story. Yes there are potentially bigger ways to save (see my bumper cinema savings page), but it’s possible to get reduced tickets all year round at Odeon, Vue, Cineworld, Picturehouse, Empire, Showcase and The Light with the Tastecard plus deals.
The cinema offers with Tastecard Plus
There are seven cinema chains listed on Tastecard +. types of discounted ticket you can buy. All the tickets you buy are e-codes and you can buy any number of tickets. Each ticket will have its own unique code so you can use them over time or even all at once.
Some of the chains have one set price per ticket, others have different prices depending on which location you pick, whether it’s 2D or 3D and if it’s an adult or child ticket. Below I’ve broken down the key options. I’ve not gone into every single option (there are hundreds of variables) but they should generally be accurate (at the time of writing).
Cineworld on Tastecard Plus
Adult – £6.60
Child – £4.90
Premium – £13.20
The main Cineworld options on Tastecard are adult or child in 2D, or a separate “premium” option for things lilke 3D or IMAX. There’s also a deal to buy a drink and popcorn combo. If you buy a 2D ticket you can pay extra at the cinema to upgrade. Code are valid for three months. You can book online (with an extra booking fee) or in person, though not via the phone.
Prices could vary on location but I could only find the same price. Only Leicester Square is excluded. This means there could be huge savings on prices you pay. But, something to be careful of is when the cinema has cheap tickets all the time. For example Bradford charges £5.50 for ALL tickets. Via Tastecard + it’d be £1.10 more! So do check the cinema website first.
Odeon on Tastecard Plus
Adult (inside London) – £9.02
Adult (outside London) – £7.67
Child (Inside London) – £7.14
Child (Outside London) – £6.59
There are essentially four options. Adult and child, and inside or outside London. You can only buy 2D tickets, and the tickets are just for standard seats, not premium ones. Every Odeon is included except Leicester Square, Whiteleys and BFI Imax. You can redeem them at the box office, or online.
Vue on Tastecard Plus
Adult (Picadilly London) – £8.50 / £9.13 (3D)
Adult (inside London) – £8.05 / £8.58 (3D)
Adult (outside London) – £7 / £8.58 (3D)
Cheap cinemas – £4.50 / £8.58 (3D)
There are four cinema categories with Vue. The Picadilly cinema in London, the rest of London, non-London and the locations where seats are always cheap (and these can be all over the country, including Islington and Fulham). This means you should always pay less than the price listed at the box office. With Vue you can also choose to buy 3D tickets at a small premium. Prices are the same whether tickets are for a child or adult. Once more, Leicester Square is excluded.
Picturehouse on Tastecard Plus
Adult (Picturehouse Central London) – £13.70
Adult (inside London) – £9.50
Adult (outside London) – £8.65
Child (all locations) – £5.40
Much simpler here. It’s either adult or child 2D, and outside London, inside London or the Picturehouse Central. You can pay more when you book to upgrade your ticket.
Showcase on Tastecard Plus
Adult (De Lux cinemas) – £9.05
Adult (standard cinemas) – £7.70
Child (De Lux cinemas) – £6.62
Child (standard cinemas) – £6.25
The price here depends on whether your Showcase is a De Lux or standard location – you’ll pay more for the latter. You get the option to choose between adult and child tickets, but they are all 2D tickets. You can top up when you book if you want to upgrade. Booking can be done online or in person.
Empire on Tastecard Plus
Adult – £6.90
Child – £5.90
Very simple here, whatever the location you’ll pay the same price for a 2D ticket, with adult tickets a quid more than one for kids. As with most of the others you can pay to upgrade to a 3D or VIP seat.
The Light on Tastecard Plus
Adult – £7.25
Child – £5.80
This one stands out as it’s the same price for 2D and 3D, so it’s very cheap if you do want the premium experience. You can only redeem the codes at the box office.
I don’t think it’s worth paying the full price just for these cinema discounts, though if you also use the dining discounts it can be decent value. Just don’t pay more than £35/£40 a year as there are regular offers at this price.
In the past, one of the problems with Tastecard is it can be tricky to cancel if you don’t want to continue with it after the trial. My advice is to schedule in the diary two weeks before the card is due to expire just in case you have problems. If you don’t do it four days before the trial ends you will be charged £39.99 for a full 12 months. I’ve a guide to cancellinghere.
Can you beat these prices?
It is often possible to pay even less thanks to special offers and other deals. For example, the Meerkat Movies app can get you two for one tickets every Tuesday and Wednesday, and you can get a year of that for around £1.
But sometimes this and similar offers (Kids Pass has similar deals, as do some work perk schemes) do represent fantastic value.
How to boost the money you’ll make from cashback credit cards including American Express.
I love cashback credit cards. They’re one of my favourite ways If you have a cashback credit card these are some basic tips that will increase your earnings.
Rather watch than read (or do both) then check out this video from my YouTube channel
Please do head over to my YouTube to click like and subscribe
Get extra cashback or a referral when you apply
Many of the best cashback or reward cards will give you a little extra when you join. It can come as a referral code from a friend, cashback from a cashback site or a gift card from the credit card provider.
American Express
The highest paying ones are when you sucessefully apply for an Amex via Topcashback or Quidco and you can earn some additional cashback, currently up to £30. Rates can change but here are the latest:
Card
Quidco rate
TopCashback rate
American Express Platinum Cashback
£20
£10
American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday
£5
£15
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
£10
American Express Rewards
£10
£10
American Express Nectar
£30
Updated 22nd March 2021
If you’ve not already signed up to either of these cashback sites then you can get yourself an extra £10 or £17 cashback as a new customer. You probably can’t get this new member bonus cashback by applying for the Amex as there’s a minimum spend – but that’s easily rectified with your next online shop! Check out thelatest new member deals here.
Or you can see if any friends already have the card you’re after and see if they have a referral code where you both get a payment if you successfully open an account. This can sometimes beat the cashback rate so it’s worth checking.
Here are the offers you’ll see on the credit card company websites.
Card
Welcome gift
Amazon Platinum
£20 Amazon gift card
John Lewis Partnership Card
Occasional £20 John Lewis gift card (not at present)
Marks & Spencer Reward Plus
£15 gift voucher
Sainsbury’s Nectar Reward
10,000 Nectar points, worth £50 (spend £400 at Sains, Argos to qualify)
Correct 22nd March 2021
Time your application
All of the American Express cards listed below offer a huge bonus when you join – worth £100 or more. And this is on top of the cashback site / referral code bonus.
But the time to get these welcome bonuses is limited. Most of the time you have three months to get the increased cashback rate from when you open the card.
These spending levels tend to be between £2,000 and £3,000. With the cashback cards, if you spend less you won’t get the full bonus. But it’s worse with the reward cards. If you don’t hit the target you’ll get nothing.
So it’s important that you open the card when you know you can hit those spending thresholds. That could be a big purchase or just an expensive month (eg you’ve just moved house or Christmas). Or you might be able to hit it with your everyday spending.
Card
Bonus deal
Max value
American Express Platinum Cashback
5% back on first £2,500
£125
American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday
5% back on the first £2,000
£100
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
20,000 Reward points when you spend £3,000 (in addition to 1 per £1 spent)
£186*
American Express Rewards
5,000 Reward points when you spend £2,000 (in addition to 1 per £1 spent)
£56*
American Express Nectar
20,000 Nectar points when you spend £2,000 (in addition to 1 per £1 spent)
Earning cashback on your card is great. But you can earn more if you have a partner. You can get a supplementary card in their name so they can earn cashback too.
Though they’ll have their name on it, it won’t be their card. This means you’ll be liable for all their spending! So make sure you trust them – though you’ll see all their transactions in your account so it’s easy to make sure it’s not being abused.
Supplementary cards are also handy when it comes to joining bonuses – more on these in a bit.
Spend as much as you can on the card
I hardly use my debit card. Every bit of everyday spending I do is on a cashback credit card.
This means I am earning on every pretty much every purchase. There might be a handful where I don’t, those under £1, but I wouldn’t have earned anything on them anyway.
This can take a little more admin to ensure you don’t spend more than you can afford, but apps like Yolt and Money Dashboard allow you to see the balance on your credit cards alongside the ones for your current accounts.
The only times I’ll use my debit card now is if there’s an additional cashback offer on that card linked to a specific retailer (eg this year I’ve had money back from Now TV and Beer52 from Natwest).
Pay the full amount every month
A very basic one, but probably the most essential. If you don’t clear the card and end up paying interest it’ll wipe out any cashback you’ll have earned. Set up a direct debit so this happens automatically – just make sure you have enough in your account when it’s time for that to be paid.
Watch for annual fees
Some cashback credit cards are free in year one, but charge you each subsequent year. With the Amex Gold (£140) and Amex Nectar (£25) cards I’d cancel before you are charged and apply for the free Platinum Cashback Everyday card or the Membership Rewards card.
The Amex Platinum Cashback card might be worth keeping, despite the £25 fee, if you spend enough. Check out my review for more on this.
Boost American Express cashback
The highest paying cashback credit cards, and the ones with the best promotions are from American Express. These tricks are specific helping you make even more money from an Amex credit card.
Use PayPal
Not all retailers take American Express, which is frustrating when you’re trying to earn cashback. But there is one workaround for online purchases, and it’s to use PayPal.
Since you can connect your Amex to PayPal you’re able to still earn money on your purchase.
However, it’s worth noting that using PayPal can affect your consumer rights if something was to go wrong. This is important for anything that costs more than £100.
Check for extra offers
Something I love about American Express are the bonus offers you can activate to your card – especially the annual Shop Small promotion which is worth up to £50 per card.
You’ll need to add the to your card and some of the best ones go fast. So make sure you check on a regular basis to see what deals are on there.
If you have a supplementary card and want to take advantage on there too it will also need to be added by whoever has the card in their app/account.
Have more than one type of Amex
The more cards you have, the more offers you can use. So for something like Shop Small, you could have two Amex cards in your account, plus two supplementary cards, giving you access to the promotion four times, potentially worth £200.
And sometimes the extra offers mentioned above are specific to a type of card. So a free Membership Rewards card might have a deal that’s not on a Platinum card. And the Platinum Cashback Everyday card the other way.
However it’s worth noting that at times offers are user specific so you might not see them in your account no matter how many cards you have.
The multiple welcome bonus trick
You can only get the welcome bonus once – unless you’ve not had a card in your name for two years.
You could cancel the card and wait two years to reapply and get that bonus – but that has downsides. For a start you won’t be earning the cashback at Amex levels during this time. Plus you don’t know if the welcome bonus offers will still be around in two years or if the rules will have changed.
However, if you have a partner there is a work around so you can get a new bonus every two years.
First you open an Amex and keep it for a year. Then at the end of the first year you cancel your card and your partner applies for their own card. You’ll both get the welcome bonus, and remember you can get supplementary cards to you’ll both be earning cashback in this time.
Then once it’s been two years since you’ve had a card, you can open a new account yourself and get a new welcome bonus. Your partner cancels their card, and the two year cycle starts again.
This cash hack will help you save regularly at big brands including John Lewis, Tesco and Odeon.
Some of you will get access to all sorts of deals and discounts via your employer (if you’re not sure – ask your HR department!) or membership of something like health insurance. These work perk benefits can be pretty good, often giving money off gift cards and cheap cinema tickets.
I’ve had access to different ones in the past from working at the BBC, having BUPA health insurance, and a Scottish Friendly ISA. But what if you won’t work for a company with a scheme, or can’t afford things like BUPA?
How anyone can get access to a “work perks” scheme
I’ve found a way that’ll get you access to one of these schemes – and there’s no need to change your job, or sign up to insurance with a high monthly fee in order to get these discounts.
Instead the trick shouldn’t cost you anything. In fact it’s possible that you could make around £150 on top (more on this in a bit).
These deals are available via an investment company called Scottish Friendly, and to get them you are required to open an ISA and invest money.
There’s obviously a risk with Investment ISAs that you could lose a little bit of money – investments go up and go down. Plus you can only open and pay into one of these accounts each year. More on this further down the page.
First though, a little about the types of discount you’ll get so you can decide if it’s worth it.
What you get with from Scottish Friendly’s perk scheme
Discounted gift cards
The gift cards you get can be physical or digital. Some are reloadable, so once you’ve got the first one it’s easy to add more money one. Though gift cards have risks, use them right and you can stack them with other offers as they’re treated as if they were cash. At the moment the offers include:
5.5% off John Lewis or Waitrose
4% off Asda
4% off Morrisons
5% off Sainsbury’s
4% off Tesco
6.5% off M&S
4% off Uber
3% off Ikea
6.5% off Argos
7.5% off Asos
5.5% off Primark
4% off Wickes
9.5% off H&M
13.5% off Sky Store
7.5% off Curry’s
4.5% off B&Q
8.5% off Body Shop
6.5% off Ticketmaster
6% off Pizza Express
9.5% off One 4 All cards (which you can spend at places such as John Lewis)
9.5% off Pizza Hut
9.5% off All Bar One and other Mitchel and Butler pubs
All correct at the time of writing.
Cheap cinema tickets
Membership also gives you discounted cinema tickets. Obviously cinemas haven’t reopened yet, so these deals aren’t running, but are worth considering when they do.
You can get 2D tickets from all the big chains. Whether it’s cheaper than other similar schemes, such as Tastecard or Kids Pass does depend on the chain and location you pick. And you might be able to save money via these other deals. Even so, it’s a good option to have on hand.
Some chains also allow you to upgrade to 3D or premium seats, or save on your snacks in advance. You can also save on annual memberships. These are actually pretty good savings. A year of Cineworld Unlimited (outside Central London) is 23% less than full price, and a year of Odeon Limitless (also outside London) is 27% less.
Chains include
Empire
The Light
Merlin
Odeon
Showcase
Vue
Other entertainment discounts
Though paused due to the pandemic, there are also discounts for theme parks such as Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, experiences such as the London Eye and Go Ape, and memberships to things like National Trust.
Money off in restaurants
You’ll get a card you can flash at various restaurants for money off, including the following:
Deposits start from £10 a month. You can stop these at any time, and keep the ISA open even with no money left it in – which should mean you keep access to your perks and discounts.
There are fees attached, so your money could be worth less when you take it out than when you put it in. But they could also have grown.
It’s really important to point out that you can’t pay into more than one investment ISA in a financial year. So if you’ve already done this in 2021/2021, you’ll need to wait until April 6th 2022.
And either way, by following this trick it does prevent you from paying into another investment ISA in the 21/220 financial year. You’ll be able to pay into a different type of ISA, such as a Cash ISA, or Lifetime ISA.
So you need to be sure that you wouldn’t rather shop around for a different investment ISA.
Get your welcome bonus
With the My Easy Choice ISA you can also get a gift card reward when you go direct, starting at £15 up to £45, depending on how much you deposit. It’s an easy win.
If you deposit £10 to £14.99 a month you’ll get a £15 voucher
If you deposit £15 to £19.99 a month you’ll get a £20 voucher
If you deposit £20 to £24.99 a month you’ll get a £25 voucher
If you deposit £25 to £29.99 a month you’ll get a £30 voucher
If you deposit £30 to £34.99 a month you’ll get a £35 voucher
If you deposit £35 to £39.99 a month you’ll get a £40 voucher
If you deposit more than £40 a month you’ll get a £45 voucher
And until 13th April 2021 there’s an extra £10 added to all gift cards.
You get the reward voucher within 28 days of your first payment, and you can use the voucher at shops including John Lewis.
Buy vouchers via your Friendly Rewards account
Once you’ve done this, you’ll be sent details to access your Friendly Rewards account, and you can start taking advantage of the discounted gift cards.
Get the best of our money saving content every week, straight to your inbox
Plus, new Quidco customers get a high paying £18 welcome offer
How to get up to £150 extra cashback on your ISA
If you want to walk away with a potentially larger profit thanks to cashback, then you need to follow these steps. It’s all pretty easy, but I do have a few major warnings, which I’ll get to in a bit.
Go to a cashback site
Go to a cashback site – ideally TopCashback or Quidco. Then search for Scottish Friendly. You might see a few options. To get the most money you probably want the Investment ISA option rather than the Junior ISA.
Andy’s Top Tip
If you’ve never used Quidco or Topcashback then check outmy page with the latest welcome bonuses for new users. They can be worth up to £17 on top of other cashback you earn.
You won’t get the bonus for getting the ISA with Scottish Friendly so you’ll need to also shop elsewhere, but there are thousands of brands to choose from, including M&S, ASOS and Booking.com.
Choose an ISA
*Rates correct at the time of writing *
Choose one of the Scottish Friendly cashback offers. At the time of writing, you can get £200 from Quidco and £150 from TopCashback.
*THE REALLY IMPORTANT BIT 1 – Investment ISAs*
As I said earlier when you open an investment ISA, your money is at risk. Hopefully the money you put in will go up in value, but it could fall.
And there will be fees which will reduce this initial investment. Even if you’re planning on opening an investment ISA, Scottish Friendly won’t necessarily have the lowest fees, so it’s worth comparing your options. I’m only suggesting Scottish Friendly for an ISA because of the work perks trick, not as an ISA.
And do read all the terms and conditions of your ISA so you know what you’re committing to.
*THE REALLY IMPORTANT BIT 2 – Getting your cashback*
To qualify for the cashback there are two key requirements. One is to invest the money for at least 60 days.
Plus, the cashback will only be paid once you’ve made payments into your ISA at least equal to the value of the cashback. So if that’s the £200 cashback, you need to invest at least £200.
But there’s another clause which will probably reduce the cashback you get. The only Scottish Friendly ISA available via the cashback sites is a My Moneybuilder Select ISA – not the ones mentioned above.
These have a £50 exit fee if you cancel and cash out the ISA earlier than five years. So you either need to be prepared to leave your investment in the ISA for that time, or lose some of your cashback.
And don’t forget cashback can take a while to pay out – so you might not get the extra money for months.
Don’t forget you can still go direct and get the bonus gift card without having to lock in your money.
As ever with cashback sites, make sure you follow the instructions to ensure your click tracks.
Example
So if you can invest £100 a month for two months, you’ll be eligible for £200 in cashback from Quidco.
If you then withdraw the £200 investment and pay the £50 early withdrawal fee, you will get around £150 back, give or take any loses or gains made on the initial investment and fees charged.
Don’t close the ISA down though as you want to keep access to the discounts and benefits described above.
After some time the cashback payment of £200 will be processed and available to claim from your Quidco account.
If you can afford it, you might want to keep the £200 in the ISA until at least five years have passed to avoid the early exit fee.
