This card gives you free or reduced entry to galleries and museums.
If you’re an art or museum lover, you’ll know it can be expensive to see all the major exhibitions, especially in London. The National Art Pass is a pretty good way to indulge your hobby for less.
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How much is a National Art Pass?
It’ll cost you £83 for the year, reduced to £62.25 if you pay by Direct Debit. Buy a Double membership and it’s £124 a year or £93 via Direct Debit.
Is it any good?
The bigger galleries and museums will probably offer you 50% off with the pass, while smaller ones might give you free entry.
Andy had one before and didn’t quite use it enough. But if you frequently visit galleries and museums, it’s well worth considering.
Where can you use it?
There are hundred of places – from the National Gallery to Tate Liverpool to HMS Belfast. You can search for your favourites or places near you on the National Art Pass website.
National Art Pass deals
3 months for £15
It’s unusual to get a pass for less than a year, so if you want to try it out, then you can currently get a discount for three months. It costs £15 for three months and add a plus one for £5.
If you’re aged under 30 years old you can get an annual pass for £50. (Or £37.50 if you pay by Direct Debit).
You can buy this at any time before you hit 30. So if you’re 29 and your birthday is tomorrow you’ll still get the full discounted membership for a year.
You can buy a Student Art Pass for £10. You need to be over 18 and studying full-time at a UK university or college. You’ll need to prove your eligibility with a uni email address.
It’s worth trying the code TAKE20 for an extra 20% off.
This hack will get you cheap tickets every Tuesday and Wednesday for a one-off fee – giving massive savings to film fans. Even better, it could cost as little as £1.
One of the best ways to get cheaper cinema tickets is via the Meerkat Movies 2 for 1 cinema tickets deal – and you can bring the price down even more by stacking it with other deals.
In this blog, I’ll explain how it works, how to get the Meerkat Movies code, and whether you can use it at ODEON, Vue, Cineworld, Picturehouse and other cinemas.
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 are Meerkat Rewards
Meerkat Movies is just one perk offered by comparison site Compare the Market. Anyone who’s taken out a qualifying product via the site also gets Meerkat Meals, which offers money off at restaurants and cafes.
How Meerkat Movies works
Once a week you can access a Meerkat Movies code on the app to get “buy-one-get-one-free” tickets at most UK cinemas all year.
You can then use this code on either Tuesday or Wednesday for standard cinema seats – not all cinemas allow you to use it for 3D or premium screens, or they might charge extra to do so.
All the big chains except Picturehouse let you use the code to book online a week ahead – though watch out for online booking fees.
You have to use the code for the same film, so you can’t do a solo double bill, and you can only use one code each week.
And it’s the cheapest ticket which is free. So if you’re one adult and one child, you’ll pay just for the adult ticket.
With your £1 travel insurance policy you also get two for one discounts at restaurants with Meerkat Meals.
How to get Meerkat Movies membership for £1
To get your one year membership you need to buy an insurance policy through the Compare the Market comparison site.
That’s great if you’re looking to sort out insurance for your car or home, but if not there’s a sneaky trick to get you access for just a few quid. Prices vary and normally sit around the £1.20 point – but right now it’s possible to get it for just £1!
Follow this and you should be offered a range of policies – just go for the cheapest one. You’re not going to use this insurance so you don’t need to read into any of the terms and conditions. Buy this and you’re now eligible to get 2 for 1 Meerkat Movie codes every week!
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Which cinemas allow Meerkat Movies codes
You can search for cinemas in the app, or in this Meerkat Movies map. it looks like you’re less likely to find an independent cinema that accepts the codes, however the following big chains all let you use Meerkat Movies codes:
ODEON
Vue
Cineworld
Picturehouse
Empire
The Light (some locations)
Reel
Cinema chains that don’t allow Meerkat Movies include:
The easiest way to get your weekly Meerkat Movies code is via the Meerkat app. If you don’t have a smartphone you can log into comparethemarket.com and print your voucher from there, or just write down the code.
You need a new code every week, and these are released on a Thursday.
Stacking other savings with Meerkat Movies
Two for one is already a great deal, but you can often save even more by combining the Meerkat Movies code with other promotions.
One way to stack is to pay with a discounted gift card. These aren’t that common, but it’s worth keeping an eye out for deals such as 10% off the likes of ODEON, Vue and Cineworld.
Meerkat Movies by cinema
Meerkat Movies at ODEON
ODEON seems to let you use Meerkat Movies with any type of ticket. Look out for discounted locations, with some cinemas charging just £5 a ticket midweek – meaning you’ll pay £2.50 per person with your Meerkat Movies code.
Meerkat Movies is also a great way to save money at the posher Luxe screens, or the refurbished ODEON Leicester Square. You’ll still pay more for these locations though.
Officially the ODEON Limitless card doesn’t work with your Meerkat Movies code, but it’s worth a try. These let you go to as many films as you like, potentially bringing the cost of two people to see a movie every week down to as low as £2.30 per ticket – IF you go every week, and only on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
Meerkat Movies at Cineworld
Again, some Cineworld locations are really cheap mid-week – so check the prices near you. You can use Meerkat movies with child, student and senior tickets alongside normal adult ones.
Though it’s not an official policy, regular Cineworld goers with an Unlimited Card seem to have no problems with combining their membership with the code to get 2 for 1 cinema tickets. To save even more, Tesco Clubcard points can be used to save you money on the annual price.
New Trading 212 customers get an increase of 0.61% AER to 4.67% for 12 months
More details ▼
Additional Info
Existing Trading 212 customers get a rate of 3.85%
FSCS Protected?: Yes
Allows transfers in?: Yes
Flexible ISA?: Yes
▲
Meerkat Movies at Vue
The supercheap Vue day is now on Mondays, so you can’t combine it with Meerkat anymore.
Meerkat Movies at Picturehouse Cinemas
In my experience, you can use your reduced membership price with a Meerkat Movies code – though officially the chain says you can’t.
I’m a big fan of Picturehouse memberships. You get free tickets to cover around half the fee, then you save around £2 or £3 per ticket on top of that and get 10% off at the bar, plus most will have a cheap ticket day and member previews.
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Annual sales and offers
These are offers that tend to come back each year, so keep an eye out.
Kids Theatre Week (June to September)
Kids Theatre Week runs every summer, and tickets generally become available in early June for shows in August. Tickets go on sale this year on 10 June 2025, and they tend to sell out fast, but more tend to be released to coincide with the start of the summer holidays.
You can get one free child’s ticket (and two more at half-price) at a series of West End shows when you buy one full-paying adult ticket. It’s for shows from 21 July to 31 August, not just one week. A child is anyone 17 years old and under.
Tickets are limited with big shows quickly selling out, but there are plenty of options including Hamilton, Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, Mamma Mia and kids’ shows The Lion King, Matilda The Musical and Alice in Wonderland. And keep an eye out, as more seats might be released for those popular productions.
The only thing I’d say is the adult tickets are full price so you might be better off looking at other deals if more than one adult is attending.
Twice a year, TodayTix and other sites offer discounts at a decent number of West End shows in an event called London Theatre Week. It ran from 17 February until 9 March 2025.
During these dates, you can book to visit the theatre in the coming months for heavy discounts — prices are either £15, £25 or £35.
The dates you can get discounts on vary massively between productions, but for a lot of them, you can book for a couple of months
Official London Theatre See It Live (December 2024 to March 2025)
Official London Theatre holds a New Year sale semi-regularly, with some big shows at least 20% off. It’s been rebranded this year to See It Live (previously it was Get Into London Theatre or the London Theatre New Year sale).
Tickets are either £10, £20, £30, £40 or £50, with no booking fees.
This year it’s running from 10am on 26 November 2024 for performances until February. It’s often extended into March.
Each March there’s usually an offer run in conjunction with The National Lottery. In 2022 it was a 2-4-1 vouchers while in 2023 it was a free £25 Theatre Token. The latter went viral and all tokens were snapped up within 24 hours.
However, unused tokens from March were made available again, with a final chance to get tokens taking place in May.
Tickets are limited and go very fast. If you join the waiting room before 11am you’ll be randomly allocated a spot in the queue. Those joining after 11am will be put at the back of the queue – which likely means you’ll miss out.
In order to claim the voucher you’ll need a Lotto ticket or scratchcard. You’ll find a reference number on your Lotto card which you’ll enter if you make it through the queue.
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Flash promotions & sales
These offers are special deals that we’ve spotted
Central Tickets: Get 10% extra credit with your first top-up
If you top up your Central Tickets account for the first time, you can get 10% added by Central Tickets, up to the value of £10.
The credit in your account is used as payment for seat filling bookings you make through Central Tickets. It can’t be used on West End offer tickets (listed in a separate tab on their site).
You won’t be able to get a refund on it, and it won’t be protected if Central Tickets were to go bust, so make sure you’ll make use of the money you top up before you do so.
Central Tickets will add up to £10, so you could get £110 worth of credit for £100.
New Trading 212 customers get an increase of 0.61% AER to 4.67% for 12 months
More details ▼
Additional Info
Existing Trading 212 customers get a rate of 3.85%
FSCS Protected?: Yes
Allows transfers in?: Yes
Flexible ISA?: Yes
▲
Theatre Tokens gift card discounts
There are occasionally discounts such as save 10% on Theatre Tokens – the official theatre gift card that’s valid at hundreds of locations nationwide and the TKTs Booth in the West End. We’ll add them here when we spot them.
Theatre Tokens: 10% off
If you buy a Theatre Tokens gift card and use the code Tfl then you can get 10% off your purchase. These gift cards can be redeemed at over 300 theatres nationwide and don’t have an expiry date.
You can order a total of £500 worth of gift cards per household, which would get you a £50 discount.
TodayTix: Boxing Day sale from £15 per ticket (expired)
TodayTix tends to run sales throughout the year and the latest is offering tickets from £15 for Boxing Day. There’s no end date published, but I’d expect it to be until the end of January, if not early December (though the actual performances can be after these dates).
Until 4 June you can book £25 tickets at 25 different West End shows via TodayTix. This includes Book of Mormon, We Will Rock You, Wizard of Oz and Punchdrunk’s Burnt City.
From freebies to money off, if we spot a great deal on beauty products we’ll list them here.
You can always get beauty discounts and freebies at various retailers. Here’s our pick of the best savings right now.
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.
Space NK offers
Space NK: up to 20% off with £5 charity donation
This is a decent opportunity to stock up on beauty essentials (and luxuries) as you can get up to 20% off at Space NK until 2 June 2025
You must donate £5 to the charity Switchboard LGBT+ via Space NK’s link, and then you’ll get a unique code to use.
This includes rarely discounted brands such as Diptyque – only a handful of items are excluded, which you can see here. You can’t use the deal on gift cards or sale items either.
Download the Lidl Plus app, and in the partner offers section you’ll find you can claim a free eye test (worth £30) and get 30% off frames, as long as you spend £50 on prescription glasses at Vision Express.
You can get two or three full-sized products from Grüum (worth up to £43) for just the cost of delivery (£3.95).
There are several bundles to choose between, although some are often out of stock. The options include skin cleansers, shampoo bars, body wash bars and body oils, to name a few.
You have to pay £3.95 for delivery, but for a couple of products, that’s not bad.
If you join Lush’s UK loyalty club then new or existing account holders can get a £3 welcome voucher if they sign into the latest version of the app before 8 October 2024.
You don’t need to do anything to trigger the coupon, though do check if it’s showing in the banner on the app or in the ‘Rewards’ section of the app.
You’ll be able to use the £3 in-store or on purchases via the app. It’ll last three months from activation.
You can get an unusual beauty subscription box from Liberty. If you deposit £25 per month into your Liberty “beauty bank” (essentially buying store credit), then you get a “Discovery Box” four times a year for £5 per month, worth a total of £300 per year.
You’ll still have the credit in your account that you deposited (except the £5 fee for each box), but it can’t be refunded or withdrawn.
What’s in the beauty box?
The box is called The Beauty Drop. You get four per year full of trial-sized products. They’re sent in January, April, July and October and they’ll be worth up to £300 throughout the year.
Remember that just because Liberty would sell the products for £300, it doesn’t mean they’re worth that for you.
The drawbacks
Your typical bank account has protection – you’re protected by up to £85,000 if your bank goes bust. However, your money in the “beauty bank” at Liberty isn’t protected. This means that if Liberty were to go bust, the money you have in the account likely won’t be refunded to you, much like a gift card.
You could mitigate this by spending the money you deposit as soon as you can and not letting a large balance rack up, but Liberty’s high prices might prevent this.
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.
The student / young person discount: £47.49 a year
There’s a cheaper option for students or young people aged 18-22 who aren’t at Uni. They’ll get 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 or age ID (. Sadly, the loophole where anyone could get a student card is closed, though you might be able to get an alumni card.
Or if you’re 18-22 year olds will also get access even if they’re not at Uni.
Again, each household member can have the trial, so you can easily double up if you qualify.
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. This can be stacked with discounted gift cards, so for example a 20% off gift card would mean the two tickets cost £8.
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, 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 Prime Video costs £5.99 a month on its own (without the other Prime benefits), 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.
Amazon is also increasing the sports you can watch exclusively via Prime Video. Next season you can watch Tuesday night Champions League football with it, though it no longer offers selected Premier League matches.
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.
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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 £10.99 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 £8.99 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 Membership
Cost with Prime
Alternatives
Cost of Alternative
Free next-day delivery
£95
Paying for delivery charges elsewhere (three orders a month at £2 an order)
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.
New Trading 212 customers get an increase of 0.61% AER to 4.67% for 12 months
More details ▼
Additional Info
Existing Trading 212 customers get a rate of 3.85%
FSCS Protected?: Yes
Allows transfers in?: Yes
Flexible ISA?: Yes
▲
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.
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.
With free cinema tickets and up to 6.25% interest on savings, is it worth opening this current account with Lloyds?
Regular readers will know I’ve got a lot of current accounts as I like to take advantage of the offers and benefits they each provide. But you don’t need to have as many as me – you’ll be fine with three or four.
So how do you decide which ones to go for? The Club Lloyds account is definitely a contender right now thanks to a choice of free cinema tickets, Disney+ or magazines. Plus, there are regular switching offers worth around £175.
Here’s what you need to know about the account.
What is Club Lloyds?
Club Lloyds is a current account from Lloyds Bank with some extra benefits over the standard classic account. It comes with a fee – though you can easily avoid paying it.
If you are going to get an account with Lloyds, this is the one you’ll get the best value from.
How much does Club Lloyds cost?
It’s not a free account. There’s a monthly £5 fee (increased from £3 on 2 June 2025).
However, if you pay in £2,000 every month you will get that £5 refunded. £2,000 a month is roughly what you’d get paid if you earn £30,000 a year (not including pensions or other contributions).
That means it’s affordable for most people, which means there’s really no reason why you should pay the monthly fee.
Top Tip
You don’t have to keep the £2,000 in the account if you don’t want to. When you get paid you can transfer the cash in and then transfer it back out to another account.
You can even do it in smaller amounts, four lots of £500 for example.
Lloyds regularly offers switching bonuses between £100 and £175 for the Club Lloyds and Club Lloyds Platinum accounts. There tend to be three or four a year.
New and existing customers are usually able to claim the offer if they open a new account and switch to it from a different bank. I’ve shared more details on the latest offer over on this page.
When you open up a Club Lloyds account you can claim a free gift each year. You get to choose from four different ‘Lifestyle Benefits’.
You need to select your choice within 30 days of opening the account and this gift remains fixed for 12 months. You can swap to a different benefit once that period ends, or stick with the same offer.
There’s also the ability to earn up to 3% interest on savings, access a 6.25% monthly saver and get cashback on some purchases.
Free cinema tickets
You can select six tickets to use at either Odeon or Vue. You’ll get all six tickets at the start of the year and they’re valid for 12 months.
These tickets are valid for 2D and 3D showings. At Vue you can also use them at VIP or Xtreme screenings. Odeon will let you use them for Premier or recliner seats and some Luxe screens. You can’t use them at the BFI Imax, Odeon Luxe & Dine or screen 1 at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square.
Though technically you can’t use them with another offer, I’ve seen them combined with things like Meerkat Movies – doubling your saving.
They can be used any day of the week – so they’re probably best to save for expensive days like weekends, if you want to see a movie in 3D or at pricier upgraded locations.
Free Disney+
Alternatively you can choose a year of Disney+ with Ads, the streaming service with Disney, Marvel, Fox and Star Wars content. This is worth £59.88 a year.
You aren’t able to upgrade to a Standard or Premium tier without adverts or additional features.
Free magazine subscription
There’s a decent choice of 29 print or digital titles available. All are Hearst Magazine or Bauer Media publications (full list below). You won’t get the first issue for up to eight weeks which can making it a challenge to know when to stop buying copies if it’s something you already read.
Club Lloyds magazine choices (print or digital)
Bike
Bird Watching
Car
Classic Cars
Cosmopolitan
Country Living
Country Walking
ELLE Decoration
ELLE
Empire
Esquire
Garden Answers
Good Housekeeping
Harper’s Bazaar
House Beautiful
Improve Your Coarse Fishing
Landscape
Men’s Health
Modern Games
Mojo
Practical Classics
Prima
Red
Runner’s World
Spirit & Destiny
Steam Railway
Today’s Golfer
Trail
Women’s Health
Free Gourmet Society membership
This restaurant discount card will give you 25% off your bills, including drinks at selected restaurants. There are also extra discounts available like cinema tickets, theme parks and movie rentals.
Which freebies are the best value for money?
Here’s a quick summary of how much it would cost you to buy those freebies yourself:
The value of the cinema tickets freebies depends on where you live as tickets can really vary in price. I’d say it’s within a range of £30 to £90. But if you choose to go for 3D and VIP seats then they could easily be worth more than £100.
Disney+ with Ads is £4.99 a month, so its worth just under £60. Though this saving assumes you’ll actually watch Disney+ every month. If you have other streaming services it makes sense to mix and match over the year, paying only for ones you’re actually watching.
The magazine value obviously depends on which title you get and how many issues there are a year (e.g. Esquire has only six issues). But to give you an idea, a year’s subscription to Empire is currently discounted to £59.99 via Great Magazines.
The Gourmet Society membership could cost you as much as £79.99 a year, but it’s easy to find offers reducing it to £35 for a year.
Which lifestyle benefit should you choose?
Andy’s Analysis
Ultimately it comes down to which one you’ll actually use – and how much you’d spend on it.
It’s possible to save money on tickets most days, but it is harder to get discounts on weekends or for posh seats. So if you go to the cinema at least six times a year (or three times if you’re a couple), it’s likely this is the best option.
Or if you know you’ll have Disney+ all year around, no matter what, picking that is a locked in saving.
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Club Lloyds savings rates
You can earn interest on money held in the account and in a separate regular saver.
6.25% Monthly Saver
Pick of the bunch is a monthly saver that’s exclusive to Club Lloyds customers. This offers 6.25% and you can pay in between £25 and £400 a month.
The 6.25% is fixed for 12 months when the interest is paid and the savings account closed. It’s really easy to open this via your account. I did it via the app. You can’t access the money More details here.
You can also open a standard Lloyds Monthly Saver if you have more to put away. This has a lower rate of 5.25% and the max you can add it £250 a month.
Up to 3% interest in your account
There’s also some in-account interest. To get it you must pay out two direct debits every month.
For the first £3,999 you hold in your actual current account you’ll get 1.5% interest. Then you’ll get 3% on the next £1,000. So if you always have £5,000 in your account you’ll earn the equivalent of just under 2%.
Linked 3.25% Advantage Savers
You also get access to an ISA or normal savings account paying 3.25% – as long as you make three or less withdrawals in a year.
Is Club Lloyds worth it for the interest?
The monthly savings account is a great option, especially since it’s fixed for a year. But the in-account interest and other ‘Advantage’ savers can be easily beaten by savings rates elsewhere.
You can use your card abroad for spending and cash withdrawals without any charge. That means it’s a decent pick for your holidays, though a handful of alternatives will earn you cashback on top.
Club Lloyds overdraft
With a Club Lloyds account, you get a £100 interest-free overdraft. Beyond this you’ll pay 39.9%. Here’s more on your alternatives.
Cashback on purchases
All Lloyds accounts also give you access to Everyday Offers, worth up to 15% off when using your debit card.
You will be offered retailers based on your spending and will need to activate them before spending. I’ve only really used this for LNER trains, otherwise my experience of these offers with other banks, is that it’s very hit and miss. Plus the deals are often available elsewhere.
But it’s worth checking to see what you are offered. And where these do work is that you can use them in combination with cashback site savings.
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Here are some of the features worth knowing about:
Account details and management
An important feature for me is the ability to copy and share account details from the app – and Lloyds let you do this. You can also amend your address.
Card details and controls
You can see your PIN, long card number, expiry date and security code in the app. You can also copy the long card number to paste into online shops.
There are a handful of controls too. You can set your own contactless limit and freeze the card for a handful of reasons (overseas, online, in person, gambling and contactless).
This is available to all Lloyds current accounts and it’s pretty cool. You may have seen it already via digital banks such as Monzo.
The idea is every time you spend money with your debit card the bank will top up the amount to the nearest quid from your account, and move it to a separate savings account.
So, say you spend £2.80, an extra 20p will be taken from your account. It’s a nice way to automate your savings and put money away without any effort.
You do need to activate the feature so it won’t happen unless you give permission.
However you won’t be earning any interest on this money so I’d get in the habit of transferring it across to a better paying account on a regular basis – which kind of defeats the purpose of making it something that happens without you doing anything.
Budgeting and tracking
It’s relatively limited but you can see where your spending goes via a spending insights option. You’re able to view upcoming payments, to help you ensure there’s enough money in your account.
As with more and more apps, you’ll get notifications of spending and money coming in via the app.
Subscription Monitoring gives you the ability to cancel subscriptions within the app. You’ll also be told when subscriptions are due to end. It’s a handy way to avoid overpaying for services you don’t use or stopping subscriptions where it’s a nightmare to get through to someone on the phone. But it’s not a reason to get the account.
Multiple account hack
You’re only allowed one personal Club Lloyds account, but you can get another as a joint account. That means if you’re in a couple, between you there are three accounts up for grabs, and three ‘lifestyle benefits’. You can only get one Club Lloyds Monthly Saver each though, not a third joint one.
Summary – should you get it?
Club Lloyds Current Account
Rewards
‘Lifestyle Benefit’ giving you a choice of 6 free cinema tickets, Disney+, a magazine subscription or Gourmet Society membership
Limited cashback
Monthly Saver
6.25% AER up to £400 a month (must apply separately)
Interest on savings
1.5% on balances between £1 and £3,000; 3% on balances between £4,000 and £5,000
Overseas
Fee-free spending and cash withdrawals abroad
Fee
£5 a month (£0 if you pay in £2,000 a month)
Requirements
The account requires two active monthly Direct Debits to earn interest
The Club Lloyds account is a decent all-rounder. Not the best reward, best interest rate or best banking app. But all are still better than what you’d get from most accounts. If you already have it, I’d keep hold of it.
Personally, I think you should open one up as a spare account rather than a main account. It’s always useful to have another account as a backup, and you can claim the lifestyle rewards even if this isn’t your main account.
And you can get that freebie year after year for free as long as you transfer in £2,000 a month – which is easy to do. The same goes for the monthly saver.
But should you switch from another bank to get it? Well if there’s a switching bonus then it’s definitely worth it. But if not, then no, I wouldn’t switch. There are better accounts out there to priotitise, including some offering an incentive to switch.
The energy price cap is going down, taking a typical bill to around £143 a month.
Though energy prices are well down on their 2022 peak, they’re still almost double what we’d pay pre-pandemic and pre-Ukraine invasion.
Here’s what you need to know about the cap and how much you’ll pay.
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How the energy cap works
The energy price cap is a limit set every three months by Ofgem, the government’s energy regulator. It restricts how much an energy company can charge customers.
The cap applies to the price of your gas and electricity on your energy company’s default or standard variable rates. These basically can go up and down whenever the energy company likes. With the cap, the energy companies have to make sure their tariffs aren’t higher than the set rate.
Despite how it looks, it’s not the most you can pay for your bills. Instead, the prices set on the cap are the maximum price per unit of energy you use. Ofgem announces the figure as an annual price, as you probably don’t have a clue how many kwh of energy your family uses.
The quoted “cap” (£1,720) is an annual price based on a typical household. If you use more energy, you’ll pay more than the cap every year. Use less and you’ll pay less.
There are separate caps for gas and electricity, and each cap is also made up of a standing charge (a set amount each day, regardless of whether you use any energy) and a usage charge.
The cap will also vary depending on where you live in the UK. Prepayment caps have always been a little higher, though that changed earlier this year. The new energy price cap also applies to those with a prepayment meter.
Crucially, if you’re on a fixed-rate deal the cap doesn’t apply and the price you pay won’t change until that fix ends.
What is the new energy price cap?
The latest announcement is rise to the price cap from 1 July until 30 September 2025.
The new cap for a “household with average use” is £1,720 a year. This is down by about £129, or 7% from the current rate.
If you break it down to each actual unit cost, the average caps are:
Energy price cap per unit and standing charge 1 April to 30 June 2025
Energy price cap per unit and standing charge 1 July to 30 September 2025
Electricity
27.03 pence per kWh 53.80 pence daily standing charge
25.73 pence per kWh 51.37 pence daily standing charge
Gas
6.99 pence per kWh 32.67 pence daily standing charge
6.33 pence per kWh 29.82 pence daily standing charge
Despite Ofgem attempting to present the information in a way we understand, the total annual cap figure isn’t always the easiest to comprehend – especially since our energy use changes throughout the year but this cap only applies to three months,
At the same time, it’s not a flat increase to all bills as there could be different percentage changes to standing charges and unit rates.
So we think it’s easier to understand the price cap when you view it as a monthly direct debit. Your energy company calculates this by taking the predicted cost for a year based on your previous energy usage and dividing it by 12. It’s not 100% accurate, but it’s a handy comparison.
For the latest cap, the average monthly bill will be £143 which is £11 less every month than the current cap.
What is the current energy price cap?
The current price cap (1 April to 30 June) is £1,849 a year, based on the average household. This is with the new typical use figures.
When will the new prices start?
This new energy price cap will come into play on 1 July and will remain in place until 30 September.
How much will you pay under the new energy price cap?
Remember, the price cap figures are based on average use. If you use more than this average you’ll pay more, if you use less you’ll pay less. Plus, it can vary regionally so you’ll need to check where you live to see exactly what it’ll be for you.
If you want to get a rough quick idea, you can take away 7% from what you pay at the moment (multiply your current monthly bill by 0.93). This doesn’t take into account the balance between unit and standing charges, or whether you’ve got an accurate direct debit set-up, but it could give you a sense.
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Will you pay more or less money with the new energy price cap?
If you’re on a variable tariff
Broadly, anyone on a standard tariff will be charged less per unit of energy from 1 April 2025. Of course, the bill itself will be based on your actual energy use.
If you’re on a prepayment meter
There is no longer a significant premium for those with prepayment meters. In fact, it’ll be slightly less at £1,672 on average for the year.
If you’re already on a fixed tariff
If you’re fixed onto a tariff, your prices usually don’t change when the price cap changes. That’s because you’ve already agreed on a price per unit of energy for a fixed length of time with your energy supplier, usually 12 months.
Should you fix your energy?
We’ve seen more fixed deals returning to the market since last summer and right now, the cheapest 12 month fixes are 18% lower than the cap. The price of these tariffs do depend on where you live but it’s still worth checking them out to see if you’ll save.
You’ll be comparing prices based on the price cap now, rather than July’s one, so this means your savings will be 7% more – so make sure you consider that.
If you go for one of these, bear in mind that some will charge an exit fee if you want to swap suppliers before the end of the term.
There are also some tariffs that track at below the cap, so you’ll always pay less – but not necessarily less than a fix.
Of course, these can change, so it’s worth using a comparison site to see what rates are available.
Will bills go up again?
The current predictions are that the price cap could stay at a similar level in October bringing bills up slightly to £1,726 a year, but a lot can change in that time.
New Trading 212 customers get an increase of 0.61% AER to 4.67% for 12 months
More details ▼
Additional Info
Existing Trading 212 customers get a rate of 3.85%
FSCS Protected?: Yes
Allows transfers in?: Yes
Flexible ISA?: Yes
▲
When is the next price cap change?
The price cap is reviewed every three months (though prior to October 2022 it was every six months).
The price cap will next change on 1 October 2025. After this, it’ll change again on 1 January 2026, a change that will be announced in November 2025.
Price cap announcements & changes
Announcement by 27 August 2025 for 1 October 2025 change
Announcement by 27 November 2025 for 1 January 2026 change
How you can reduce your bill
Paying by direct debit will reduce your bills, so it’s well worth doing this.
Otherwise, it’s hard to do much to reduce what you spend on energy other than by using less energy. The standing charges will still apply, and bills will still be sky-high, but cutting back on gas and electricity will mean you pay less.
It’s worth giving accurate meter readings if you’re not on a smart meter. This will mean you’re more likely to have an accurate direct debit on current use, rather than what you used last year, and stops you from falling into debt on your energy account. Your energy firm will probably not change this automatically, so you might need to ask.
Don’t forget a direct debit does average the spend out over the year so you should hope to overpay in the summer and underpay in the winter to help even out your bills.
How has the price cap changed?
As you can see, the really big changes have happened since October 2021. Before this the average direct debit was under £100, so even with this new cut, we’re still paying more, and even more on top if you had been saving with a lower fixed rate deal.
These are the energy price caps going back to 2019, we’ve roughly adjusted them for the new typical use figures. You can see the historical price caps with the old figures below.
Date
Cost per year with new typical use figures
EPG & grants
Average monthly bill
Change (+/-)
July to September 2025
£1,720
N/A
£143
-7%
April to June 2025
£1,849
N/A
£154
+6.4%
January to April 2025
£1,738
N/A
£145
+1.2%
October to December 2024
£1,717
N/A
£143
+9.5%
July to September 2024
£1,568
N/A
£131
-7.2%
April to June 2024
£1,690
£3,000 EPG
£141
-12.34%
January to March 2024
£1,928
£3,000 EPG
£161
+5.13%
October to December 2023
£1,834
£3,000 EPG
£153
-7.95%
July to September 2023
£1,992
£3,000 EPG
£166
-17.04%
April to June 2023
£3,151
£2,402 EPG
£200
+50.33%
January to March 2023
£4,110
£2,402 EPG & £67/m grant
£133
0.00%
October to December 2022
£3,409
£2,402 EPG & £67/m grant
£133
-15.62%
April to September 2022
£1,893
£158
+54.35%
October 2021 to March 2022
£1,227
£102
+12.21%
April to September 2021
£1,093
£91
+9.21%
October 2020 to March 2021
£1,001
£83
-7.46%
April to September 2020
£1,082
£90
-4.50%
October 2019 to March 2020
£1,133
£94
-5.98%
April to September 2019
£1,205
£100
+10.29%
January to March 2019
£1,092
£91
Estimated costs, due to the change in the typical domestic consumption
Historical energy price caps
These are the energy price caps from before the typical use figures changed. This change made it difficult for us to compare new caps with the old ones, so we’ve converted the old price caps into ones with the new typical figures above.
This week, Prime Minister Kier Starmer also announced he’d adjust the threshold for the winter fuel payments to allow more pensioners to claim it again.
People were in uproar last year when the payment, worth up to £300, became means-tested last year meaning more than 10 million pensioners lost out.
The details are yet to be confirmed and it’s unclear whether the changes will be made by next winter or how many more people will be eligible. We’ll update you when we know more.
NatWest is reducing the rate on this savings. Is it still worth it?
This monthly saver from NatWest (and also RBS) has had one of the highest interest rates since it launched in 2020 – but with a catch. The Digital Regular Saver is designed for those starting off their savings journey, and as such there’s quite a small monthly limit you can put away. Just £150.
And as rates begin to drop elsewhere, NatWest have followed suit and cut the rate here too Here’s what you need to know and whether it’s worth it.
How much can you save in the NatWest or RBS Digital Regular Saver?
Since late 2022, the maximum you can earn interest on will be £5,000. This is a big jump from the previous maximum of £1,000.
But it’s not as simple as adding all that cash to the account in one go. You can save between £1 and £150 a month into the account (at launch it was just £50).
If you keep the interest in the account, it’ll take two years and seven months of saving the full £150 to reach a balance of £5,000 (including the accumulated interest payments).
For those already with £1,000 saved in the account, it’ll be just over two years until you reach £5,000 (again including interest paid each month).
Unlike other regular savers accounts it won’t close after 12 months so you’ll continue to earn interest on your savings beyond this. You can also keep adding money once you get to the £5,000 cap, but I wouldn’t bother.
Another difference to normal regular savers is that you can take the money out whenever you want, not just when it matures. But taking £150 out doesn’t mean you can put extra back in. That £150 monthly deposit limit stays at £150 regardless.
The only way to add more than the £150 each month, and get to that £5,000 sooner, is to use a round-up function on your debit card.
How much money can you earn?
From 30 May 2025, the rate drops to 5.5% AER. This is a fall from a rate of 6.17% that was set in February 2023.
If you save the full £150 a month for the first year that’ll net you £53 in interest. Keep going until you reach £5,000 and the total interest will have been around £348.
However any new deposits will earn far less. Money saved beyond £5,000 will only earn 1.15%. This can easily be beaten elsewhere. Confusingly if you do have more than £5,000 in the account it’ll show the combined interest rate on the app as your earning rate. Don’t worry about this – you’re still getting the full whack on the initial balance up to £5,000.
It’s worth remembering the interest rate is variable. So though it’s changing to 5.5%, that could change again at any time.
You can only open one of these regular savers if you have a NatWest or RBS current account. There are free ones, or you can look at the NatWest or RBS Rewards account.
How many accounts can you have?
There’s only one per person, which means you can’t get another, even as a joint account.
However the same account is offered by both NatWest and RBS, and you can open up an extra current account and then digital regular saver at the other bank to get two.
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Account summary
NatWest / RBS Digital Regular Saver (5.5%)
Account name
Digital Regular Saver
Interest rate
6.17% AER (variable) / 5.5% AER from 30 May 2025
Max monthly deposit
£150
Min monthly deposit
£1
Max amount earn interest on
£5,000
Account closes
No
Withdrawals
Easy access with no penalty
Requirements
Must have a NatWest or RBS current account
Must have a standing order of at least £1 every month from your Natwest current account
If you have an account you need to go to your online banking or app to open the saver. I did this via my app and it took just three minutes. There’s an “Apply” button on the bottom right, and then tap the savings option. It’s all self-explanatory from there.
You need to set up a standing order of between £1 and £150 from your NatWest account, though you can cancel this once you reach £5,000.
Should you open a NatWest Digital Regular Saver?
Andy’s Analysis
Even with the rate cut, it’s still a decent paying account. And the likelihood is that other rates will fall too in the coming months.
However, I’d focus first on the fixed rate regular savers from First Direct, Club Lloyds and Virgin Money as they’ll guarantee you a higher rate (for now – I’d imagine they’ll drop soon too). The problem is these all require a current account with those banks, and opening these will entail a credit check. That’s not an issue for most, but it’s something to be aware off.
If you don’t fancy that, and already have a NatWest or RBS current account then absolutely, I’d go for this Digital Regular saver instead (or as well).
Though there are similar paying regular savers, the big difference here is you will continue to earn interest on this one after 12 months. So in time it could be a better earner. Ideally you’d do both this and a strong competitor.
And for those not with NatWest, don’t forget there’s a £150 bank switch offer running at the moment
Of course, let’s not forget if you have a larger lump sum it’s better to prioritise opening up one of the best paying savings accounts.
Pay less for wine and other booze in the supermarket, shops and in pubs
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Wine box deals
Good Pair Days: free cooler set with your first box
If you sign up for the wine subscription Good Pair Days then you can get a free cooler (with a cheeseboard lid), wine tumbler and insulated bottle with your first box. Look out for a pop up with the promotion.
You need to put at least three bottles of wine into your box – these can be just under a tenner each. Delivery costs £5 but it’s free if you order four or more bottles – so adding an extra £10 bottle will only cost you £5.
Ultimately it means the four bottles of wine and the freebies could come in at around £40, which we think is pretty good.
When we looked at some of the wines elsewhere they were £1-£2 cheaper, so this subscription box isn’t value for money without the freebie. Remember to cancel the subscription if you don’t want to continue it.
Zoe and Andy in the team have tried it and the actual cooler, tumblers and bottle are great quality, and the wines (so far) have been decent.
Andy got the link to the deal after ordering the mini bottles below, which Laithwaites says you can share with friends and family. So we’re offering it to all of our Be Clever with Your Cash community, obviously!
Choose from four red wines, four white wines or four mixed.
There are lots of beer-related offers out there, so I’ve set up a separate page to help you save money on craft beer from supermarkets, specialist shops and online beer clubs, including discount codes for Beer52 and Honest Brew.
