Hello
Last week, I decided to splash out on an Xbox games console. A second-hand one, because I’m cheap, but our old PlayStation had been getting increasingly cranky.
We haven’t got many games for it yet – just a couple that came with it and some free ones that I’ve downloaded – but what we did get is a 3-month trial of Games Pass. It’s a bit like Netflix or Disney+ but for games. So you pay £10-something a month, and you get to play any of the games in their library. If you’re someone who buys a lot of different games to play, it could be decent value, but it’s not for me long-term.
The trial’s great though – they’re running a long-standing offer where you can pay just £1 for 3 months membership. Now, that’s ideal for us, because it gives the chance to try out a load of games without really spending anything. Then if there are any that we really like, we can buy them when our not-quite-free trial ends.
Anyway, it made me think about this sort of offer in general. It seems to be quite popular at the moment. I took out a similar trial with the Telegraph newspaper website last year – again, 3 months for £1 – and some subscription magazines run offers like this too.
Unless you’re looking for something in particular, though, these offers can pass you by. So I thought I’d have a look to see if there was a central place you could check online for the best freebies and near-freebies.
I found a website called Latest Free Stuff. It’s just a massive list of freebies and free trials that companies are offering to try and entice you into spending money with them. They have a “Top 20 Freebies”, which is their pick of the best offers around at the moment – everything from a free bag of dog food to maths practice worksheets for primary kids.
It’s a mixture of actual freebies (where you give the company your details and they send you a little bit of something for free), and free/nearly-free trials where you sign up for a subscription and get your first instalment for free (or £1 or the postage cost or whatever).
As with any of these things, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” – you’re either going to be signing up for a subscription (so remember to cancel it if you don’t want to start paying full price when your trial period ends) or you’re giving them your contact details.
If one of the offers catches your eye, all you need to do is click or tap on “Get freebie” on the Latest Free Stuff site, and it will take you through to the company’s website to get the offer. Make sure you read the terms carefully before you hand over any personal details. Often, with a freebie, you have to agree to being sent marketing either by email or in the post – but you should always be able to opt out of any “third-party” marketing. If you can’t, you might want to think carefully about whether the freebie is worth getting inundated!
Anyway – there’s a free trial of a craft beer case subscription that’s calling to me…
Until next week
Yours
Julie Wakeling