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11 ways to give yourself a Christmas bonus in 2023
Nearly half of UK adults plan to cut their Christmas spending by an average of £280 this year, according to a survey by shopping website TopCashback.
If tightening the purse strings has left little room in your budget to treat yourself guilt-free, Which? is here to help.
We've rounded up 11 ways to make some extra cash or savings to help boost your finances this year and beyond.
1. Switch your bank account
Many of us stick to what we know and stay with the same provider for years, but you may be able to earn a cash bonus for switching plus better perks such as a market-leading savings account and a fee-free overdraft.
There are two switching deals on the market right now, but keep your eyes peeled as more may become available in the new year.
Nationwide - £200
You’ll get £200 if you open a FlexAccount (standard everyday account), a FlexDirect (a current account paying 5% interest on balances up to £1,500) or FlexPlus (a packaged account costing £13 a month with travel benefits).
Nationwide current account holders are also exclusively eligible to apply for its regular savings account, paying 8% AER.
Your £200 will be paid within 10 calendar days of your switch completing.
First Direct - £175
First Direct, a Which? Recommended Provider, is offering a £175 bonus to new customers who move to its 1st Account.
The account offers access to a regular saver, which pays 7% AER for 12 months, and a £250 0% overdraft, which is subject to status.
To qualify for the incentive, you need to switch using the Current Account Switch Service, pay in at least £1,000 within three months of opening the account, and must not have been an HSBC current account holder on or after 1 January 2020.
The £175 will be paid within 28 days of the criteria being met.
- Find out more:best banks 2023
2. Benefit from birthday freebies
The stars are aligned for Capricorns and Sagittarians this month as they can benefit from a birthday freebie during the festive season.
From free meals and bottles of fizz to discounts at Asos and Nike, we've rounded up the best 36 freebies and discounts if it's your birthday.
3. Max the cashback
Maximise your everyday spending by making the most of cashback schemes. Here are some ways to earn on your Christmas shopping.
Cashback sites
Cashback sites pay you a cash reward when you follow links from their sites to buy goods or financial products from selected retailers.
Websites such as Quidco and TopCashback offer varying rates of cashback on a variety of goods and services, from mobile phones and car insurance to bank accounts and broadband.
- Find out more:cashback sites explained
Cashback on your debit card
Some debit and credit card providers offer cashback schemes. Earlier this month Monzo launched a cashback scheme, typically offering between 2-10% with certain retailers including Currys, eBay and H&M.
Chase by JP Morgan offers cashback on most debit card spending for the first year after opening the account, capped at £15 per month. This means you won't need to try and keep on top of specific retailer offers that may change and expire each month.
- Find out more:best bank accounts for cashback 2023
Cashback credit card
A cashback credit card will reward you with a set percentage of cashback every time you buy something.
By putting your everyday spending on the card, you could potentially earn hundreds of pounds a year. But it's important to avoid spending more than you can afford to pay back at the end of the month, as the interest charges usually outweigh any rewards.
Which? analysts have named two cashback credit cards from American Express, which pay 5% cashback in the first three months, as Best Buys.
- Find out more:best cashback and reward credit cards 2023
4. Make your savings work harder
A recent Which? investigation revealed major banks have been shortchanging savers.
Between October 2022 and October 2023, the Bank of England hiked the base rate seven times, raising it by three percentage points from 2.25% to 5.25%.
But over the same period, the average easy-access rate offered by the big banks only increased by half this amount (+1.56pp), taking it from 0.42% to 1.98%.
Our experts regularly scour the market for the best rates so you don't have to, with the best regular savings account offering up to 8% AER.
- Find out more:best savings accounts 2023
5. Refer your friends
Films and food are typical recommendations you might make to your friends, but many financial firms will reward existing customers if they put in a good word and get a mate to sign up.
Here are some of the recent deals we've spotted:
- American Express: You can earn up to £150 per calendar year by inviting friends to sign up for an Amex credit card. The offers vary per card, but If you invite a friend to apply for the Platinum Cashback Everyday Credit Card, you’ll earn £20 and your friend will receive £10.
- Co-op Bank: Get £125 for yourself and your friend if they switch to a standard current account or everyday extra account using the current account switching service. Your friend must deposit £800, set up two direct debits, make a minimum of five card payments and register for online banking. They'll need to complete a referral form once they receive their new account details and they must not have had a Co-op bank or Smile account since November 2022.
- Kroo Bank: You can earn up to £100 with Kroo Bank, earning £10 for each referral who successfully signs up for an account and deposits any amount. You can refer up to 10 friends so could earn up to £100. Your friend will also get £10.
- Monzo: Invite a friend to Monzo and you'll earn £5. The friend must add some money into their account and pay for something using their card within 30 days. You can refer up to 10 friends, meaning you can earn up to £50.
6. Find lost cash
Finding £10 in your pocket can make your day – but what if you found £40 in overlooked premium bond prizes or £450 in a forgotten bank account?
Those are the average amounts currently sitting in unclaimed prizes and dormant bank accounts, according to tracing service Gretel.
Often, people can lose track of their money when they move house without letting a provider know their new address. If communications are not replied to, and no activity occurs on the account, it's eventually classed as dormant.
If you think you might have a dormant account somewhere, services such as Gretel and My Lost Account can help you track it down.
According to NS&I, as of December, there were 2,324,683 unclaimed premium bonds prizes, worth a total of £81,025,600.
- Find out more: how to find lost bank and savings accounts
7. Check for unclaimed benefits
Millions of UK households could be missing out on help and benefits like council tax discounts, pension credit and universal credit, according to EntitledTo.
This is because many benefits and discounts aren’t granted automatically and so you need to apply yourself.
You can get an idea of what you might be able to claim by entering details about you and anyone else in your household into the Entitledto calculator.
- Find out more: benefits for older people
8. Claim refunds
If you’re prepared to do some legwork you may be able to claim hundreds back in refunds.
Student finance
More than 833,000 graduates could be due a refund on their student loan repayments for 2022-23, according to the latest figures from the Student Loans Company (SLC).
The refunds apply to graduates who ended up being 'below threshold' in the last tax year, which means their income did not exceed the annual repayment threshold for their plan.
If you think you’ve paid too much, you can fill out a form and return it to SLC.
- Find out more:student loan repayments – are you owed a refund?
Delayed trains
Being late is never appealing, but if it’s by 15 minutes or more you may be entitled to claim a partial refund.
Most train operators offer a 50% refund on journeys delayed by 30 minutes or more, and a 100% refund on journeys delayed for more than an hour or cancelled altogether.
Several rail companies now also offer compensation for 25% of the value of your ticket for delays of 15 minutes or more.
9. Have a clear out
If you get some time over the Christmas break to have a clear out, don’t throw away your clutter.
If you’ve got an old smartphone, laptop, or even TV remote and cables, you could make money by selling used electronic items online. Websites such as eBay, Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree are good places to find buyers. But if you do sell online, make sure you read up on how to avoid scams.
You can sell old toys on WeBuyGames and Preloved as well as trade in your books for cash using sites such as WeBuyBooks and Ziffit.
MusicMagpie will take old CDs, computer games and DVDS – as well as used Lego by the kilo.
With clothes, it's worth seeing if you can sell them on sites such as Depop and Vinted.
Sites such as Inkviro and The Recycling Factory will pay you for your empty cartridges. While some stores such as Boots, John Lewis and Lush offer vouchers or loyalty points when returning empty beauty product tubs and bottles.
- Find out more: best and worst places to shop second-hand online
10. Start a side hustle
Whether it’s tutoring, pet-sitting, or even building IKEA furniture, if you have a skill, it might be worth using it to earn some extra cash.
You won’t need to declare extra cash if you make less than £1,000 during the tax year (6 April 2023 – 5 April 2024), as it can be covered by the trading allowance.
Taskrabbit connects people who need a hand with odd jobs, and people who have the time and know-how to do them – so you could get paid for doing anything from assembling flatpack furniture to organising someone's workspace.
- Find out more: do you need to pay tax on your side hustle?
11. Consider stoozing
Stoozing – the art of making money from an interest-free purchase credit card by using it for your everyday spending and stashing the cash in a high-interest savings account – made a comeback this year thanks to bumper savings rates.
The hack involves putting all your spending on an interest-free purchase card and depositing the money you would have spent from your current account into a savings account that pays interest.
Provided you pay the minimum monthly payment on the credit card and clear the balance (using the money you’ve saved) before the 0% ends, you could potentially make hundreds of pounds in interest by next Christmas. However, this hack isn’t for everyone and comes with risks.
