Get £45 for free if you have a Monese bank account (only 4 minutes needed)

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Monese is the online banking app which has a partnership with Avios – albeit that the partnership has not gone much further, so far, than letting you view your Avios balance alongside your financial balance.

I know that 2,000 HfP readers have a Monese account following our recent competition. If you didn’t win, here is £45 as compensation.

If you don’t already have a Monese account, you can use my refer-a-friend code of ROBE820. You will receive a £5 credit plus a further £15 when you’ve spent £500 on your card. I think that is how it works – it doesn’t actually tell me anywhere what you get ….

If you are reading this on your phone, the download link is here.

How to get your free £45

As a Black Friday offer, Monese has two offers running:

Buy a £50 shopping gift card for £35
Buy a £100 shopping gift card for £70

By far the easiest option is to buy an Amazon gift card and add it to your Amazon account for future use (it is valid for 10 years).

Here is a step by step guide to how to do it. This is based on the £100 gift card but the process is the same for the £50 card. You can buy one of each per Monese account.

As you can see from the time stamps on the screenshots, it only took me four minutes to buy and redeem each gift card – and it would have been quicker if I wasn’t taking and uploading screenshots!

If the offer comes up as ‘expired’, it isn’t. It is just overload on the system. I got ‘expired’ early on Friday but was then able to purchase successfully at lunchtime. If GIFT100 fails for the £100 gift card, you may find that GIFT50 still works, according to readers.

Step 1: Make sure you have £70 in your Monese account

I withdrew £70 from my linked HSBC account and it arrived instantly:

Step 2: Go to ‘Promotions’, which is under the menu in the top left corner (the ‘head’ icon)

Step 3: Add the code ‘GIFT100’ (or ‘GIFT50’ for the £50 card):

…. which will lead you to this screen:

Step 4: Click on your messages (the ‘bell’ in the top right corner)

You can then activate your gift card:

Step 5: Choose the gift card you want

You can choose from Amazon, Argos, Asda, Caffe Nero, Cineworld, Costa, Currys ….. and that is just A-C! For an easy life, take an Amazon gift card (valid for 10 years):

Step 6: Click here to go to the page of the amazon.co.uk where you redeem electronic gift cards

Enter your code:

And that’s it. £30 saved.

If you bought the £100 gift card, you can repeat the process with code GIFT50 and pay £35 for a £50 gift card.

I hope the free £45 makes up for not winning our Monese competition.

If you’re not already a Monese account holder, you can download the app here.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus.

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

AndyK says:

29 Nov29 November 14:06

Be aware that Tesco option has disappeared even from GIFT50 bought yesterday
Craig says:

29 Nov29 November 14:45

Can’t top up today for some reason, keeps getting declined?
- Rob says:
  
  29 Nov29 November 14:52
  
  Not a NatWest account holder by any chance?!
  - Craig says:
    
    29 Nov29 November 14:54
    
    No, HSBC, it worked yesterday.
    - Craig says:
      
      29 Nov29 November 14:56
      
      It just worked with smaller amounts, promotion expired message for the GIFT100 though.
- Tom says:
  
  29 Nov29 November 15:15
  
  I had this too. Thought it was the originating bank’s fault at first. I ended up using a bank transfer to Monese which took a couple of hours to arrive. I think they might be struggling!
K says:

29 Nov29 November 14:55

I did a transfer 2 hours ago and it has not credited yet. Not sure why.
Karen Robertson says:

29 Nov29 November 15:29

GIFT100 code coming up as expired – were there only a certain amount?
Vikki says:

29 Nov29 November 15:31

I have tried but with the £100 I just the expired notice. I’ve also tried the £50 but get a message saying I’m not eligible for this promotion..
Shoestring says:

29 Nov29 November 16:05

greenhorn question: so now I’ve signed up to Monese & got my free £45, how can I use it to pay a bill online? I can see my a/c number & sort code, but not a long card number or 3 digit security number
- Rob says:
  
  29 Nov29 November 16:18
  
  You need to wait for your plastic card to arrive, if you ordered one.
  - Shoestring says:
    
    29 Nov29 November 16:25
    
    the app didn’t ask me if I wanted a debit card – but I see Phil G’s comment 16:19
    - EwanG says:
      
      29 Nov29 November 16:36
      
      Apparently you can create a virtual card, as with Revolut. As a free user it’s not giving me any option, other than to order a physical card.
      The app is pretty slick, but this and another couple of areas in the customer journey could be improved.
      If you have any funds remaining you could always faster payment them out!
      - Shoestring says:
        
        29 Nov29 November 17:05
        
        no I’m on zero but I need to pay somebody to get my free £15, not sure how I do that without the debit card details though 🙂
      - Pablo says:
        
        29 Nov29 November 17:49
        
        Try code 1MONTHFREE It gives you free Premium plan for 30 days, then automatically reverts to the Simple plan. Should allow you to receive the physical debit card for free.
      - Shoestring says:
        
        29 Nov29 November 18:04
        
        cheers Pablo, have an ether pint on me!
        🥇🏆🎯🍻
        
        lets you get the virtual card immediately as well
    - Shoestring says:
      
      29 Nov29 November 18:13
      
      have run into dearly beloved sez no problem
      
      so my wife won’t do the selfie bit to open a Monese a/c, ‘I don’t want the £45’
      
      good job I am used to this (the Amex years) – so I experience but momentary frustration & move on
      - Pablo says:
        
        29 Nov29 November 18:29
        
        You’re welcome. Do max out the premium plan. Can earn vast amounts of miles/points with Amex or c@$hbak through Halifax/Lloyds offers in Coop & Spar paypoints. Do sign up OH through the site that shall not be named (mobile version) and combine it with your referral code. Both will pay out (tried and tested)
      - Gehegeg says:
        
        30 Nov30 November 13:56
        
        @ PABLO
        
        Thanks for the code. Care to elaborate on what you wrote:
        
        “You’re welcome. Do max out the premium plan. Can earn vast amounts of miles/points with Amex”
        
        How exactly would one get AMEX in the mix here?
Mark says:

29 Nov29 November 16:05

Managed to get a £50 gift card. Now the promotions page just gives me “Oops” Something went wrong”.
- Shoestring says:
  
  29 Nov29 November 16:11
  
  when your success email arrives [Your gift card purchase was successful!] (try desktop), you can use that to navigate to redeem it from the range of cards
  - Mark says:
    
    29 Nov29 November 16:16
    
    Yes, got that. It’s more that I can’t try again for the £100 card….
  - BJ says:
    
    29 Nov29 November 19:52
    
    They provided in app notifications, clicking on those allowed amazon redemption and credit in under 20s.
Phil G says:

29 Nov29 November 16:19

Worth noting that the delivery fee for a debit card of £4.95 seems to have returned for those taking up the free account
- BJ says:
  
  29 Nov29 November 19:53
  
  From late January.