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7 ways to be a pro at comping

Gerard Gyedu 16th Sep 2019 7 Comments

Reading Time: 5 minutes

There’s no reason you can’t be a pro at comping.

Comping, the art of taking part in competitions – either online or offline – is a fantastic way to bag yourself some awesome stuff worth hundreds of pounds for free. Not only that but it can be done from the comfort of your own home.

You can find all our latest competitions – and tips on how to do them well – in our Online Competitions article.

Also, make sure you sign-up to our newsletter so that you find out about our weekly competitions. We often have social media competitions too so follow us at @MoneyMagpie on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

Below, check out some ways to be a pro at comping and you could be winning some fantastic prizes in the not too distant future…

 

1. Enter high-value competitions

High Value Technology and Appliance Prizes

Surprisingly, people are more likely to enter competitions for cheaper prizes than for the expensive ones. That is, competitions to win prizes such as crisps and chocolate, instead of entering competitions to win prizes such as TV’s and game consoles.

In fact, we see this in our competitions quite often, the amount of you who’ll enter a competition for a box of chocolates but don’t enter for a piece of tech worth £50+ is surprising.

Why do people seem attracted to low-value competitions compared to high-value comps?

Well, we think the general consensus is that people feel their chances of winning big prizes are small because they believe that so many other people will be going in for it.

The irony is, of course, because everyone thinks this way, more people enter the low-value competitions.

In fact, because people are reluctant to enter big competitions, the lower value competitions are actually harder to win. Weird huh?

So now, armed with this knowledge, what reason do you have for not entering expensive competitions?

Especially now you know far fewer people enter them!

 

2. Make a list of all the competitions you have entered

get a job

One to the ways to be a pro at comping is to keep a list of all the competitions you’ve entered and come across.

This will make it a whole lot easier for you to keep track of all the competitions you have gone in for.

Winning a prize for a competition you have forgotten about is a nice surprise, but you don’t want to waste time entering a competition you have already joined.

 

3. Pick and choose your competitions

Young woman looking thoughtful
Don’t bother entering a competition for something you’re never going to use.

Only enter competitions for things that you’ll realistically get some use out of.

Some people say you should go in for everything as you can always sell things you don’t want.

This may be true of something like a car, where the prize value is significant, but for smaller items you’re probably just wasting your time.

You’re only making it harder for people who genuinely do want that prize, and this is no way to be a pro at comping.

Your time is precious…use it well!

 

4. Make the effort with tricky competitions

Effort concept - man pushing large boulder up a hill
Another great way to be a pro at comping is by not ignoring those lengthy and long-winded competitions.

While we understand that this is a common thing to do, get ahead of the crowd and put in the effort for the competitions that require a fair amount of time to enter.

Think about it – if there’s more to do, other people probably won’t bother.

Again, it’s something we find with our comps. The more we ask people to do, the less people enter.

This puts the odds in your favour, so put in the effort!

 

5. Create an email address specifically for competitions

Email

While you can enter our competitions and be sure you won’t receive any spam, unfortunately not all online competition websites work this way.

By passing on your email to a new site, you’re opening up your email address to a glut of spam emails.

Get around this, and be a pro at comping, by creating an email dedicated to your comping needs, giving your normal email address some breathing space.

 

6. Research the competition companies

Black African Male using Laptop and drinking from a mug
It’s not guaranteed that you will have heard of every company that is running a competition, so if you come across one company which seems unfamiliar, make sure you check them out first.

Put their name + ‘spam’ or ‘fraud’ into your search engine and see what comes up. It may be that you come across a horror story or two in forums or even on newspaper websites.

A good barometer for whether a company is legitimate or not is whether it is listed on Companies House, the official government register of UK companies.

So if you are serious about it, check them out there.

 

7. Checking the small print is a guaranteed way to be a pro at comping

Man looking at small print on a document with a magnifying glass
Reading terms and conditions may be extremely boring, but when it comes to competitions it’s pretty important.

Often the competition provider is interested in your information and the small print is going to tell you exactly what they’re going to be doing with it!

Opt-in and opt-out boxes can be worded differently, so get those reading glasses on!

Thankfully the GDPR rules introduced last year mean competition providers have to be a lot more upfront about what data they’re collected and what you’re consenting to.

 

What are your experiences of comping? Have you managed to win big? Let us know by leaving your comments in the section below. And don’t forget to enter all our exclusive competitions!

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Miss
Miss
4 years ago

I have done competitions on and off over the years, with another ‘situation’ change it may well be time to start doing more in this field again – and with the help of this article. Thanks

Lisa
Lisa
4 years ago

I’ve made the decision to enter more competitions, they are fun to do and you never know, you might just win! I do tend to be a bit wary of them, but a great tip that you can check them out online, thank you!

Sharon Turner
Sharon Turner
6 years ago

I won your competition for storage boxes for clear your clutter…they are
amazing and well used

Jasmine Birtles
Admin
6 years ago
Reply to  Sharon Turner

Excellent! I’m so pleased. Do post a picture of them on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NationalClearYourClutterCampaign/

Louise Evans
Louise Evans
8 years ago

Do you publish the names of your competition winners? or contact them direct?

Marc Crosby
Admin
8 years ago
Reply to  Louise Evans

Hi Louise, we usually do both. We publish the name of the winner on the competition page and in our newsletter, and then we get in contact directly.

Sarah Gray
Sarah Gray
8 years ago

I comp regularly, currently averaging 2 wins a month. Normally just small bits eg my latest: a toot toot car (for my boys Christmas stocking) and tickets to the baby show at olympia. My best so far has to be a holiday to Turkey at a 5* hotel! I was in shock when I got the call!

Jasmine Birtles

Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.

Jasmine Birtles

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