Enjoy admission to a sports activity for as little as £1.20!

This is a draft posting written based on Martin's briefing by a member of the MSE team. Martin hasn't seen it yet, so it's provisional, but we thought we'd get it up and running as soon as possible.

What's the deal?

Buy a Nestle product with a 'GO FREE' voucher printed on the packaging and you'll get a free sports session at specified leisure centres throughout the UK and, with limited availability, the Republic of Ireland.

The free activities to chose from are: swimming, golf, dancing, football or martial arts session, or court hire for tennis, badminton or squash; all lasting between 30 minutes to two hours in length.

What's more, as vouchers are valid until the end of July 2008, it's possible multiple voucher redemptions will be accepted, thus the offer can be used as many times as you have coupons! This is depending on the discretion of your chosen location.

Don't buy before reading this first!

If your intention's purely to take advantage of the offer, don't stock up on vouchers just yet. Location availability is sporadic at best, so there's no guarantee that a participating centre will be conveniently close to you. Yet if a centre's at your finger tips, this could be very worthwhile. Nevertheless, follow these steps first before parting with your cash:

1. Choose an activity on www.nestle-gofree.co.uk, then you'll be prompted to find the nearest participating location where the activity's available. As not all sports are available at the same centre, it's worth clicking each session you're interested in to boost the chance of getting one at a centre close to you.
2. Once you've found something suitable, get in contact to book your session (an email address and/or telephone number will usually be listed). Now's the time to confirm if it'll accept multiple voucher redemptions (maybe even for more than one occasion) and if there are any days/times when use of the voucher is excluded.
3. Purchase a cereal or sweets whihc have the voucher attached. The range of products featuring this can be viewed on the www.nestle-gofree.co.uk site by clicking 'which items are available?'.
   
   Pay careful attention to the product you buy; a voucher on a box of cereal will be the equivalent to three sweets bought individually. The link above will explain how many purchases of each product are necessary to equal one voucher entry. If you plan to hire a tennis/badminton/squash court, EACH player must have enough vouchers.

Anything else to know?

The full terms and conditions are available on www.nestle-gofree.co.uk, but in brief:

• Vouchers are valid between 1 June 2007 and 31 July 2008.
• Equipment hire cost are not included.
• Adult supervision may be required for younger children, and a policy or no more than two children per adult may be practiced.

Ethics

Although many have questioned Nestle's business ethics in the past, I feel this offer should be highlighted as not only does it offer vast MoneySaving, it encourages participation in sport and fitness activities which is enjoyable and vital for healthy living.

If you usually boycott Nestle's products but could save money by utilising this promotion, perhaps it's worth considering keeping the voucher but donating the product to a local homeless shelter (in new packaging of course!) so someone else can benefit too.


Martin

PS: This discussion was originally started by the poster immediately below. This entry has been inserted so I can put an official, fully researched MoneySavingExpert.com explanation at the top. Thank you to Donger20 for the top spot.