Meerkat Meals and Movies Hack

Sharing is caring!

I love going to the cinema, but it’s really expensive. My friends and I are used to finding ways of making it as cheap as possible. We are big fans of Meerkat Meals & Movies. For those of you living under a rock, Meerkat Movies is an offer from Compare the Market which when you enrol, gets you BOGOF on cinema tickets on either a Tuesday or Wednesday each week for a year. 2 for 1 cinema tickets are not to be sniffed at!

Here I will show you how to get Meerkat Movies and get your year’s worth of 2 for 1 cinema tickets!

To be eligible, you do need to make a purchase from the website, but there is a hack, which will cost you just a few pounds, and it will mean you can make back that initial spend in just one cinema trip.

Hop on over to Compare the Market, and find the Travel Insurance option.  At the bottom of the page is a short video, showing you these selections, but if you are confident to do this on your own, just work through the questions, selecting these options:

• UK Break
• Single trip
• Choose some dates quite soon, I’ve found that a weekend break (Friday to Monday) usually seems quite cheap
• Select “Just me” for who you want to insure
• Enter your date of birth
• Don’t add on any additional types of cover
• Don’t declare any medical conditions. (This is a trip you are NOT going on – of course if you are buying actual insurance for a real life trip, you should be 100% honest about any medical conditions you or anyone in your party may have)
• Fill our your Email Address, First Name and Surname
• Select whether you agree to receiving marketing communications (you can always unsubscribe later)
• Select that you have read the Terms & Conditions (once you’ve read them of course)

Then select “Get Quotes”. The quotes will be displayed in price order, starting with the cheapest at the top. As you can see from the step by step video below, I found one for £1.60. I therefore decided not to try again. If you are not happy with the prices, it can sometimes be worth trying slightly different dates.

When you click on the “More Details” option – it will show you that the policy is eligible for enrol in the Meerkat Movies programme if you proceed with the purchase. You should then choose “Go to provider”. It is essential that you use this link to make your purchase, as it is tracked back to ensure your qualifying purchase came from Compare the Market.

My video doesn’t show this part, mainly because I am already enrolled in the programme, but also because every insurer’s website is slightly different – but hopefully they should be pretty self explanatory. Any problems – drop me an email, I’d be happy to help!

Once you’ve bought the policy, within 24-48 hours you will be emailed offering enrollment into Meerkat Movies. You will need the details of your policy. At this point I would recommend downloading the app. Every week you can log in and get your personalised code for that week.

You only need to go to the cinema once in a year to make a profit from this deal and although it may seem fiddly at first, it is well worth doing. Your friends will love you too!

Meerkat meals

Thanks to Meerkat Meals, you can now get two for one on a variety of meals out – check the website for up to date information, but joining is exactly the same! Meerkat Meals allows you to get two for one on meals (starters, main courses and desserts) on every day between Sunday to Thursday ALL YEAR! That means in a year you could have over 250 free starters, free main courses and free desserts! I mean – why would you not join!? My favourite restaurant that participates in this are Prezzo.

It’s important to check that the dates you are wanting to visit aren’t excluded (Mother’s Day and around Christmas etc) but for the majority of the year, you can eat out until your hear’s content without breaking the bank!

Renewing

If your Meerkat Meals & Movies is about to run out – you can either repeat the hack for the following year, or if you have genuinely bought an insurance product through Compare the Market you can request your reward be extended. I did have an expiry date of the end of January – but as I did my home insurance through them just a month or two ago, I’ve now got it extended until the end of November!

What about if I want to go to the cinema during the rest of the week?

Meerkat Movies gets you cheap cinema tickets on a Tuesday or a Wednesday only, and only once per week per membership. For the rest of the week you need to be savvy to get those cheap cinema tickets. Here are my favourite ways of finding cheap cinema tickets, but they keep changing so they might not all be available all the time!

• Odeon quite often have cinema offers available on Groupon. Before purchasing your deal, make sure that the film and the cinema you want to go to are not excluded (some new releases are not available via this deal) and also check out any additional fees you may incur (usually a 75p per ticket booking fee if you book online).
• If you are going to be going to the cinema on a regular basis, check out Odeon Limitless or Cineworld Unlimited. These are membership schemes where you pay a monthly direct debit and then you can go to the cinema as many times as you like. There is usually a minimum term, and in my experience they are really tricky to cancel (especially the Odeon one) so bear that in mind. If you have one of these cards you can usually get discounts on other purchases at the cinemas such as on popcorn, sweets and drinks, so remember to show it when purchasing.
• Supermarket reward schemes like Tesco Clubcard and Nectar often have cinema tickets available to purchase using your points.
• Some smaller cinema chains (such as Picturehouse, Everyman and Curzon) offer membership schemes as well. These offer a variety of different perks including bring a friend for free, a certain number of free tickets and no booking fees. It’s worth checking what these cinemas can offer you if you live near them.
• Some banks offer reduced or free cinema tickets as Barclays and Lloyds offer free tickets as part of holding a premium account with them, so check with your bank and see if you are entitled to anything.
• Tastecard or Gourmet Society membership can also get you cheap cinema tickets, so if you are enrolled in either of these schemes, check to see where is currently accepting them.
• If you can go off peak (during the day, during the week) you can save money on your admission price, but obviously the majority of people are at work during those times.
• Many chains offer kids screenings, although they may not be the newest films (perhaps they’ve been out for a little while) but the prices for children and accompanying adults are much cheaper than usual, and although they are usually on weekend mornings, during the school holidays they quite often have extra showings or screenings.

If you like this hack, you should read my post on cheap West End Theatre tickets!