PC bonus: € 500 voucher
At the time of writing this guide, the safest way to try get a laptop for free (or at least with a minimum cost), consists in taking advantage of the € 500 voucher made available by the MiSE, known to most as voucher o bonus PC.
If I hadn't heard of it, this is a measure that provides families with a series of concessions, with the aim of expanding and encouraging the use of broadband and new technologies. In detail, the measure in question is dedicated to families with an ISEE of less than € 20.000 and provides for the provision of a voucher worth 500€, aimed at the subscription of a new Internet subscription on a fixed network and the purchase at a discounted price, or free of charge, of a computer or tablet.
Obtaining the bonus, however, is not subject only to economic requirements (i.e. an ISEE indicator with a value of less than € 20.000 for the entire family unit): to benefit from it, a new Internet line with band of almeno 30 Mpbs in download e 15 Mbps in upload, opting for the maximum speed available.
In other words, if you meet the aforementioned requirements, you can get a notebook for free, or at least for a very affordable price. To take advantage of the bonus, simply choose one of the dedicated offers made available by the operators and proceed with the activation of the subscription, through one of the sales channels enabled for the purpose (e.g. website, physical point of sale or call center).
When prompted, you will need to indicate yours personal data and provide the ISEE form, confirming the economic situation (if you need information on how to obtain it, I suggest you read the information on the INPS website): the manager chosen will verify the actual truthfulness of the data released and pay you the bonus below form of discount for the subscription and for the purchase of the device, without you having to do anything.
At the time of writing this guide, the only manager to provide a laptop in combination with the "ad-hoc" offer dedicated to the € 500 voucher is TIM: by subscribing to the offer called TIM SUPER Fiber Voucher, you get an Internet subscription with unlimited calls and without connection fee to all national numbers, Internet with speed up to 1 Gbps, TIMVISION service and modem TEAM HUB+ on loan for free use, at the cost of 19,99 € / mese per i primi 20 mesi.
Among the devices that can be purchased when activating the service, there is the notebook THEN Oliver Plus to 15.6 ", which can be purchased at the price of only 99,90€ (to be paid in a single payment, at the time of subscription) and equipped with the following hardware features.
- CPU: Intel N3450 quad-core a 2.2 GHz.
- RAM: 8 GB DDR4.
- disc: 256GB SSD.
- Screen: 15.6 "with FHD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels).
- Camera: 1080p con webcam da 8 MP.
- Battery: 8 hours of average autonomy declared.
- Connectivity : Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi.
In any case, to find out more about the conditions necessary to take advantage of the voucher PC and how to activate the various offers, as well as to stay updated on the notebooks made available by the various operators (which, in the future, could also be provided free of charge), I invite you to read my article on how to get the bonus PC, full of useful information in this regard.
Online sales sites
Another way you can go, to try to get a laptop at no cost, is to consult the online sales sites mainly dedicated to non-professional sellers, especially ads dedicated to exchanges: it is not unusual, in fact, that some users sell notebooks and other goods completely free of charge, in exchange for objects of interest to them.
In particular, for this type of sale, I would like to recommend you such sales portals Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace: although they work in a slightly different way, all of them allow you to insert advertisements for the sale of items of any kind, even second-hand, with the aim of promoting private agreements between users.
Although such portals are of proven reliability, it is not certain that the users who populate them respond to the same characteristic: therefore, after identifying the exchange conditions of the notebook of your interest, make sure of the seriousness of the advertiser, by consulting the reviews left by other users.
Also, prefer agreements with people from your own city or, at least, from a place that is easily accessible to you, and try to exchange by hand, live: in this way, not only will you be sure that the person (but above all the notebook!) really exists, but you will be able to personally evaluate the goodness of the article offered, even before exchanging it.
To learn more about the sites dedicated to the purchase, sale and exchange of used items, you can refer to the guide that I have expressly dedicated to the topic; moreover, I suggest you to read my post on how to shop online safely, in which you will find some useful "tips" useful for recognizing fake ads and avoiding scams.
Refurbish an old notebook
As I mentioned in the introductory lines of this tutorial, the only 100% safe and working method for get a laptop for free consists in… receiving it as a gift! How do you say? Do you think this can't happen to you? Well ... not necessarily.
It may happen, for example, that a relative, friend or acquaintance of yours wants to get rid of his old notebook at no cost, because it is too dated, too slow or with some small functional defect (e.g. a missing key or some USB port that does not work. plus): with a few small tricks, you may be able to put the device back on track at no cost, or at a very low cost - certainly less than what is necessary to buy a new or used notebook.
For example, if your computer has problems with slowness, you might consider replacing Windows with the Linux operating system, much lighter (if you choose the "right" distros) and also suitable for older machines, or to buy and install an additional module of RAM memory (an operation that is often simple to put into practice, especially on older laptops) or, again, to replace the mechanical disk with an SSD: "tactics" of this kind certainly do not allow for miracles, but they are useful, in most of cases, to give new life and usefulness to a notebook that, otherwise, would be destined for WEEE disposal!
Beware of scams!
As you have seen, having a laptop for free (or almost) is not impossible: a little patience and the right strategies are enough to succeed, after some time, in the enterprise!
The Internet is a beautiful place because it is varied, but not always harmless: it is not uncommon, in fact, to come across advertisements, e-mails, chats, SMS and other elements that invite you to visit a given website and follow a specific procedure (which, in most cases, involves the insertion of sensitive and personal data, such as your tax code or credit card number) in exchange for notebooks, smartphones and other electronic accessories sold completely free of charge.
As tempting as such announcements may seem, I am sorry to tell you that, in almost all cases, it is a question of lies and outright online scams, aimed at theft of personal data and bank data: inserting sensitive information on portals of dubious origin, can expose you to real "bombardments" of spam, the cyber threats which virus, trojan, malware e ransomware or, even worse, to the subtraction of money from the current account and / or credit card.
Therefore, try not to give in to "easy temptations" and be wary of such invitations and announcements without hesitation: the economic damage resulting from hasty and reckless actions could go well beyond the amount of money necessary for the purchase of a new notebook!
How to get a free laptop
