LloydsTSB Save The Change Fun Loophole

MSE_Martin

Official MSE Update - 24 April 07

CONTEST NOW LAUNCHED: click here for more info.


What’s the deal?

Lloyds TSB's new ‘Save the Change’ scheme is designed to encourage you to save money. As part of it there's a loophole to gain up to £100 of free cash during February and March.

This one takes some work, so it’s more for people who'll enjoy playing the game and beating the system than just purely going for the cash.

How does it work?

If you have or get a Lloyds bank account, you can opt into the 'Save the Change' scheme; do this and then every time you spend, it rounds up the amount to the nearest pound, and transfers the overlap into a savings account.

An example will make it much easier to understand.

You spend £24.42 on a Giant Cupcake
Your current account is charged £25
58p is moved into your savings account.

What’s the loophole?

Lloyds will match the amount transferred to your savings account up to £50 in both Feb and March. Therefore there is £100 of free cash available.

How to maximise the free cash

Ensure that your spending is always for an amount which ends in less than 50p. For example £5.12 means as Lloyds Matches it - you gain 88p. Here are some ideas that will help you do this.

• Buy sub-50p sweets/fruit in the supermarket. Supermarkets usually accept spending of any amount on a card. So buy something cheap to eat and you gain. One good suggestion is that a single sprout usually costs 1p
• Petrol. Always make sure your spend goes to just over the pound e.g. £10.01. Or if you want to be super-nerdy just fill it up with £2.01 every day (£2 is usually the minimum spend).
• Credit Card Repayments. Pay £x.01 off your credit card.
• Donate £1.01 to a charity. Of course you could do this with £0.01 but why not give £1.01, then the charity gains and it doesn't cost you anything.
• Buy something for 1p from eBay, such as penny ebooks. These have free delivery and you can pay quickly with paypal. Make sure the paypal payment is linked to your current account debit card though.
• Use an Egg Savings account. You can set up an Egg Savings Account in a few minutes; once done if you then request a transfer of cash from Lloyds this counts. It's important you do it this way round though, you must request the transfer on the egg savings site, don't pay the money to egg from the Lloyds site.
• Stamps. 3 second class stamps and 1 first class stamp costs £1.01.
• More suggestions welcome, just click reply if you've a good idea.

Do avoid making a lot of the same transaction in one day, as standard card security protocols could mean this leads to a temporary block on your card.

Is it worth getting a Lloyds TSB current account to do this?

If you’re already a Lloyds Customer, contact them to register for ‘Save the Change’ and you can get started.

If not, while Lloyds doesn't have any top best buy or saving accounts, (though its internet current account isn't too bad) there's nothing stopping you setting up a Lloyds Classic Account and Lloyds Guaranteed Tracker just to do this.

While you can open both with just £1, remember you'll need to put some real cash into the current account for a couple of months (say £500) as you have to spend in order for the loophole to work.

If you're simply looking for the best bank account (and £100 free cash is possible just for signing up) read the Best Bank Accounts article.

When will I get the cash?

February’s extra cash will be credited on 1 April 2007 and March’s on 1 May 2007. You need to keep both the current account and the nominated savings account open until then to receive the money.

Of course after that point you should move the cash to the highest interest savings account.

Some other important info

• Spend needs to be on Visa Debit and does not include over-the-counter cash advances.
• Money is transferred to the savings account at the end of each working day but as the process takes a few days, make last payments a few days before the end of the month to get it in on time.
• Tax will be payable on your matched payment on the same basis as the interest on your saving account.
• Money will not be transferred to your savings account if that transfer will take your current account overdrawn. However it is up to you to know what funds are in your account and if you are very close to your overdraft it may be hard to manage your budget, so keep a close eye on your balance.
• See the full terms and conditions here.

MONEYSAVERS LOOPHOLE CONTEST

As this is a fun one, when it ends any MoneySaver who can prove they got the full £100 will be entered into a draw and the winner will get another £100 to match it.

Martin

thepearce

Thanks to "Toni Tax" for an earlier post I read (though not the earliest) I'm all set up ready for this and making £1.01 payments to my egg card......except it seems like it just got blocked

My own tip for nice transactions is to just ask the supermarket to take £x.01 on the card and say you'll pay the rest in cash. They don;t mind, though they may not understand it.

reehsetin

just signed up with lloyds, cant wait, was trying to think of ways to maximise the change because i use my debit card very little, this thread should really help

does anyone know how i can check that its ctivated on my account? signed up online a few days ago, no confirmation letter yet

johnmoney05

Or if you do Matched Betting, you can use Lloyds TSB debit card to fund your accounts. I have 5 Bookies accounts, so it doesn't take long to get the £50 a month.

If you use stamps a lot, you can buy some stamps as well in the post office and pay by the card.

biscuit81_2

Do I have to keep the £50 in the savings account each month in order to get the matched money?

theluckiswithme

biscuit81 wrote:

Do I have to keep the £50 in the savings account each month in order to get the matched money?

I was wondering this too...

plzhelpmesave!

3p carrier bags sold at certain supermarkets!

Feng_Shui

R S McColls or Martin McColls have no minimum purchase on Debit Cards so, if you buy a newspaper every morning or evening then use it!

freebird65

I flagged this on about 3rd Jan on the Olympic Challenge 2007 thread (post #81)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=338896&page=5
although I see Toni Tax got there well before me...and hit the ground running on 1st Feb......I'm on course to make the £50 per month so fingers crossed!!

Good luck all!

kingmonkey

Am I right in saying that to get the full £100, you would need to make about 17 1p transactions every week for the next 6 weeks?

How long does it take to open a current account?

Paul_Herring

Martin wrote:

Free £100 loophole from Lloyds TSB. It'll take some work, but it's fun!

Can I be the first to point out, that this £100 will be taxed at your marginal rate? For a basic rate tax payer, the most you'll get is £40 by 1st April (for February's spending), and £40 by 1st May (for March's).

biscuit81 wrote:

Do I have to keep the £50 in the savings account each month in order to get the matched money?

In addition you must remain registered for the scheme, and have the associated savings bank account open by at least 1st May.

If you're opening the saver account, you need £250 to open it and if you want to keep a decent interest rate for the duration, keep at least £250 in there. After May 1st (when the 2nd payment from LTSB hits it,) you can close it, but if you don't care about the interest rate on the account, keep it at £1. There are other eligable accounts however.

kingmonkey wrote:

Am I right in saying that to get the full £100, you would need to make about 17 1p transactions every week for the next 6 weeks?

The maximum they will match is £50 in February, and £50 in May. So you need 51 £xx.1p transactions in each month (for a total of £50.49.)

I'm managing £4.95 per day by paying off some of my Egg credit card in 5x£1.01 transactions per day