What can you do with £1? Actually quite a lot. This is a great one, here’s how to invest £1, get loads of free shares and either sell them or have some fun. A definite Spend Smarter idea.

£1 seems to have lost its value, it’s only a pound. We tip our Uber Eats driver more than £1 and it won’t even buy you a coffee in most places.  So next in this series is a great one. Invest £1 and turn it into real money, share it with your friends so they make money too. Add some fun along the way.

Updated May 2021 with extra info and another way to invest £1 and get free shares with Freetrade.

Just adding this (March 21) There’s a fab £50 sign up bonus triggered when you spend £1 with the Amex Platinum cashback card. Find out more in this new article.

things-you-can-do-for-one-pound-spending-tips-saving-tips

Get a free share when you deposit £1

You may have seen ‘get a free share’ around alot and like me didn’t bother doing anything about it. I know nothing about investing. Plus there’s always a catch right? Surely you don’t get anything for free. So I thought I’d check it out to see exactly what the catch was.

When something is free, the product is you.

Let’s be very clear here, Companies designed to make a profit do not give Freebies, Free trials or Free bonuses out of the goodness of their hearts. There is no charitable or philanthropic motivation. You are the product, and they want you to spend your money with them.

Offering enticements is a great way for them to get already interested Customers to try the product, once enjoyed, they expect / hope you would then start spending your own money with them.

How are you with temptation? What have you got ‘free’ that has led you to spend money with that Company?

Being aware of this situation allows us to essentially take advantage of these free shares, trials, gifts etc and avoid the temptation to be suckered in and spend money on things we don’t need, don’t understand or could get cheaper / better elsewhere.

So what is the catch with ‘free’ shares?

Well there is no catch, you even get your £1 back and much more. I have £94 in my account that I can withdraw or leave invested.

There are a few rules here. Very. Important. Rules.

  • Get your free shares
  • Refer your friends and get more
  • Do not invest any of your own money

The reality is that MOST people do not follow the rules.

Follow the rules and this is a fun way to get free money.

May 2021 – I now have £194 after cashing out £200. This has been fab, read on.

This is what I did to get my free shares and you can do the same

Click on this free share link , it is my personal invite for you to join and get your free share. I’ll put the link further down too so you can read through this first.

Then you sign up to Trading 212 and deposit £1 and you get your free share, I’ll get a free share too.

  • You will need your National Insurance number to create the account
  • Tick account type ‘invest’ (middle one)
  • You deposit £1
  • Your free share arrives in your account within 24 hours (though ours have always been instantly or 1 hour max)
  • Your free share can be worth anything up top £100. Ours have been between £8 and £12.
  • You can invite 10 friends so 10 extra free shares

Then you invite your friends. Free share for them, free share for you.

May 2021. Do exactly the same with Freetrade using this link. Main difference is that you are not limited to inviting 10 friends, you can invite unlimited friends and you both get a free share each time.

What do you do with your free shares?

Now you have options and this is where you can take the money or leave it in and have some fun.

Cash in your shares

My youngest son Robbie shared his link with 4 friends and ended up with shares including Ford and Ocado. Plus he got an 11p dividend from a Ford share, great timing. He waited a week, sold the shares and withdrew the money including his original £1. He withdrew £77. Yep his original £1 magically became £77. Brilliant.

Have some fun with your portfolio

This is what I did as I wanted to find out what was possible. I enjoy being an Investor and decided to play around. I wanted to make my investments more ‘me’ so I sold my Ocado and Ford Shares (still got the dividends, must have unwittingly timed that perfectly!) And I bought shares that reflected me.

This was before the COVID crash by the way, I still have the same shares. I looked at Tesla and Boeing, IAG and Virgin Galactic. The shares cost loads but here’s the great thing. You don’t have to buy a whole share. I now invest in all these Companies and others. Here is some of what I own.

  • Boeing 0.08 of a share
  • IAG 3 shares
  • Tesla 0.013 of a share
  • Virgin Galactic 0.4 of a share
  • Costco 0.05 of a share
  • Cineworld Group 25 shares
  • Microsoft 0.2 of a share

This makes me chuckle, it’s a real Small Joy. Every day I check on the Trading 212 app to see what my investments are doing. I had (again unwittingly) timed Tesla perfectly and my Investment shot up. Now with the COVID, most of the shares values have bombed. My 0.08 shares in Boeing are now worth £8.34 a drop of £11.09, ouch.

If this crash hadn’t have happened my portfolio would have been worth £10 more. Glad it was free money, not my own money. Technically it was my money I guess but I’ve had 2 months of enjoyment from this so I’m not complaining.

Started with £1

May 2021. A I got more shares I carried on doing the same – selling them and using the funds to buy more of the ones I fancied. By March my shares were worth over £400. That’s £400 of free money. So I sold £200 worth of shares and kept the rest invested. Good timing too as the value has dropped massively, at one point they were worth £105, but they’re now climbing again.

I would say that doing it this way is not really ‘investing’ . As an investing platform, this is not great. The buying/selling fees (which you don’t see) are higher than many others. Plus my investing choices are personal – no knowledge of what I am doing at all. However this is money earned for free so I am cool with it. It’s fun.

The perfect time to get your free shares

Yes this is the perfect time to invest. Whatever free shares you get now will be at rock bottom prices and will increase in value. You can sell them and buy what you want. I am using the term Investing loosely as this is much more ‘fun with free money’ I am definitely keeping my shares until I fancy selling them and leave the real investment advice to the experts.

Here is the link to get your free share again, Enjoy. And the Freetrade free share link MORE LINKS AT BOTTOM OF THE POST

As a UK Money Blogger, the first place I look for any financial advice is the Money Blogger Community and I am going to start with this free course from our Investing Financial Expert Simon.

Let me know where your £1 takes you and keep an eye out for more All for £1 and £1 for all ideas. Including this fab Flights to Europe for £1 one. Hope this will still be available when the World reopens.

How about free stuff? Costs even less than a pound, check out our How to get free coffee post and the Audible free trial articles.

Here are all your links to free shares including Free Stake which is a £50 minimum for your free share

Free shares here

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5 comments

  1. I have set up trading account and deposited my £1, around 2 hours ago and still no free shares.. are the shares issued limited or maybe I’ve missed out.

    Reply

    1. Hi Maxine, they do say allow 24 hours, though ours have always come through quicker. As long as you have deposited your £1 it will turn up. Let me know if not, I can chase them. All the best, Tracy

      Reply

  2. I have clicked on the freeTrade share, steps you have to do now, not sure if you mentioned this is
    , after sign up , you have to give name address / have apple pay to transfer the funds / if based in the UK have to submit your NI Number , everything must match, then you have to make a deposit , then have to wait a week for the free share

    Reply

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