Inside a Typical Issue of Compers News
Compers News is the NO NONSENSE comping newsletter, crammed full of competition and prize draw listings. Each monthly issue contains 24 large A4 pages, packed with everything you need to know to help you find, enter and win the UK’s biggest and best prize competitions.
No gloss. No colour. No big headlines or pretty pictures to waste space. Just page after page of uninterrupted competitions, clearly laid out by category so that you can quickly and easily find the comps that you want to win.
Each edition of Compers News contains a unique mix of competition listings to suit every kind of comper – from a novice beginner to the most experienced winner. As a genuine comper myself, I’m out looking for new material for the newsletter almost every day – and will ONLY include a competition in Compers News if I’ve personally found and seen all the details myself. This means that Compers News and Chatterbox subscribers not only get the most RELIABLE and ACCURATE information first hand, they often hear about the biggest and best new comps before anyone else too!
CLICK HERE to see a recent issue of Compers News
Compers News covers every UK competition worth knowing about. Here’s a brief overview of the categories currently featured in each monthly issue.
Tiebreaker Competitions
In this section, we concentrate on ‘skill’ competitions that need a tiebreaker sentence, or slogan, completing. Although slogan comps are not as common as they once were, most compers still prefer them as the thought and effort involved to enter means they offer the best chance of a prize. At Compers News we look for and find as many slogan comps as we possibly can, and in a typical month will always feature more comps in this category than any other listings magazine.
Prize Draws (free entry)
All of the competitions that we list in this section can be entered using a postcard or plain paper. We’ll always tell you which, although sometimes the rules don’t say in which case you can make up your own mind! If PLAIN PAPER is stipulated, then we recommend that you provide exactly that – an unlined piece of white paper containing your details, placed inside an envelope. If you need to send a POSTCARD, then as long as a plain card isn’t specified, we recommend that you use a picture postcard – and always try to write your own details sideways on to the destination address, to reduce the risk of the Post Office delivering the card straight back to you. Unless otherwise stated, NEVER enclose a postcard inside an envelope.
Prize Draws (purchase necessary)
Following a recent change in the law, prize draws can now ask for a proof of purchase. Although this is often modest, it’s usually enough to put a lot of people off entering – so entry numbers for these competitions will nearly always be lower. This, of course, increases your chances of a prize if you do choose to enter – so we give details of the best ‘purchase needed’ draws in this section to help you decide.
Entry Forms
Every comp that we list in this section needs an official Entry Form, and we’ll always tell you where best to look for the forms. It’s important to get hold of entry forms as soon as you possibly can. They don’t often hang around for long, and the ‘display’ dates of many forms rarely run right up to a closing date. The same applies to magazines (either free in-store or paid-for ones), which may contain entry forms. Free magazines disappear quickly, so get into the habit of picking one or two up as soon as you see them. Never be afraid to ask at a store if an Entry Form is not on display. It shows that people are interested in their competitions and, more importantly, your chances of winning will be better if you take the trouble to go that extra mile in pursuit of an elusive form.
Instant Wins
Many ‘Instant Win’ promotions offer a free ‘no purchase necessary’ (NPN) entry route, and we’ll always give you the details when a free entry option is available. Whenever you send a free entry for an instant win competition, it is important to remember that your entry will be treated differently than it would be for a straightforward prize draw. With a normal draw, your entry will go into a sack with all the other entries until the closing date, after which the winners will be drawn. But with an instant win, your envelope will be opened and processed as soon as it is received. A label or game piece will be checked for you or sent to you, or a computer program will be run giving you the same chance of a prize as a paid-for product, straight away. So if you can (and want!) to send multiple entries, try to spread them out across the whole life of the promotion. There is sometimes a chance that some or all unclaimed prizes in an instant-win competition may be given away via the NPN route towards the end of the promotion, which is why we continue to list details in Compers News right up to the final closing date. But please bear in mind that promotional packs may no longer be available in store for some of the older listings. Remember too that, in some cases, it’s actually cheaper to buy the product concerned rather than spending money on a stamp for a free entry!
Phone and Text Comps
We always tell you how much it costs to enter a comp listed in either of these sections. The price we quote is the maximum TOTAL cost based on information given in the competition Rules, and in the case of text comps includes all outgoing AND reply text costs.
When entering a text competition, make sure that you follow our instructions EXACTLY, paying careful attention to code words, spacings etc. The promoter’s computer may not recognise your entry otherwise. And don’t worry if you’re not asked to include your name and address details. Winners are usually sent a text or called on the phone that they used to send their entry, and will be asked to provide their details then. Never provide this – or any – information at the time of entering unless it’s specifically requested.
Famous Brands Online
In this section we concentrate on major web comps, and those that are advertised in the press or in-store – for example on product packaging, book covers etc. This is obviously NOT a definitive listing of online comps, as there are probably thousands in progress at any given time. Subscribers can log on to Chatterbox for details of more web comps, and for direct links to most major online promotions. Also check out our sister site ThePrizeFinder.com for comprehensive web listings.
Other Skill Comps
If you prefer not to trust to luck in your quest for prizes, we list the biggest and best skill competitions in this section. Recipe comps, photography comps, estimation comps, poetry and writing, drawing, spot the ball, art and craft… the list is almost endless. And, once again, you usually find that having to make a bit of an effort to enter these comps means that entry numbers will be much lower, and thus your chances of a prize much higher!
Never be put off entering, say, a recipe or photography comp simply because you don’t think you’re up to the task. In most cases, judges are specifically looking for fun, informal entries and professionals are often excluded anyway.
Komping Kids
Keep the prizes in the family, as we list the best Kids’ competitions in this section. We think that comping is great for kids – it’s educational, encourages neatness and organisation, and teaches them about winning and losing in a fun way. If possible though, try to get your kids to enter a comp themselves rather than a grown-up doing it on their behalf. In our experience, judges of kids competitions are always swayed when an actual child has clearly put in some effort.
About our Listings Generally
We have designed the listings in Compers News to be as clear and concise as possible. Our priority is to cram as many competitions into each issue as we can, which means that we only provide you with essential information. Here’s what you need to know about our listings:
We indicate a new listing, added since the last issue, with a NEW symbol. Unlike many other comping magazines, we will include a new competition as soon as we find it and will then continue to list it right up to the closing date. Why do we do this? It gives readers the chance to plan their entries and qualifying purchases from the outset. It means that, in any given month, the magazine acts as a comprehensive guide to all ongoing promotions, especially those that you may wish to look for when you’re out shopping. Older competitions may no longer be available in-store, and so our listings can be especially useful for planning entries near to the closing date. And new readers are joining us all the time, and we don’t want them to miss out on any of the great competitions that are out there!
To save space, we don’t usually print competition questions. Our advice is thoroughly checked, although it cannot be guaranteed. Rest assured that if we consider there to be ANY element of doubt in a competition question or task, then we WILL always provide full details.
We will ALWAYS tell you the important aspects of entering a particular competition – e.g. whether plain paper or a postcard is necessary, precisely what details are asked for, whether an entry needs to be handwritten etc. If an individual listing is missing any of this information, it’s because no particular instructions have been given. So if, for example, a listing simply says “Send your details to…” – then no further information about how or what to send has been provided by the promoter, and it’s entirely up to you how you choose to enter.
The main ways of entering a postal competition are by postcard, plain paper, or entry form. We will always tell you if there are any restrictions on the size, design or method of entry. Where we specify that your card or envelope must be ‘stamped’, then this means that you must affix an actual postage stamp to your entry rather than using a franking machine or other ‘Postage Paid’ stationery. Promoters sometimes do this to discourage bulk entries.
With plain paper, we recommend that you stick to plain white, unlined paper. To save space, our Entry Form listings concentrate on where to look for the forms – we don’t go into too much other detail if the Entry Form itself is needed to enter, since once you find the crucial form all of the info that you need will be included on that.
We try to avoid jargon and abbreviations in the magazine, but a few that might occasionally slip through include: LWE (Long White Envelope – what prize notifications tend to arrive in!), TB (Tiebreaker), EF (Entry Form), PC (Postcard), PP (Plain Paper), AIOE (All In One Envelope – sometimes, entries to different competitions operating from the same address can be sent together in one large envelope… but only if we tell you!), TR (Till Receipt – the most common form of ‘proof of purchase’ these days), FPD (Free Prize Draw), IW (Instant Win), T&Cs (Terms and Conditions – the rules of entry), c/d (closing date), POP (Proof of Purchase) and NPN (No Purchase Necessary).
Please pay special attention to any entry restrictions that we list – e.g. one entry per person, or per household. Chances are you WILL be disqualified if you break the rules! If we don’t tell you about any entry restrictions in a listing, then assume that there aren’t any.
We will always give as much information about prizes as we can, but obviously we do not have the space to go into too much detail. If you need to know more, either look out for the actual competition yourself or drop us a line. We’ll always try our best to help. You can usually assume that, unless we tell you otherwise, a holiday for two people means two adults. A family holiday is usually for two adults and up to two children. There are no fixed rules about whether a winner will be allowed to pay for extra people to be added to a holiday prize – all you can do is ask the Promoter nicely when you win! But a holiday, like nearly every other prize, will almost always be non-transferable.
If you have any questions, either about the above or any aspect of comping, then do please get in touch. There’s no such thing as a stupid question!
