Pound to £5k Challenge

Edition 98

I hope that you have all had a lovely week! There is a good number of freebies that I have found this week, alongside some of the best free money offers that will put cash in your pocket pre-Christmas!

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!

FREE Strawberry Strongbow Cider

You can get your hands on a pack of 4x Strongbow Cider through Hashting using the link below. Hashting are offering 100% cashback on the first 7,500 redemptions and double-check you are happy with the offer before purchasing!

Please drink responsibly

Buy 1 Pint Get 1 Free

You can get 2 pints of selected beers for the price of 1 at Whitbread pubs (basically any pub attached to a Premier Inn) from 5pm onwards until midnight on 11 November 2025

Please drink responsibly

Santander Cashback Issue Fixed

2 weeks ago I shared a £75 cashback offer for Santander’s Stocks & Shares ISA; many of you completed this offer and were then greeted with a “declined” cashback purchase, including me!

I recommended that you lodge a missing cashback claim and for those of you who did, your cashback should now be confirmed and payable! This means that you could have received £75 into your bank account in approx. 10 days from my initial email instead of the 12 weeks we expected!

This offer clearly had some issues as it has vanished from the TopCashback website, but here are 2 other good ones worth looking at!

£25 Cashback For £1 Deposit! x2

Cahoot is a bank that forms part of the Santander family and right now there are two cashback offers live on TopCashback:

£25 Cashback when you open a “Cahoot Simple Saver”

This is an easy-access savings account paying 4.4% variable on up to £500,000 BUT to trigger the cashback you only need to deposit £1+

I am in the process of this and waiting for my authentication code in the post but the cashback has triggered and I’ll be depositing £20 for certainty

This is showing an expected 12 week payment period (start of Feb!)

£25 Cashback when you open a “Cahoot Sunny Day Saver”

This is another easy-access savings account paying 5% on balances up to £3,000 BUT again you should only need to deposit £1+

There is nothing that states you cannot complete both of these offers but there are some tracking issues that TopCashback are aware of, but will fix on the back-end for you!

I have started the process on both with a hope to receive a £50 bonus at the start of February 2026!

Up to £50 from Suits Me

Here’s a great offer paying either £10, £20 or £50 for:

1. Sign up to Suits Me through my referral link

2. Open an account and add money to it

3. Use your free card once

4. Receive £10, £20 or £50 on the next Friday

No credit check, no impact on credit score, and you can refer friends and family for up to £50 each for carrying out the above with your link!

You can also receive cashback for using your card in-store, I have earned from using this at Sainsbury’s and ASDA so far!

Any questions, send me a message or an email and I will be happy to help!

Instant £5 back on your shop!

Speaking of deal-stacking, if you haven’t done this deal yet, this is an EASY £5 back in your pocket instantly!

Cheddar is a cashback app similar to EverUp and JamDoughnut where you can earn cashback by purchasing a gift card to use at most of the UK’s largest retailers

Right now you can get 3.5% at Tesco, 2.5% at ASDA, etc.

These rates aren’t as competitive as the other apps, but the best part to this app is the referral bonus & I’ve managed to snag £5 instead of the usual £2 for you!

1. Sign up to Cheddar through my referral link

2. Enter my code “ENGINE3”

3. Purchase a gift card within 14 days

4. Receive cashback as normal on the gift card

5. Also receive a £5 bonus

6. You can withdrawl the £5 + cashback to your bank instantly

Trading 212 - Free Share up to £100

Trading 212 is one of Europe’s leading investing apps that charges no commission and allows you to invest from as little as £1, making investing accessible for all

I have used Trading 212 for 5+ years and whether you are new to investing, want to test out Trading 212 or just fancy a free share, here’s how you can get up to £100 in time for Christmas!

1. Sign up to Trading 212 via my referral link / code

2. Open an investment or ISA account

3. Deposit £1 or more

4. You will receive a free share worth up to £100

5. After 30 days you can withdraw the value of the free share if you wish

6. You could sell it immediately and re-invest the funds or hold them as cash whilst you wait for the 30 day window as well

Robinhood Free Share worth up to $175

Robinhood are one of the largest commission-free investing apps in the US and launched in the UK in recent years, they are offering new customers a share worth between $7 and $175 when they open an account and deposit just £1

Free £10 - £50 from Monzo for New Customers

You will likely have heard of Monzo unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, and if you haven’t yet been tempted by the “hot coral” bank card or their big billboard adverts, now might be a good time

New customers can get either £10, £20, or £50 when they open a bank account through a referral link (including mine) and make one transaction

There should be no credit check if you opt for no overdraft

Free £10 from Zopa

Zopa is a bank that has been around for a while and has amassed 1.5 million customers, but you might not have heard of them before

They previously focused more on lending but are moving into the current account and personal banking side of things; recently they launched their current account called “Biscuit”

• 2% cashback on direct debit bills (capped)

• 2% interest on current account balance

• 7.1% interest on regular saver

Sign up through a referral link and grab a £10 bonus as soon as your account opens. Since this is an account similar to Revolut, Monzo where you top it up and don’t have an overdraft facility there should be no credit score impact and no hard credit check

New Savings Account

Zopa have also launched a bonus on their Easy Access Savings account meaning new customers can earn 4.75% (3.25% + bonus) for 12 months

Got a Zopa referral link? Earn £10+

I am currently inundated with requests for Zopa referral links as my website has ranked high on Google for multiple search terms

If you have a Zopa account and are able to refer others, send me a message on Instagram (@thebankengine), let me know if you have referred anyone and how many referrals (10 total) you have left

I will then share your referral link as soon as I can which can hopefully add some cash into your pockets!

£10 Bonus for depositing £100

Chip is a savings app that I have used for years on-and-off, whenever they have decent savings rates compared to high street banks

I also like the app so much that I bought shares in various crowdfunding rounds!

If you are new to Chip, you can currently get a £10 bonus when you:

1. Open an Instant Access account through a referral link

2. Deposit £100 for 30 days

3. You will then receive £10 + your interest

That’s a pretty good rate of return if you have £100 spare and the £10 could be a great bonus in time for Christmas!

£25 Cashback from Rakuten

Rakuten is a cashback site that is slowly growing in the UK at the moment and for new customers, they have boosted their cashback offer!

Sign up through my referral link and spend £60+ through any of their retailers within 90 days and you will earn a £25 bonus on top of any other cashback!

FREE Crisps for Sky Customers

Sky have been releasing weekly gifts for their Sky VIP customers (simply download the MySky app and you’ll get access)

These gifts have been pretty good so far and have all been at Sainsbury’s superstores - it’s worth checking these out as some can be pretty good!

1. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference pizza

2. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference ice lollies

3. FREE Love Corn corn snack (didn’t get)

4. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference sharing crisps

5. FREE Whitworths Wondermix nuts (didn’t get)

6. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference pizza

7. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference ice cream

8. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference cheese twists

9. FREE Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate bar (90 grams)

10. FREE Love Corn corn snack (didn’t get)

11. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference pizza

12. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference muffins

13. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference cheese twists

14. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference ice lollies

15. FREE Love Corn corn snack (didn’t get)

16. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference cookies

17. FREE Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference pizza

This week you can get a FREE sharing bag of Taste The Difference crisps; I picked some up to put back for Christmas - this does not work at small high street stores

You only get 60 minutes to scan the barcode from activating it so don’t activate too early and assume you’ll need help from a colleague as they can be temperamental to scan yourselves! I would recommend heading to a self-scan till rather than a scan as you shop till as the barcode readers are more receptive of the moving barcodes!

Not a Sky customer? If you’re thinking about joining Sky, you can get a bonus if you sign up through a referral link. Message me for mine!

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