From cash and holidays to tech and toys, there are hundreds of prizes to win in free UK competitions every week – many of them easy to enter. If you’re wondering how can I win or looking for tips to boost your chances, this guide is here to help, whether you’re new to ‘comping’ or have been trying without much success.
Do I really have a chance of winning a prize?
Yes! When you start following competition forums across the web, you’ll soon see that people really do win prizes. Head over to our winners’ page to see some of them!
While most competitions are down to luck, there are definitely some strategies you can use to boost your chances over other entrants.
1. Enter competitions with better odds
While there’s no problem entering the comps that have thousands of entrants (because someone has to win, right?), your time could be better spent elsewhere and looking for competitions where you have a better chance is likely to pay off.
A lot of free UK competitions have uncapped entry numbers, because they’re run by brands wanting to grab as many people’s contact info as possible. They’re actually a pretty cheap way for companies to market their products or services – the cost of the prize is often significantly less than say, newspaper or TV advertising.
The problem for you is that there are typically thousands of entrants and your chances of winning are pretty low. There’s no harm in entering them but don’t expect a lot (besides spam).
Comps with capped entry numbers are obviously going to give you a better chance. You might be 1 of 500 entrants, rather than 1 of 5,000. Thanks to the law of large numbers (which suggests that over time, outcomes will converge with the expected probability), consistently entering a capped entry competition should eventually result in a win!
Comps that are not capped but allow more than 1 entry can present a good opportunity – be careful to keep a note of how often you can re-enter and return to the site as often as allowed.
Multinetwork competitions, which allow you to enter through various social channels for a single prize, can also offer good opportunities. Check the terms to make sure you’re allowed an entry on each channel and follow the instructions carefully (for example, liking the promoter’s page is NOT the same as liking the competition post).
Comps requiring effort generally have lower entry numbers. These might request that you submit a slogan, photo, video etc and since they’re skill-based, you can win by showing off your skills! The Writers’ Guide has some great examples of winning competition slogans, and Rhymezone is helpful for finding rhyming words. OneAcross is also super-helpful for solving crossword puzzles and has an anagram solver. Of course, ChatGPT can also offer a helping hand!
Local competitions tend to have lower numbers – check Facebook community groups, local newsletters and local paper and online directories. Compers do report high success rates with these.
Finally, do keep an eye out for newer companies (like ours!) The number of entrants is lower while these companies get established, so even if they cap the entries at say, 500, they might only have a fraction of the entry spots filled – giving you incredible odds.
2. Know where to find good comps
You will substantially increase your chances of winning if you know where to find the best competitions! You really don’t need to pay a membership to view competition listings – there is an army of compers out there who are only too happy to share comps with you for free. Our favourite sites in order are:
- Loquax
- Money Saving Expert ‘Standard Competition’ forums
- Competitions-time.co.uk
There are hundreds of competitions listed on these sites which can feel slightly overwhelming so do use the Loquax ‘ending soon’ link and check out Competition Time’s homepage for all the comps that are closing soon. On Money Saving Expert’s Standard Competition forums, all the competitions include the closing date in their title (e.g. {E: 25/11 means ends 25th November).
All 3 sites above – MSE, Loquax and Competitions Time – have trackers so you can mark which comps you have entered.
Social media is another great place to find comps: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are all full of them, and you can sometimes find them on Pinterest too. Search using hashtags such as #ukcompetitions, #prizedraw, #giveaway and so on.
If you plan to enter a lot of social comps, you might want to set up separate social accounts just for comping – but be sure to check them for win notifications! (Note that Facebook does not allow you to have more than one account)
It’s also a good idea to have pre-arranged tagging buddies for when you have to tag a friend or two underneath the competition post. If they know in advance, you’re less likely to annoy them.
3. Beware of fake competitions and scams
Fake competitions and scams are not only a waste of your valuable comping time but they are also potentially dangerous. These are especially a problem on social but they can also be found on sites that are mining your data to sell. If it sounds too good to be true (e.g. ‘follow our page for the chance to win this £20k campervan’) it almost certainly is. Promoters cannot offer free competitions unless they are getting something of real value from you.
DO NOT enter card details to enter a ‘free competition’. Promoters don’t need your card details for a genuinely free comp. If it’s a paid competition, check the promoter’s credentials before entering. Look on their website for the same trust factors that you’d expect from any other retailer.For example, the promoter should be registered with Companies House, and while a postal entry address might be a PO Box, their official business address should not be.
Never pay to get a prize – if you’re told you’ve won and then asked to pay, it’s a scam and likely an illegal lottery (see rule 8.21.1 of the CAP code).
Another one to watch out for is scammers creating fake company profiles on Facebook and social comps, and commenting to tell you that you’ve won (usually they’ll also post a link asking for payment). Look for the blue tick which helps confirm that the account is genuine. Message the promoter directly through their website, if you’re in any doubt.
You can find more on avoiding scam competitions here.
4. Be consistent
Put aside time: consistency is key!
Dedicated compers treat entering competitions like a part-time job, and often, that’s who you’re up against. These individuals are diligent, organised, and consistent, which is why they frequently win. If you want to improve your chances, adopting some of their habits can make a big difference.
Put time aside: The key to consistency is setting aside dedicated time to focus on finding and entering competitions. This doesn’t mean you need to spend hours every day, but having a regular routine – whether it’s 20 minutes a day or a couple of hours on the weekend – can help you stay on top of things.
Find competitions strategically: Develop a system for discovering new competitions. This could include regularly visiting competition aggregator websites, signing up for newsletters, or following social media accounts that share competition alerts. The more you enter, the greater your chances of success, but it’s essential to focus on competitions that align with your interests and offer reasonable odds.
Stay organised: Use a spreadsheet, app, or even a notebook to track the competitions you’ve entered, including their closing dates and any additional requirements, like tiebreakers or creative submissions. Organisation ensures you don’t miss important deadlines or accidentally re-enter a competition that doesn’t allow it.
Make it a habit: Building a consistent habit is crucial. Treat it as part of your daily or weekly routine, much like checking emails or going to the gym. Regular effort compounds over time, and with enough entries, you’ll significantly increase your chances of winning.
Remember, competition wins often come down to perseverance. Many prizes are won by people who simply put in the time and don’t give up. Well-known and highly successful comper Di Coke of website superlucky.me isn’t any luckier than the rest of us – but she is extremely dedicated!
5. Follow the entry requirements carefully
It might sound obvious, but one of the easiest ways to miss out on a prize is by failing to follow the competition’s entry requirements to the letter. Competition organisers are often strict about their rules, and for good reason – it ensures fairness and helps them achieve their promotional goals (without which, they would not exist). If you overlook even a small detail, you could be disqualified, and the prize you worked for could go to someone else.
Why it matters: Most competitions receive hundreds or thousands of entries, and organisers don’t have the time to chase down incomplete or incorrect submissions. If your entry doesn’t meet their criteria, they’ll simply move on to the next eligible entrant. This could mean something as simple as failing to provide the correct contact details, neglecting to answer a required question, or not following all the steps (like sharing a post or tagging a friend).
Double-check everything: Before submitting your entry, take a moment to review the requirements. Common mistakes include forgetting to:
- Include your full name, email address, or phone number.
- Answer all mandatory fields in an online form.
- Follow or like a brand’s social media account if it’s a requirement.
- Share a post publicly or tag the correct number of people in a competition on social media.
Even small errors can cost you the win, so double-checking is worth the extra effort.
Follow through: In some cases, you might need to take further action after your initial entry, such as confirming your subscription to a newsletter or replying to a verification email. Missing these follow-ups can disqualify you, even if your entry was otherwise perfect.
Sites can redraw a winner: Most competition sites (including ours!) reserve the right to redraw a new winner if the original entrant hasn’t fulfilled all the requirements. Imagine finding out you’ve won, only to have the prize slip away because you missed a simple step. Don’t let that happen – be thorough from the start.
6. Be careful with your data
Being mindful of how you share your data won’t directly boost your chances of winning, but it can help you avoid the frustration that might make you give up comping altogether!
Unfortunately, some competition sites will sell your data or spam you excessively. Having a separate comping email address does help you to cope with the spam. Unsubscribing quickly from anything that looks of poor value also helps (although some competition newsletters, like ours, have exclusive free tickets and draws for subscribers, so it is sometimes worth staying on the list for those).
It’s also worth checking the competition terms. Sites do typically have to share some of your data for the purpose of delivering prizes, processing payments and so on. Sometimes a promoter will also want to send you information about their product or service and there’s nothing wrong with that – it’s how they can afford to offer the prize in the first place. But any vague clause in their terms or privacy policy about passing your details to third parties for the purpose of ‘sharing products or services you might be interested in’ is a red flag for a mountain of spam.
Be aware that aggregate sites running competitions on behalf of companies do not have control over how your data is used, once handed over to the Company. An example is Good Housekeeping which runs a lot of free UK competitions – and from experience, entry to these seems to result in floods of spam.
TIP: Set up a dedicated email address for competition entries but don’t forget to check it regularly for win notifications – some sites require that you reply to them within a certain amount of time. Gmail is the best option because it nicely sorts your mails into general, promotion etc (although be aware that your winner’s notifications might incorrectly get sorted into ‘promotions’).
7. Engage with the promoter
Adam – winner of our Ninja knife block and coffee machine!
While engaging won’t increase your chances in the prize draw itself, it helps the promoter grow. Their success often means more competitions, which benefits everyone, including you! Promoters are often happy to help and if you’ve helped them, they’re more likely to contact you if there’s an issue with your entry, rather than just disqualifying it.
Send a photo if you win – it’s a great way to thank them and helps their promotions look more credible. Be polite when interacting with them, whether it’s through messages, emails, or comments on their posts. Liking and sharing their content shows support and keeps you in the loop about future competitions. If you’re unsure about something, ask for guidance.
Offering a review is a great way to help promoters grow and thrive – even if you haven’t won a prize yet. After all, not everyone can win!
8. Take care with pay-to-enter raffle websites
We have pay-to-enter “raffle” type competitions so you might wonder why we’d caution against websites like our own!
Provided you use money you can afford to lose, entering competitions on trustworthy pay-to-enter websites can be fun, exciting and a great way to boost your chances of winning. Paid competitions often have a capped number of tickets, giving you better odds – and newer sites like ours can have very low entry numbers. We also offer cheap ticket bundles, to boost your chances further!
However, not all competition sites follow the rules or operate fairly.
Winner picking
Before entering a pay-to-enter competition, ask yourself whether the process for choosing winners is truly random and transparent.
We use Rafflys to choose our winners: software that is used by many huge household names such as Tupperware, Pepsi, Marriott, HubSpot and Levis. We do our very best to film the full entry list during our live stream of the draws so you can be certain that we included you. We also keep detailed records and you are welcome to ask any questions about your entry into any of our current or previous draws.
We do not use off-the-shelf winner pickers that are packaged into much of today’s website competition software because the methods they use are not cryptographically secure, making them predictable and unfair. Be aware that hundreds of raffle websites DO use this type of flawed software.
Our Instant Win software is bespoke, independently coded software created to produce a 100% cryptographically secure truly random number for every single ticket. This is available for the ASA to inspect at any time.
Free entry routes
There must be a genuine free entry route (such as sending in a postcode) or a genuine skill element (such as submitting a photograph) for all online pay-to-enter competitions. This is required by law – otherwise the site is running an illegal lottery. A typical free entry route means requiring that you send in a postcard or envelope with a second class stamp. This should be advertised with just as much prominence as any paid entry route, and not buried in the terms and conditions.
We have been independent-solicitor vetted to ensure we meet these requirements, and we also have an SRA-regulated solicitor on our team, checking all of our competitions and communications.
9. Use free software
The more comps you enter, the better your chances – and there are quite a few decent apps for speeding up this process. Split Screen for Google Chrome is a browser add-on that lets you view two browser windows side by side. This is handy when you’re browsing comping websites such as MSE and Loquax, and allows you to just copy and paste in answers. Side View is the equivalent for Firefox.
Autofill is another way to speed up the process. In Chrome, click the 3 dots at the top, choose ‘Passwords and Autofill’, then choose ‘Addresses and more’. Google will then fill out forms for you automatically.
Firefox has the same thing on a slightly more basic level – click the hamburger menu in the top right hand corner, choose Privacy & Security, and under History, make sure ‘Remember history’ is selected.
Roboform’s browser extensions are quite a bit better at form filling than the built in browser tools, and these are worth checking if you’re completing hundreds of forms a week.
We hope you’ve found these tips on how to win helpful in boosting your chances in free UK competitions! Have we missed anything? Let us know – we’d love to hear your thoughts and any tips you’d like to share!
