How We Verify

What every listing shows

• The official source. “Go get it” takes you to the real page, not a copy of it.
• The date we last checked the listing against that page. It comes from our records for that one listing. It is never filled in or moved forward on its own.
• What it costs you: nothing at all, an email, a phone number, your birthday, a mailing address, an account, a card on file, or a purchase or paid visit. If it asks for more than one, we show all of them.
• Who qualifies, what you have to do, and the catch.
• When it ends, if the official page says. If it doesn’t, we say no end date is stated.

Dates we can’t confirm yet

Some freebies come back every year. We show a date as “Next” only when the official page has posted it. Until then the listing says DATE NOT POSTED YET and shows the usual timing, which is a guess, not a promise.

When something ends

Once the end date passes, the listing stays online with an “ended” banner and live alternatives, so old links never dead end.

What gets cut

If we can’t confirm it on an official page, it doesn’t go up. If it’s not actually free, it doesn’t go up. If it’s free but gross, it goes in the Hall of Shame. Right now 1,907 listings across 64 states, provinces and territories passed. These did not:

• Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Program ended.
• IRS Direct File. Discontinued; not available for 2026 filing season; official page returns 404.
• Federal free COVID-19 tests (COVIDtests.gov). Program not active; site redirects to an unrelated White House page.
• Treasury Hunt savings bond search. Tool retired Sept 30, 2025 per TreasuryDirect.
• Generic drugs end-payer settlement. Requires proof of purchase per consumer claim form (deadline Nov 9, 2026).
• Depend US free samples. Depend US says it is not offering samples at the moment.
• Walmart baby registry welcome box. Could not verify; bot block page.
• Babylist Hello Baby Box. Official page returned 404.
• MySimilac Rewards. Signup page returned 404; could not confirm current terms.
• Home Depot Kids Workshops. Official page returned an error; only deal blogs confirmed dates.
• Regal Crown Club birthday popcorn. Birthday perk appears tied to paid Regal Unlimited.
• Sephora Beauty Insider birthday gift. Birthday page blocked; could not verify.
• REI Co-op member perks. Perks are free but membership has a fee.
• Adobe Creative Cloud trial. Page shows a 14-day refund window on paid plans, not a free trial.
• ECHO Product Review Sweepstakes. Requires writing a product review.
• Parks Canada Canada Strong free admission. Ended Sept 7, 2026.
• Every Kid Outdoors site. Site returned 503 at check time; 4th Grade Pass kept via NPS page.
• IP Captioned Telephone Service. Could not confirm no-cost details on page.
• ConvaTec & Hollister ostomy samples. Pages blocked or errored; could not verify.
• Alabama ADPH free radon test kits. Free kits currently unavailable due to demand; ADPH says it will reactivate later.
• 2026 Win A Chevy Sweepstakes. Not national: open only to select counties in 16 states.
• ecobee Pro PIN for the Win. Rules say not open to the general public (for pros only).
• Zephyrian giveaway. Purchases earn entries; free online entry also allowed.
• Mondelez Miami Dream Sweepstakes. Not national: Florida residents only.
• TJX Lucky 25 Monthly Member Sweeps. Built around TJX Rewards credit card purchases; free entry is mail-in only.
• Chevrolet Contest Canada. Duplicate of the GM Canada 2026 contest already listed.
• CrunchLabs Creative Kit Platinum Ticket Sweepstakes. Entries are tied to each subscription box received (purchase driven).
• Walmart Customer Satisfaction Sweepstakes. Survey sweepstakes.
• True Value Broil King Grill Sweepstakes Fall 2026. Entry only in person at True Value activations in Green Bay and Notre Dame; not national online.
• Mobil 1 O’Reilly Race to Win Sweepstakes. Purchase-driven (5 quarts for bonus entries) and drawings only happen if a 23XI car wins a race; skipped.

Five questions every listing answers

1. What you get.
2. Who qualifies.
3. What you have to do or hand over.
4. When it ends, or that no end date is stated.
5. When we last checked it, with a link to the official source.

The build checks every live listing for all five and lists any gaps for us to fix. Right now 1,810 of 1,907 live listings have all five on record. Where the official page doesn’t say who qualifies, the listing says so.

What “checked” means

Checked means we confirmed the offer on its official page on that date: what it is, who it’s for, what it asks of you, and when it ends. It does not mean we claimed it ourselves. We don’t mark any listing as claimed by us.

The checklist

A listing goes up only if every one of these is true. Miss one and it gets cut, or it goes in the Hall of Shame.

1. The source is the official page of the brand, agency or program that runs it.
2. That page says what you get, and we read it ourselves.
3. It costs nothing, or the cost is shown as a tag: an email, a phone number, your birthday, a mailing address, an account, a card on file, or a purchase.
4. Points, receipts, rebates, paid admission and sales tax holidays are left out.
5. Money listings, like unclaimed money and class action settlements, link only to a .gov site or a settlement site we name and give a reason for.
6. An end date shows only if the official page states it.
7. The date we last checked it is shown on the listing.

How often we recheck

We recheck in batches of 80 listings, oldest check first, each one opened against its official page. The table below lists the recent runs, so you can see how often that happens. A listing passes only if the page loads, stays on the same site, and still names the offer. Only a pass moves the checked date forward. Anything else goes to a person for review, and the date stays put.

A listing not checked in 45 days gets the grey Not yet confirmed stamp. Right now that’s 1,576 of 1,907 live listings. The median listing was last checked 46 days ago.

Recent rechecks

Day	Checked	Passed	Sent to a person
Oct 25, 2026	80	39	41
Oct 24, 2026	80	70	10
Oct 23, 2026	80	60	20
Oct 22, 2026	80	61	19
Oct 19, 2026	80	55	25
Oct 18, 2026	80	53	27

When one goes bad

A reader report or a failed recheck sends the listing to a person. If it ended, it gets the ended banner and live alternatives. If a fact was wrong, we fix it and log the fix in the correction log with the date and what changed.

Readers can also tap It’s still live on any listing. Those taps are shown as a count for the last 7 days. They don’t move the checked date. Only we do that.

Found a mistake?

Use “Report a problem” on any listing, or see our corrections policy.