I must admit, I’ve been just a little dubious of all the banner ads you see sprinkled on the web advertising free ipods, PSPs etc. Well, after stumbling upon a blog entry by some seemingly normal fellow, and taking some time to do a little reading up on the subject, it actually seems that some of these websites are for real.

Freepay (aka Gratis Network) have been received a lot of favourable write ups in the press so I decided to sign up for a free account with them and suss out what it’s all about, and what I would need to do to grab myself a free XBox 360.

How does it work then?

Step 1 – Sign up:

Well, it’s pretty simple really. To claim your free Xbox 360 you need to sign up for a Freepay account, complete 1 ‘offer’ and refer 10 other people whom must also complete 1 offer.

Step 2 – Select an offer:

Offers are basically links to partner websites of Freepay where you can sign up for some or other service, Freepay obviously get paid for advertising the service and refering a new user. You’ll have to pick from 3 available offers.

The best offer to sign up for is the ‘ScreenSelect’ service, this is what I’ve plumped for. You sign up for a 30 day free trial, this entitles you to rent as many DVDs and Games as you want during that period. Thereafter you are charged £9.99 per month, but you can cancel your account at any time during or after the trial and avoid having to shell out any £‘s. However it’s important to note that to complete the offer you have to rent at least 1 item (for free of course).

Step 3 – Refer refer refer!

Now that you’ve signed up and completed an offer you have 90 days within which to refer 10 people whom must also sign up for an offer. The best way to do this is to send your referal link to all your mates, and post an entry just like this one on your blog. In fact, just copy and paste this text and be sure to include your ‘referal link’ instead of mine.

Step 4 – Claim your Xbox 360

God knows if this will work, but hey, worst case scenario, we all get a bunch of free DVD rentals delivered to our door. Saves a trip to Blockbuster only to discover that all the decent films are out on loan. :)