Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert says shoppers must act now to get £25 free cash for Christmas

Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) team has urged shoppers to act now to get £25 free cash in time for Christmas.

A number of major UK supermarkets have Christmas saver schemes that allow you to save up throughout the year – or give you vouchers when you do your weekly shopping – to spend over the festive season. The MSE team highlighted these in last week’s newsletter – and shoppers have been urged to take advantage before its too late.

Sainsbury’s scheme, in particular, pays you £2.50 for every £50 you save with the scheme – this means if you save £500 through the scheme you will get a bonus payment of £25. However, The Mirror reports there is a major deadline coming this week and in just a matter of days.

To join, you need to apply for a physical card in-store, and once activated, you can top up the card throughout the year whilst shopping at Sainsbury’s stores, online, and at Argos. You can activate and save onto the card at Sainsbury’s in-store checkouts and self-service tills.

However, shoppers only have until 11:59pm on November 1 to get the £25 bonus. This means shoppers only have a few days left to get the free £25. The bonus payment will be paid to you at the end of November. You can save up to a maximum of £1,975 though you won’t get any extra bonus beyond £25.

If you want to benefit from this, but you don’t have enough to put away for the maximum bonus, then you shouldn’t worry as Sainsbury’s pays a bonus through a tiered system. The bonuses you could receive through the scheme include:

• £2.50 bonus when you save between £50 and £99.99
• £5 bonus when you save between £100 and £149.99
• £7.50 bonus when you save between £150 and £199.99
• £10 bonus when you save between £200 and £249.99
• £12.50 bonus when you save between £250 and £299.99
• £15 bonus when you save between £300 and £349.99
• £17.50 bonus when you save between £350 and £399.99
• £20 bonus when you save between £400 and £449.99
• £22.50 bonus when you save between £450 and £499.99
• £25 bonus when you save £500 and over

Sainsbury’s is not the only supermarket that offers a scheme like this. The MSE newsletter included a link to a full page highlighting all of the schemes available this year.

Other chains which offer a saver scheme include Asda, Iceland and Co-Op – these offer bonuses from £15 to unlimited. Tesco does also have its Christmas Saver Scheme however the deadline for this year has now passed.