FAST food restaurants aren’t always cheap, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a cheeky discount or even grab a freebie.
McDonald’s is one of many fast food chains which have a ton of offers and freebies on the go – and they’re not too hard to claim.
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Summer time means schools are out – and with more kids running about than usual, you’ll want to find a great way to feed them for cheap.
And if you haven’t had time to sign up for free school meals yet, these discounts might be a great help.
Luckily, McDonald’s has a range of freebies and discounts available. And for most of them, all you need to do is sign up to a loyalty scheme.
Here’s what we found:
McDonald’s Big Mac and fries for £1.99
For this one it’s simple – all you need is an old McDonald’s receipt from a previous trip, no longer than 60 days ago.
Or you can buy a cheap item from the menu if you don’t have an old receipt handy.
Don’t forget to print your receipt if you order from a self-service kiosk.
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A 12-digit code will be printed on the proof of purchase, and you can enter this McDonald’s Food for Thought website to fill out a quick survey regarding your recent trip.
You’ll then receive a five-digit code which is your voucher for the £1.99 offer, so jot it down.
This code can be used in any McDonald’s branch to get a Big Mac and fries for £1.99.
Normally this purchase would cost £4.79, so you can save £2.80 with the lesser-known rewards offer – making it less than half price.
App discounts
The McDonald’s app can often get you money off your food.
It’s a goldmine for offers – so all you need to do is download it to your phone and set up an account.
For example, this month the app offers any student who shows their valid Student Beans or student ID a free Cheeseburger, Mayo Chicken or McFlurry if they buy any extra value or wrap meal.
This can be used for delivery, too, and NHS workers also get 20% off their order on the app.
Otherwise, you might be able to find offers like Chicken McNuggets or a Big Mac for 99p.
These can all be found under the “deal” section on the app.
You’ll get 20% off your first order through the app if you’re new to sign up.
McDonald’s loyalty scheme
McDonald’s has now extended its loyalty scheme across all its 1,300 UK outlets.
That means customers who use MyMcDonald’s Rewards, available on the McDonald’s app, can start earning and redeeming points to .
You will earn 100 points for every £1 you spend at the chain, and how many points you need to get something for free will depend on the item you want.
That makes each penny worth one point – but you can also exchange your points to make a donation to a charity.
You have to collect 1,500 points in order to bag these goodies:
- Small Fries
- Mini McFlurry
- Regular McCafé
- Hash Brown
- Side Salad
- £1.50 to donation to charity
And if you collect 2,500 points will get you one of the following:
- Double Cheeseburger
- Veggie Deluxe
- Bacon Mayo Chicken
- Cheesy Bacon Flatbread
- Medium Fries
- £2.50 donation to charity
If you rack up 4,000 points, you can choose from the following:
- 6 Chicken McNuggets
- Big Mac
- McChicken Sandwich
- Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin
- Premium Salad
- £4.00 donation to charity
But that does mean you could end up spending up to £40 to get the items on the menu worth the most points.
So you’ll need to keep an eye on how much you’re forking out.
To sign up to the loyalty scheme, you’ll need to download the MyMcDonald’s app which you can do for free via Google Play or the App Store.
McDonald’s Monopoly
McDonald’s Monopoly has been a fan-favourite game set up in previous years to help customers win free prizes.
The way it works is players, who can collect a free paper Monopoly board in stores, collect stickers from the packaging of their McDonald’s menu items.
These can be exchanged for big prizes, if you collect a lot, like these examples from previous years:
- £100,000 cash
- £10,000 cash
- Mini Coopers
- £2,000 to spend on a holiday
- PS4 Pro
- Experience vouchers
- Shopping vouchers
- Phones
Of course, you can also collect free food items from the menu.
To enter, you need to be 16 or over. The Sun has asked McDonald’s if the game is running again this year, and we’ll update the story when we hear back.
For more menu hacks, read about hidden discounts here from an ex fast food worker.
And we tried the newest Burger King burger – it turned out to be even better than the Whopper – read here.
