If you’re looking at ways to boost your income or win prizes, it might be worth looking at free online competitions.
It’s possible to win cash prizes, holidays and devices such as a new TV or phone by entering competitions online, through a smartphone app or social media account.
Anabel Baldock, 24, started entering free online competitions in 2020 while at university. With finances tight as a student, she liked the idea of winning items to help with living costs.
“It was my mum who got me into comping,” she explains. “My mum has been entering competitions for about five years and has a great track record of wins. Last year she won a 50-inch 4K TV and sound bar system worth £1,000 and she’s just won a Galaxy Z flip phone worth around £1,000,” says Anabel, a social media content creator based in Essex who also reviews restaurants through her Instagram account @annie_thefoodie.
Big wins through competitions
Like her mum, Anabel also has a track record of winning lucrative prizes through competitions.
Her first big win was a seven night all inclusive holiday to Tenerife in 2021, which included everything from lights and airport transfers for Anabel and her partner. The competition was through Capital radio. She had to call in and answer which country Tenerife was in, with the answer being Spain.
In January this year she also won another all-inclusive holiday through a radio competition – this time to Greece. Again, all flights and full-board are covered for two and Anabel is taking her partner. She was offered a range of dates and is going in September.
“I’m a member of a Facebook group called Lucky Learners and people on there are really helpful – flagging up new competitions,” Anabel says.
“I listen to the radio a lot and always try to enter competitions if there’s one I like the sound of. My tip is to call in as soon as the competition lines open as you’re more likely to get through to a producer and you may get through to the presenter.”
If entering competitions online, check out these tips to protect yourself from online scams.
How to enter competitions online
Anabel adds that competitions are easy to enter. The most common competitions she enters are through social media, where you typically have to like a post, tag a friend and follow the company’s social media page.
Anabel will tag her mum or other competition fans so she doesn’t annoy her followers too much, but she says other regular competition entrants set up dedicated social media accounts for this purpose.
Other common competitions are ones where you buy a product and upload the receipt or enter a code online. In August she won £100 cash through 7up. She had to buy a bottle of 7up, keep the receipt and then upload a photo of the receipt via a free text message.
She has also won two tickets to see British rapper Stormzy in October, which she won by buying an energy drink and entering the code online.
Sometimes the code can only be entered once, but other times you can enter daily to be in with a higher chance of winning. This is how she won a holiday to Wales, which she won by entering a code on the back of a yoghurt pot.
“I probably spend an hour a day entering competitions, during my lunch break if I get time, or in the evening after work. I spend around 15 minutes a day entering codes and about 45 minutes entering social media competitions.”
Random wins include a suitcase worth of Heinz baked beans, which Anabel entered through the Heinz Twitter account.
She has also won a year’s supply of crisps through McCoy’s. For this, she had to upload a video and send it to McCoy’s.
Her video was chosen as one of the favourites and it appeared on a McCoy’s TV advert, shown on Channel 4 in April 2022, and she also won around 370 packets of McCoy’s crisps (a year’s supply plus extra for Bank Holidays).
Anabel’s recent competition wins:
May
- £5 Walkers free lunch competition (e-gift card)
- Free drink at Hungry Horse
- Dobble game
- £50 Patch plant voucher
- Union Jack throw (Instagram)
- £50 Cinema Voucher (Swizzels Sweets Instagram page)
- £50 Patch Plant voucher
June
- 1 year’s supply of laundry (TikTok competition with Revolution Laundry)
- £2 off Wrigley’s chewing gum
- £5 Costa Coffee Voucher
- Heineken voucher
- 1 pack of Magnums
July
- £1 off Wrigley’s chewing gum
- £50 Tesco Fox & Ivy voucher
- £1.50 sweets voucher
- £1.50 sweets voucher
- Pair of shoes worth £119 (Threads, with Carvela)
- Bottle of lemonade (Spar)
- £5 Budweiser voucher
- Bottle of Peroni
- Ribena board game
- 2x premium Barbie cinema tickets, goodie bundle and skincare bundle worth £60 (Odeon)
- 2x Exclusive Stormzy tickets
August
- Smoothie and bread hamper (Instagram)
- £100 cash (7up)
- 6 months’ Spotify Premium
- Suitcase worth of beans through Heinz
Best competitions to enter
The competitions that involve a video entry are a lot harder work, says Anabel, but the payoff is that you are more likely to win as fewer people enter.
Anabel is already thinking ahead to December, when free online competitions surge in the run-up to Christmas. She says lots of brands run advent calendar-style competitions, particularly beauty and household brands. There is usually a surge in travel competitions in January.
In 2022 Anabel won £4,100 worth of prizes, with the Spain all-inclusive holiday and a £500 EasyJet voucher her biggest prizes, and she hopes to top that this year.
“I find it fun entering competitions and when you get such a buzz when you win. Sometimes the prizes can be really random but it’s all part of the fun. I make it my goal to get a free holiday every year, and at a time when living costs are high it all really helps.”
For budgeting and income tips, check out our guide to budgeting.
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