Pound to £5k Challenge

Edition 75

To say it has been a busy week for free money offers, would be an understatement! Let’s dive straight into it!

Not caught up on my previous emails? You might have missed a golden opportunity from the last few weeks - tap the link below to view them!

Are You Getting £100 from Nationwide?

Back in December’s last email (edition 53) I set out my expectations on how to get £100 from Nationwide as part of their 2025 Fairer Share payment

Well, I’m pleased to say that my predictions were correct so if you followed my instructions you are getting £100 in the next six weeks

Here’s how to check if you are getting £100:

1. You must have had EITHER of these set-ups:

   • A qualifying current account AND qualifying savings account, OR;

   • A qualifying savings account AND qualifying mortgage

A qualifying current account is one of:

• FlexPlus; must have paid the monthly fee

• FlexOne, FlexStudent, FlexGraduate; must have made or received one payment in March 2025 or completed a current account switch from Jan 25 - Mar 25

• FlexAccount, FlexDirect, FlexBasic; must have received £500 into your account in 2 out of 3 months Jan - Mar 25 and made two payments out in 2 out of 3 months Jan - Mar 25, OR;

  must have made 10 payments out of the account in 2 out of 3 months in Jan - Mar 25, OR;

  you did not need to meet any of these terms if you completed a current account switch from Jan 25 - Mar 25

A qualifying savings account is:

• Holding £100 or more in any personal Nationwide savings account or ISA at the end of any day in March 2025

A qualifying mortgage is:

• A residential mortgage owing at least £100 to Nationwide at 31 March 2025

You can check your eligibility on Nationwide’s website or you may be able to see a banner within your Nationwide app if eligible

Missed out on the £100? Get £200

Whilst Nationwide is in the headlines of all major news articles for this £400 million payout, it makes sense for them to reward customers who may have missed out on the fairer share payment!

Well, if you’re already a member of Nationwide you might be able to get £200 for switching your current account to them too, and even if you have a current account with them you can possibly get it for either switching another into the existing one OR switching a joint account to them!

ANOTHER Switching Offer? Get £180

Santander have also re-launched their bank switching offer, which pays £180 but you can only receive it if you have NEVER received a switching bonus before!

AND ANOTHER! Northern Ireland Only

Danske Bank have has got a £175 incentive to switch a range of their bank accounts if your are based in Northern Ireland!

The BIGGEST bank switching offer ever?

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this offer, and then I soon realised what the catch was BUT it’s worth knowing about as some high-earners may be eligible!

You can get a £500 Selfridges gift card + VIP shopping experience if you:

1. Earn £100,000+ and pay this into your HSBC Premier Account, or

2. Have £100,000+ of savings or investments with HSBC in the UK, or

3. Are eligible for HSBC Premier elsewhere in the world

99p Mains at Prezzo (2 June only)

Prezzo have re-launched their popular 99p mains deal where you can get 1 x main for 99p when you purchase a drink on Monday 2 June 2025

Get your unique code from Club Prezzo and you can use one code for up to 12 people provided they all purchase a drink!

The Death of JamDoughnut?

Recently JamDoughnut have launched something called “Jamtastic” which is essentially a raffle to win prizes such as gift cards or cash by purchasing tickets with their hard-earned cashback

This was already enough to put me off using it going forwards but on Friday I went to purchase a gift card using an existing balance I had in there and was greeted by the following message:

“Cashing out to Bank and Gift Cards is temporarily unavailable as we are updating our backend and servers due to a new feature launch. Don’t worry though - it will be back by this Sunday 1st June at 6pm. Thanks for your patience and we are sorry for the wait! You can still use your points to play Jamtastic.”

My big issues with this:

1. People have built up balances in the app with a view to use them for their weekly grocery shopping which is almost exclusively done on a Saturday or Sunday - limiting the cash out/ exchange to gift cards until 6pm on a Sunday when shops are shut prevents this from happening

2. The reference to their new raffle system appears to be a recommendation for people to use their balance to purchase raffle tickets, and therefore gamble their balance, instead

I will now, and have done for months now, exclusively use EverUp in place of JamDoughnut as a result of this change and if you feel like you may get swept up into entering these raffles, I would recommend that you do the same!

EverUp has a game area where you can use coins to win cash prizes but these coins are earned on top of your cashback and there is no push towards a gambling with money aspect

BEST FREE MONEY OFFERS

£30 for EXISTING Chip Customers

Chip is a savings and investment app that I have used on-and-off for a number of years and even own shares in the company behind it (purchased in a previous crowdfunding round)

Well, you can get £30 from them as an existing customer as long as:

1. You already had an investment account (Stocks & Shares ISA or General Investment Account) with Chip with a balance of £0.00 in your investment account(s) as of 30 May 2025 AND received promotional communication about this offer (I had a banner in the app)

All you need to do to get your hands on £30 is:

1. Deposit at least £100 into the Stocks & Shares ISA or General Investment Account before 23:59 GMT on 10 June 2025

2. Invest your £100 in a fund and wait until 15 July 2025 when you will receive your reward (either cash or a gift card)

Not a Chip customer? Get £30 too

The above is a great offer for existing customers, but it’s even better if you are a new customer as this can be coupled with their current referral scheme!

The current referral scheme means that you can get £30 as a new customer for doing the following:

1. Send me the word “CHIP” via Instagram DM or reply to this email

2. Follow my referral link that I send across to you

3. Create an account and open a Chip Instant Access savings account

4. Deposit £500+ into the Instant Access account

5. Keep your balance for 30 days

6. Receive a £30 bonus once done

Once you create an account as part of step 3 you are an existing customer and can, therefore, take part in the £30 investing offer!

$7 - $175 FREE Share from Robinhood when you Deposit £1+

Get a FREE Share from Trading 212 worth up to £100 from a £1+ Deposit (AD)