Well this idea is new to me too, but you can actually get money off your phone bills by doing (almost) nothing!

The trick is this app called Airtime Rewards. You simply need to download the app, register your phone number, link your bank card(s) and then forget about it. If you shop using the card(s) at qualified retailers, cashback will cumulate towards your next phone bill.

It doesn’t sound utterly new – actually it functions similarly to the in-store cashback system offered by certain websites. However, Airtime Rewards is different in:

• Cashback can only be redeemed against your phone bill
• There are many participating retailers

Currently, the following is a selection of the retailers I can see in the app, as well as the cashback rate:

• Boots – 5%
• Argos – 2%
• Farfetch – 5%
• Topshop / Topman – 2%
• Clarks – 5%
• The Body Shop – 5%
• Feel Unique – 2%
• Debenhams – 4%
• Groupon – 3%
• Halfords – 5%
• Q-Park – 2%
• megabus – 5%
• Gett Taxi – 10%

Some retailer offers may be targeted to only selected customers. Cashback is usually available for both online and in-store (where applicable) purchases. You don’t need to go through any special link, just shop as usual and purchase using the registered card.

Airtime Rewards supports all major network providers, including Vodafone, Three, O2, EE and giffgaff.

The trick is, cashbacks can take a long time to confirm. Depending on the retailer, it may take weeks or even months before the cashback becomes payable, and you can only redeem chunks of £10 (or another amount, depending on the network) against your phone bill. However, it requires minimum effort and the long processing time doesn’t bother me.

Only Visa and Mastercard are supported at the moment, so no American Express. It’s also mentioned in their FAQs that Curve isn’t supported, but it worked for me and many others.

If it interests you, it’s worth noting that Airtime Rewards runs a referral scheme. Sign up using my referral code NAYK9C9Y and you’ll earn £0.5 free credit immediately, plus another £1 if you spend within 7 days. I’ll also earn the bonuses too, thank you!

If you could spend some money on fashion or takeaways in the next month, you may consider using Paypal’s cashback offer.

To sign up, visit this page. In order to redeem the offer, you need to make three transactions with any of the following six retailers, the minimum spend of which needs to be £30 each:

• ao.com
• ASOS
• Just Eat
• Lego
• Not On the High Street
• Waterstones

You’ll receive £20 cashback from Paypal when accomplishing it by 31 December. It’s limited to 105,000 participants, but I doubt it will run out so there’s no need to rush.

If you don’t have a Paypal account yet, I could send you a referral link. Once you’ve signed up and spent at least £5, both of us will get £10 free credit. If you are interested please send me an email at [email protected].

Two new Amazon offers which are useful if you have kids!

[Free £5 voucher]

Check your eligibility here. Create a Child profile for the first time by the end of this year, and receive a £5 promotional reward.

Note that the £5 can only be used for products in Baby, Toys or Clothes and Shoes for children categories and minimum spend of £20 is required.

[15% off a Kids’ wish list]

Offer page is here. Create an Amazon Kids’ Wish List for the first time and add some products in it. Wait 24 hours for the code KWL15 to activate. Apply the code for 15% off before checking out.

Note that the range of applicable products is limited to the Kids section only, so even if “your kid” wanted a, say PS5, the discount code won’t work😉.

The promotion ends 30 November.

A new Amazon freebie deal.

You could check your eligibility here. If eligible, simply create a wish list for the first time and add three items, and you’ll receive a £5 voucher by email within two weeks.

The offer ends 20th January, 2021. Note that the voucher can only be used when the purchase value is at least £25.

In addition, you can now buy an Echo Dot (4th generation) and get six-month Amazon Music Unlimited membership for free. If you don’t need an Echo Dot, and are new to Amazon Music, you can still enjoy three-month free Unlimited trial by signing up here.

Topcashback has a low-key feature called In-Store Cashback. Instead of making the purchase online, you could pre-register your bank card, purchase in the shop and still receive cashback. However, merchants’ participation in this programme is very limited so it’s not got much exposure.

There is an interesting new offer released today. Between 26 October and 1 November, you are awarded a £5 rebate on one Tesco in-store purchase of £50 or more. Quite handy if you do you usual grocery shopping at Tesco.

Remember that you need to register you card to activate the offer first, and American Express is not supported. If you don’t have a Topcashback account yet, you can sign up here.

On a separate note. It looks like Amazon is making its round of secret offers at the moment. I saw on Hotukdeals that someone got a “Read an ebook for £5 voucher” offer by going to the Prime membership management page.

I didn’t get the same offer – however I was offered a one-month extension of my Prime trial, which I’m very happy about. You may also try your luck and there could be a surprise for you as well.

Three new (or extended) Amazon bonus offers – note that the first two are targeted, and once you’ve clicked through you could see a message whether you are eligible or not.

Top-up Bonus Get a £5 bonus if you top up at least £80 in one transaction. You must be a new top-up user, i.e. haven’t topped up your account in the last 36 months.

Amazon Music Bonus Stream a song on Amazon Music and earn a £5 coupon against your next purchase. Valid until 31st January 2021, or when 5,000 offers are redeemed.

Amazon Music Unlimited Pay £0.99 for a three-month Unlimited trial, or four-month is you are Prime.

This year’s Amazon Prime Day is here and there are currently a few decent offers out there. Note that you must be a Prime member to participate, and you can sign up to a free one-month trial here.

Promo 1: Top up £100 or more, get £10 bonus credit for free. Offer page is here. Since there’s no restriction on account credit and it doesn’t expire, there’s no reason not to participate.

Promo 2: Buy an Echo Dot for £18.99, and get a six-month Amazon Music Unlimited free trial. Offer page is here. Free trials are usually just for three months, so this deal is not to be missed. Unfortunately it’s targeted at new Amazon Music users only.

Promo 3: Up to 50% off Amazon Devices. Although I’m not convinced if most of the so-called “Prime Day Deals” are genuine, the Amazon Devices sale definitely is.

Offers end midnight 14 October.