Now, I’m a massive fan of saving a bit of extra cash whenever I can. Especially when it comes to things like eating out, as let’s be honest, it can get pretty expensive. In fact, a recent study found that the average Brit spends nearly £700 a year eating out! That’s why one of my favourite ways to save is by using a Tastecard (read my full review here)
But, while it can save you a decent amount over the year, it comes at a price. A pretty steep price if you don’t buy it on a deal. So, I decided to look at ways to get a Free Tastecard to find out what the best deals out there are.
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- What do you get with a Tastecard?
- Get a Free Tastecard with Certain RBS and NatWest Bank Accounts
- Free Trials Stacked with Cashback Sites
- Use Multiple Offers
- Free Tastecard with Gold Membership
- Free 2-month Trial Tastecard for Students
- Free Tastecard Equivalent with Insurance
- Summing Up
What do you get with a Tastecard?
Firstly, why would you want a Tastecard in the first place? Well, basically it gives you either 2 for 1 or 50% off on meals out 7 days a week. This sets it apart from the hugely popular Meerkat Meals offer from Compare the Market.
With Meerkat Meals you can only get the deal from Sunday to Thursday, so weekend diners miss out. This is where the Tastecard comes into its own.
You also get discounts at the cinema (upto 40% off) 7 days a week. This, again, sets it apart from the Compare the Market offer, as Meerkat Movies codes only work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
So, can you get a Tastecard Free and if not, what are the best deals to get one as cheaply as possible? Let’s find out…
Get a Free Tastecard with Certain RBS and NatWest Bank Accounts
Both NatWest and RBS offer a Free 12-month Tastecard membership for Silver, Platinum, Student and Graduate account holders.
Now, Silver and Platinum accounts both have monthly fees though. The Silver account costs £10 a month and the Platinum account costs a very pricey £20 a month.
So, it’s probably not worth getting one just for a Tastecard, but if you already hold one of these accounts make sure you go and claim your free Tastecard! But the student and graduate accounts are both free so if you’re in the market for one of these, it’s worth bearing in mind.
Free Trials Stacked with Cashback Sites
So, if don’t have a student or Graduate Bank Account with either NatWest or RBS, your best bet is going for a free trial stacked with a cashback deal. The best two deals I’ve found at the moment are on Quidco and TopCashback, but it’s always worth checking other sites to see if there’s a better deal on other cashback sites.
Quidco
With Quidco you can get £3 cashback* when you take out a 90-day trial for £1. This gives you a £2 profit and a Free Tastecard for 3 months.
Plus, if you’re not already signed up with Quidco you can get a £10 sign up bonus using this link*.
To get the sign-up bonus though you need to earn a total of £5 cashback, so you’ll need to earn another £2 on top of the Tastecard bonus to get it.
The other option is to get £5 cashback on annual membership and with the £10 Quidco bonus, you effectively get a years’ Tastecard for £20 (The £34.99 annual fee with £5 cashback and your £10 Quidco sign up bonus)
TopCashback
TopCashback* has a better Free Tastecard Trail membership deal. With TopCashback you can get a 3-month Tastecard Trial Free and get £3 cashback in the process. If you want to go for a full year’s membership you can get £8 cashback too.
So, at the moment, TopCashback comes out on top*. I recently compared the two sites on a selection of offers too, so check it out if you want to see how they stacked up against each other.
Use Multiple Offers
While you can only get 3 months free using the Trial option along with cashback, you can always share your Tastecard membership with family members. If you usually all eat together, you can get a 3-month deal, then once it’s expired, your wife, husband or partner can take out a free trial for another 3 months.
Then, you could try a Gourmet Society deal. OK, it’s not quite the same as Tastecard but it’s very similar! With Gourmet Society you can get a 120-day free trial and get cashback £1.50 with Quidco*
Or at TopCashback* where you can get £3.60 cashback on a 3-month free trial.
Gourmet Society offers you Get 25% off your total bill including drinks, or up to 50% off food depending on the restaurant, as well as upto 40% of cinema tickets. So very similar to Tastecard but with slightly different offers.
Free Tastecard with Childcare.co.uk Gold Membership
The childcare website offers a Free Tastecard to its Gold members. The site is aimed at parents, childcare providers and schools. The Gold Membership scheme costs a whopping £24.99 a month though, so this deal probably only applies to childcare providers who use the site for their business rather than everyday parents looking for childcare in their local area.
So, again, a nice perk if you already use the scheme but certainly not worth joining just to get a Free Tastecard!
Free 2-month Trial Tastecard for Students
If you’re a student and don’t have a NatWest or RBS bank account you can get a free 2-month trial directly with Tastecard*. But watch out, it auto-renews at £4 a month at the end of the 2-month period.
Free Tastecard Equivalent with Insurance
You can get a great free equivalent when you buy insurance. You can get Meerkat Meals (which is powered by Tastecard), when you buy a qualifying insurance product with Compare the Market. You get access to most of the same restaurants. but you can only use the offer on Sundays to Thursdays. So if you’re a weekend diner, it won’t cut the mustard, unfortunately.
Summing Up
So, there you have it. There are a couple of ways to get a year’s Tastecard membership completely free. But you’ll either need a qualifying bank account with RBS or NatWest, or be an existing member of Childcare.co.uk.
If you’re a student you can get the bank accounts free, so these may well be worth a look. But the paid accounts certainly cost a lot more than the value of a Tastecard! This means, the majority of people either need to buy one, or selectively take out free trials as and when they need them.
Do you use a Tastecard? And if you do, did you buy it outright or use the Free Trials instead? Plus, if I’ve missed any other ways to get a Free Tastecard please let me know!
