UPDATE: |Martin Lewis tells anyone aged 20-25 to act ‘right now’ to get free £100 railcard News

He has called the offer a ‘no-brainer’ but is advising young people act quickly in case the deal closes early due to high demand

Martin Lewis is urging anyone aged between 20 and 25 to act quickly and get a £100 railcard for free thanks to an offer at Santander. The Money Saving Expert is urging anyone who is eligible to take advantage of the offer, which finishes in May, now in case the offer closes early.

The high-street bank is offering a free four-year 16 to 25 Railcard – which gets you a third off the price of most rail fares – to people who will be aged 20 to 25 on June 30 of this year.

To benefit from the offer all you have to do is put a minimum of £50 in one of Santander’s savings accounts by the end of May and set up its online banking, and then the bank will automatically give you the railcard if you are eligible.

Mr Lewis said: “You can do this as long as you’re a UK resident and Santander hasn’t given you the railcard freebie before, which it only would have done if you had the Santander student bank account. This isn’t just for students though. This is for anyone aged 20 to 25.

“So how do you qualify? Well, what it wants you to do, it’s trying to entice you to open up one of its savings products, because it wants you to put a minimum £50 in one of its savings accounts by the end of May – though I would do it right now in case there’s so much demand it’s costing it too much and it pulls this offer sooner – and you need to keep [the money] there until at least 30 June or when you get the railcard, whichever one is later.

“You also need to set up its online or mobile banking by the end of May. No big deal that one. Do that, you’ve got £50 saved, you’ll get a little bit of interest and you’ll get a free railcard. So this is a no-brainer for most people.”

He added that, when deciding which savings account to open, you should consider whether you just want to use the account to get the free railcard or if you want to earn interest on your money as well.

Santander offers a 1.2% easy-access saver which, while its interest rate is poor, allows you to withdraw your £50 and close your account as soon as you get the railcard.

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On the other hand, its 4.25% one-year fixed cash ISA offers higher interest rates but you need a minimum of £500 to open it. Its Edge Saver account offers even higher interest rates – 6% – but you need to open its Edge current account, which is top rated for bills, first.

The Money Saving Expert founder explained: “So if you’re going to save, where should you save? Well, that depends on whether you’re just doing this to jemmy it to get the railcard or you actually want to do savings with it.

“So first of all, let’s do the playing it, the trick system, if you like… I would put £50 in its simple 1.2% ‘easy-access saver’. Just open one of those up, put the £50 in and you don’t need to do it a special way to qualify.

“It will know your age and it will send you a code automatically when you do qualify. And then once your railcard’s arrived, take your £50 out because the interest isn’t very good and you’ve got the money, you’ve got a tiny bit of interest on top.

“But crucially, you will have got the railcard, which is why you’re doing this. The paltry rate of interest in that account is somewhat irrelevant. You’re just putting money away in order to trigger yourself getting the railcard.”

He added that the bank may decide to close the deal early due to high demand so he is urging anyone who wants to benefit from it to act now and to keep an eye on Santander’s website in case anything changes.

When you receive the railcard, a code will be sent to you as an online or mobile banking message by June 16 and you will have two weeks to redeem the offer.

Student can also get the 16 to 25 Railcard by opening Santander’s student account – but this offer will be given to students automatically without having to deposit any money into the account.