NUS extra

Kamran

to be honest, unless shop assistants have been taught the difference between the old style regular NUS and the NUS extra, how are they going to know? Most places don't even check properly. And i agree that a tenner is a rip off, considering most places dont even require u to show the ACTUAL NUS card, as opposed to your own student card..

rhig

The integration of the ISIC card into the Extra card will probably convince me to pay for it, this is the best thing the NUS could have done really. It allows you to get student offers abroad which can be huge, public transport and entry to tourist attractions are both often around 30% cheaper on the continent with a student card and standard NUS is often not accepted in some countries.

Kamran is spot on; you will be able to get the vast majority of the offers due to shops not knowing the difference. There are a few exceptions e.g. Subway who are franchises and McDonalds whose restaurants are often franchised who usually make sure staff are not giving out offers they shouldn't because the cost hits the franchisee and is not absorbed by the company.

The companies the NUS negotiate offers with are virtually never good value. Most students I know either live on very little or are relatively affluent yet we always get these supposedly great offers for shops like Topman and HMV which are overpriced by more than the discount you get with the card.

I would much prefer the NUS to get a smaller discount with a more competitive and useful company, 3% off at a supermarket would benefit all students and would probably bring in a lot of revenue for the company with the deal, besides you can get CDs in supermarkets anyway. The Amazon deal is a good improvement, a low minimum order is great for buying an individual book and 5% off there is pretty generous.

As people on the forums will know you could probably beat every NUS discount with a little shopping around and some Quidco/Rpoints cash back so if the ISIC card doesn't appeal it might be worth a miss this year. Besides you can use someone else’s card for the restaurant deals, cinema tickets are usually only checked for NUS at point of sale too, there were plenty of times last year where I would by a dozen tickets with one student card.

DrFluffy

Most places will accept your University ID Card as proof of student-y-ness, to get discount..

The NUS !!!!!! me off - they do not represent me, and are on the whole, a bunch of CV boosting no-mards... I really wish my uni would join the leaving the NUS band waggon.

It costs your university somewhere in the region of £7 per person for you to be affiliated with the NUS, and the NUS then try to tap you directly for another £10... Universties that have dissaffiliated from the NUS - I guess the most notable of which is Southampton - have used the £10,000's a year they save to improve student facilities on campus...

If a company will give you X% discount for being an NUS affiliated student, you can bet they will do, if tapped hard enough, anyway... The only thing going for it is the ISIC integration, but again, if you're not planning on leaving the UK... That said, I have never had any trouble getting student discount abroad with my regular, run of the mill Uni ID card... Even where signs say 'You must have an ISIC card'.

Bobby_Barker

Unions seem to have there own discount vouchers online, that you just download look at www.thesu.com/vouchers

cool

jinkssick

no mention of Pizza Hut being part of NUS extra.

JJB, little chef, bella pasta, of course amazon.co.uk, bogof at blockbuster, HMV 10% off, 20% planey hollywood,

C_Ronaldo

the cards at my colleege are £10, mines on its way,

Neato

Would anyone recommend me buying a card?

libertino

I'm just starting my third year. I use my NUS card quite a lot, mainly to get discount at HMV.co.uk (loads cheaper than the shops and free delivery) and a couple of other places. Is the only way to continue getting student discounts to buy this Extra card? 5% off at Amazon would be quite good too. Are the basic NUS cards worthless now? (unless a store accepts it by mistake)

skooldaze

I'm entitled to an NUS card in December when I start a course at my local college but someone pointed out there are some on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NUS-National-union-of-Students-discount-card-2006-07_W0QQitemZ190033675722QQihZ009QQcategoryZ65215QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem aren't these useless without the stamp?!

tr3mor

DrFluffy wrote:

The NUS !!!!!! me off - they do not represent me, and are on the whole, a bunch of CV boosting no-mards... I really wish my uni would join the leaving the NUS band waggon.

I wholeheartedly agree. I refuse to pay £10 to an organisation run by left wing zealots looking to boost their own CV.

Maybe if they actually start some campaigns which affect students I might think differently.