Student pays off loans with £14,000 won in competitions

A student from north London is paying off her loans by making £14,000 in five months simply by winning competitions.

Chloe Bingham, 19, spends up to two hours a day entering contests to win prizes ranging from electronics, theme park trips and cash.

The University of Glasgow film student, has also won hampers, food, toiletries, and festival tickets - and is using the funds to pay off her student fees.

Credit: SWNS

She enters hundreds of competitions she finds every day in magazines, online, social media and TV.

Chloe, from Islington, says entering competitions is a hobby. She started when she was just 11.

Chloe on a night out she won in a competition Credit: SWNS

She says her top win was a competition run by Currys and PC World for students, which ran for a month in August 2015.> The aspiring film director recreated the scene from Harry Potter where Harry gets told he's a wizard - using glove puppets.> Chloe managed to bag herself £10,000 towards her university fees along with a tech bundle for students, which included a tablet, a toaster, headphones and an iron.

Chloe on a night out she won in a competition Credit: SWNS

From August to December 2015, the Chloe won an astonishing 42 different competitions, including camping tickets to V festival worth £400 and a four night break for four people at a resort in Wales.

Her least successful month was October - but even then she still took home £420 worth of prizes.> She also won a Fortnum and Mason Christmas hamper worth £110 - by having the best #Christmasjumper photo for an Instagram competition.> Her first ever win was two nights at Alton Towers for her and her family after entering a Silent Night Bedtime Short Story competition when she was aged 11.

The student, who was previously on the BAFTA Youth Board, still has to dedicate quite a lot of time to her lucrative hobby but said it's not as time consuming as you would expect.>If she's free she may well spend one or two hours a day entering competitions, but some can easily be entered in just 20 seconds - you started filling in your details and let auto-fill do the rest.>There are also plenty of "creative" competitions out there too though - which require you to write something or take a photo or make a video to win.

Although these have bigger prizes, they tend to have lower entry levels because of the effort involved - so if you put in the time you can give yourself a good chance of winning.

Now, Chloe is a bit more discerning when it comes to the competitions she enters.

Between August 2015 and December 2015, Chloe won the following prizes:

  • August:

  • 4 - A personalised apron worth £25

  • 13 - A £60 cheque

  • 18 - V Festival Tickets worth £400 and a £15 restaurant voucher

  • 26 - £100 worth of vouchers of her choice - she chose Love2Shop

  • Total for August: £600

  • September:

  • 01 - Amazon Instant Video Hand of God premiere tickets

  • 02 - A £20 One4All Giftcard

  • 03 - A four day retreat for four people at Bluestone Wales in Pembrokeshire worth £500 and a Kindle Paperwhite worth £90

  • 10 - £10,000 towards her university fees and a technology bundle - £11,200

  • Total for September: £11,810

  • October:

  • 20 - A three course dinner with cocktails at Gusto Glasgow worth £60

  • 26 - Boots from Little Mistress worth £60

  • 30 - A night out at Corinthian Club for 12 worth £300

  • Total for October: £420

  • November:

  • 04 - A pair of Cineworld tickets worth £20

  • 09 - A pair of tickets to the Edinburgh Foodies Festival worth £20

  • 18 - A pair of tickets to the Country Living Christmas fair worth £20

  • 23 - Breakfast for two at any Little Chef worth £20

  • 23 - A pair of tickets to the BBC Good Food Show worth £40

  • 24 - A two night stay at any Mercure hotel worth £130

  • 24 - A meal for two with cocktails/beers at Trading House Glasgow worth £50

  • 26 - A Grange Strathmore Hotel Voucher worth £120

  • 27 - Afternoon tea for two at Hilton Garden Inn, Glasgow worth £30

  • 27 - Hozier gig tickets worth £45

  • Total for November: £495

  • December:

  • 01 - A Krispy Kreme green card worth £10

  • 04 - A night at Moggerhanger Park Bedfordshire hotel - £65

  • 05 - A £5 Intu voucher

  • 05 - A £10 iTunes voucher

  • 06 - Biffy Clyro Concert in the Gardens tickets worth £100

  • 07 - A £5 Intu voucher

  • 09 - A £10 iTunes voucher

  • 10 - A £10 Love2shop voucher

  • 10 - A Cornish food hamper worth £50

  • 11 - A voucher for a driving lesson for an 11-17 year old worth £35

  • 11 - A pair of tickets to the Edinburgh Hogmanay Street Party worth £45

  • 14 - £30 of vouchers for Glasgow Christmas Market

  • 18 - A Mall Giftcard worth £20

  • 21 - A Fortnum and Mason Hamper worth £110

  • 23 - Beats Headphones worth £170

  • 25 - A spa day for two at Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh worth £60

  • 31 - A £25 Marks and Spencer voucher

  • Total for December = £760

Total - £14,085