With the economy as it is today and many people struggling to keep up with their bills, it’s no wonder that more and more people find that they don’t have the cash to spend on expensive technology like laptops. The average laptop today costs around $600 with some of the more impressive or designer models costing over $2000. You may have seen deals or adverts online which talk about giving away a free laptop and now that we can’t always spend what we want, you might have been tempted. We take a look at these free laptop deals and see just how likely it is you’ll be able to score a laptop for free.
Free Laptop Offers Online
There are countless sites online that offer you laptops entirely for free. These can be very enticing, with pictures of free laptops dotted all around and testimonials from others who have already a free laptop receiving the offer. Some of these sites can be very convincing but many of them are not legitimate. Think about exactly what the site is asking you to do for the free laptop.
Ignore stories about companies having too much stock or just giving them away for free PR. Big companies like Sony, Apple and HP don’t give anything away for free, and smaller companies can’t afford to. What is the owner of the website getting out of the deal? Can you prove that people who already have the laptop are real people? A good way to check out a deal is to use Google. Search for the free laptop site you’re visiting and see if anyone off the site has had any success in getting a laptop. If you can’t find anything, then the free laptop is probably a scam.
Now, we’ve told you this to try and protect you from the worst sites, but not every single free laptop deal online is a scam. Far from it! In fact, many of the sites are totally legitimate but you’ll find that the deals aren’t totally free because you’re required to fill in a large number of surveys, buy affiliate products or perhaps sign up to trials of services. Some of the services you are normally required to sign up for include internet rental sites like Netflix and Blockbuster, or software trials from brands like Norton.
However, many also include more serious services like Credit Cards which require a lot of personal information and if misused, could affect your credit rating. Make sure you find out exactly what the site requires and don’t sign up to anything you don’t feel comfortable about. Many services will require you to keep them for a minimum length of time so find out how much that’ll cost and cancel them if you don’t wish to use them.
The hope for the companies is that you’ll find a product that you do actually enjoy and become a lifelong customer. Either way, you WILL have to shell out some cash for your free laptop no matter what you do, but still paying a tenth of the price for a new laptop certainly doesn’t hurt so even it’s not a completely free laptop, it’s a great deal – just watch out for scammers.
Laptop Bundles
One way to get a free laptop without paying any money upfront is to find a laptop with a bundled deal for another product. One of the best ways is taking out a mobile broadband package which gives you a free laptop for signing up to a contract that provides you with internet using a cell phone network. You can also get free laptops and other devices as ‘gifts’ when you sign up to a cell phone contract with any of the big names.
Obviously, you do still have to pay for the contract or the mobile you’ve purchased, but you’re not actually paying for the laptop itself so if you do need a new phone or broadband provider, these can be really good deals. The only catch is that you’ll normally be signed up to a contract for quite a long time, such as 18 months of 2 years. By then, your free laptop might be a little obsolete. Also with deals like these you might find you don’t quite as many warranty and support options as you in stores which can be a problem if your free laptop breaks down!
Because these deals normally require you to pay monthly you generally need to undergo a credit check in order to pass for them.
Competitions
Thanks to the internet it’s now far easier to enter into competitions. No longer do you have to buy a magazine or newspaper and waste hours filling out forms, cutting them and then sending them in the post (and paying for the postage!) now there are thousands of sites every day, big and small, that run competitions. You might not win of course but if you then you really have got a 100% free laptop without any catch at all.
To maximise your chance of winning apply to as many competitions as possible. Don’t just fill out 1 competition form, fill out 10, or 100 if you have the time. The more you apply for, the greater chance you have of winning. Try to apply for competitions that have multiple prizes so you have more chance of winning and if possible, look for smaller blogs that might not have quite as many people entering so that you have less people to compete with.
When entering competitions make sure you fill out the form carefully, especially your contact details. You don’t want a wrong phone number or misspelled email to get in the way of winning any prizes and a potential free laptop.
Other Suggestions
What else can you do to get a free laptop? Check out classified sites like Craigslist and see if anyone in your local area is giving anything away. Some people clear out regularly and would rather just get rid of things as quickly as possible then mess around with eBay. It’s unlikely you’ll going to find a brand new Macbook Air this way, but you might be able to get a free laptop that’s perfectly good for everyday tasks even if it’ not the newest around.
You could also try asking your work for one if you happen to work in an office, or if you already have a work laptop that you aren’t allowed to take home you could ask if you could keep it for personal use –you’ll be surprised how many companies will allow this.
You can also ask your friends and family for a free laptop. Using social networking sites like Facebook are a great way to ask everyone you know at once if they have a free laptop hanging around. Again, you might not get the best laptop in the world but many people have laptops they aren’t using anymore due to upgrades or just lack of interest and they might be willing to part with their laptops.
Conclusion
As you can see there are quite a few options when it comes to grabbing yourself a free laptop. Just remember that most of them do require either luck or spending a little bit of cash in order to get what you want, but if you persevere and are careful to avoid scams, you could well get your hands on a free laptop without too much hard work.
