Make money from your friends!

Having mates doesn't just help you fill your diary - they can help you fill your wallet too!

Having a good bunch of mates is useful in all sorts of ways. They are there to help you into a cab if you've had one too many. You can have a laugh with them when life is good, and bend their ear when things are a bit naff.

But one of the best roles they can fulfil is to make or save you money! Luckily they can do this in tons of different ways.

Free cashback!

You must be crackers not to use cashback websites - you get free money just for shopping online! That's brilliant enough as it is, but get your friends involved and you can get even more free cash!

If you get a friend to use TopCashBack, once they have had £5 of cashback approved you'll get a bonus of £1.

Even better, you get £7 from GreasyPalm if you sign up a friend, though they will have to earn £15 or more in cashback before you get that money.

Discounted music

This is my favourite one of all. A new rival to iTunes has launched, called mflow.

It adds a social element to buying music - all users have their own profiles, and you can befriend other users. And this can actually earn you money!

You have the opportunity to recommend songs to your friends on the site. If one of your friends then purchases a track you've recommended, you get 20% of the price they paid! That can soon add up to a pretty penny.

Broadband and home phone

There are quite a few home phone and broadband firms that will also offer you a healthy bonus for getting a friend to sign up.

With Be Broadband for example, you can enter the details of up to six friends that you would like to hear about Be's services. You get one month's free broadband for each friend that signs up, and if all six do so you get an extra month for free - in other words a whopping SEVEN months absolutely free! Your friend will also benefit by not having to pay the full connection charge.

And with Plusnet you get a discount each month from your bills for referrals - 25p for any friends who sign up to the Plusnet Value package, and 50p for those signing up to either the Premium or Pro broadband packages, and 50p if they sign up for phone packages.

Mobiles

It's not just home phones where you can get some cash for getting friends onboard - 3 offers a cracking referral deal too!

Get a friend to sign up for a mobile and you'll each get £30 in credit. If they sign up for broadband as well, an extra £15 will be added for both of you!

Free cars!

If you have ditched your car and fancy joining a car club, head over to City Car Club - get a friend to sign up and you'll both get £20 worth of free driving! That's up to four hours of driving time!

Food vouchers

Personally I tend to do all of my food shopping at Tesco, but if you are suitably upmarket to be an Ocado type of person, then this one is for you.

If you refer a friend to Ocado and they shop there, you get to share £50 of vouchers for the store!

Bank accounts

Loads of banks will hand over some lovely free cash if you recommend their accounts to your friends.

If you introduce a friend to the brilliant Investec High 5 account, a clever product which pays the average of the top five savings accounts, then both your account and that of your friend will each be credited with £50!

You can even get a bonus from current accounts. If you introduce a friend to any of Alliance & Leicester's Premier Range - which includes the Premier Direct account which pays 6% and the Premier account which offers a massive 0% interest overdraft and £100 cashback - then you'll each get £25 placed into your account - a lovely bonus!

Free stuff from gyms

If like me you are already struggling with your New Year's weightloss target, then saving a few pounds while trying to lose them is a great idea.

With Harpers Fitness, you can get all sorts of goodies from an exercise start-up kit to magazine subscriptions to boxing gloves if you sign up a friend. You then get even better rewards for signing up more friends, including cinema tickets and free hotel rooms!

Even better, with Esporta Health Clubs, refer a friend and you'll get a week's holiday accommodation for four, absolutely free! Not bad eh?

Breakdown cover

Head over to the AA, and if you can get a friend to sign up to their breakdown cover, you'll both get £15 worth of Boots vouchers.

That's my list but there are hundreds of companies that offer you all sorts of freebies from cash to goodies just for getting your friends involved. Why not share some of your favourites via the comment box below?

Get help from lovemoney.com

If you fancy saving a few extra pennies month, there's loads of ways lovemoney.com can help!

First up, check out some of the hints and tips in our goal: Cut your car costs

Next, have a watch of this video: Two top ways to get cashback

And finally, if you have a burning question about ways to improve your finances, why not pick the brains of your fellow lovemoney.com readers in our Q&A section?

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