Student discounts without NUS extra

jimmymac87

I've never been refused discount (in the places that do it!) with my normal student ID

If you go into HMV tell em you've lost the student discount card that they gave ya the other week (or something) and ask for another. That way you're basically saying that someone has already Ok'd it, an they'll prob let you have another

Karnam

has anyone tried specsavers yet? i need some new glasses but dont want to pay tons and tons. i know its 30% off on the NUS site but there is nothing on specsavers webiste saying if you def need NUS extra card. has anyone tried a regular student card in there? ive been told i cant get discount on contact lenses so might have to cancel my direct debit soon.

bald_ade

Hey everyone,

I refuse to get an NUS extra card out of principle (the NUS is run by idiots).

Remember that stores only offer student discounts to encourage you to shop there; they aren't doing themselves any favours by insisting that you get an "extra" card. I've never been refused a student discount anywhere with my standard NUS. If you do then asking to speak to the manager etc should work - esp if it's say Subway where they've already made your sandwich!

m277

All these shops that are offering the discount on the standard NUS cards are breaking their contracts with NUS. They are supposedly only allowed to give out discounts for NUS Extra card holders.
NUS are again going to use some of the funds that they get from us for non-student purposes and hire some mystery shoppers to check that these rules are followed.

tripled

Snow_Angel wrote:

How about we all try the following and get our friends to do the same :

Go into the stores that say they do student discount, get your stuff, go to the counter, ask if they do student discount with a normal card. if they do.....then great, if not just say "ok, well I'll go elsewhere to get this" and then put your stuff back (you can always go back the next day and get the stuff anyway!). If enough people do this, they'll realise that they're actually going to lose money.

I know it's a bit underhand, and we need to have heaps of people to make it happen, but I'm sure as hell going to try!

Why put the stuff back? Let them do it... I went into HMV a few weeks ago and got around £150's worth of stuff, showed my student id (normal card, not xtra) and they said I had to have a specific HMV one, which I could have free but they had run out. I said not to bother and left my stuff there as I walked out, they stopped me and asked me to wait a couple of minutes, then gave me the discount card.

tripled

m277 wrote:

NUS are again going to use some of the funds that they get from us for non-student purposes and hire some mystery shoppers to check that these rules are followed.

So basically the NUS are going to waste students money putting other students at a disadvantage. I'm even happier I refused to give them an extra tenner now.

m277

tripled wrote:

So basically the NUS are going to waste students money putting other students at a disadvantage. I'm even happier I refused to give them an extra tenner now.

The tenner is split between your student union and NUS. Our SU weren't going to make any money from us and just charge us the £7/£8 that the card costs. It's nice to see where our money is spent.

tripled

My student union would be financially better off if it wasn't a member of the NUS. Apart from campaigning on the occasional issue, it is a complete waste of cash.

pavlovs_dog

i also havent bothered with the nus extra. was refused at my local cinema (odeon) without the extra card, but most places have been ok :beer:

Josephoenix

I work in a Students' Union and this is how the system works...

Places that offer a 'student discount' should give any student a discount with any type of student ID (incl NUS Extra). If they don't then its them being rubbish

Places that offer an 'NUS discount' are using 'NUS' as a stand-in for 'student' as the only discounts negotiated with NUS are for the NUS Extra card so again, they should give discounts to any student with any student ID.

Places that offer an 'NUS Extra' discount (full list at www.nusextra.co.uk) should only give discounts to NUS Extra cardholders (i.e. not just with your general student card) with a few exceptions such as TopShop and HMV (if its the same as last year) which give all students a discount but NUS Extra cardholders an additional discount (e.g. with TopShop, NUS Extra cardholders get free online p & p I think)

There may be exceptions as the NUS Extra card is still relatively new, e.g. staff at some NUS Extra places may not recognise the card or be aware of the discount. If this happens ask to speak to a manager or call NUS Extra Customer Services to let them know so they can shout at that company. Apparently NUS have been working hard to ensure that all companies involved in NUS Extra train their staff sufficiently to recognise the card and apply the discount.

Additionally there may be staff at places with NUS Extra discounts that let non NUS Extra cardholders have a student discount (nice if you didn't buy a card, not nice if you did but everyone else still gets the discount) however they technically shouldn't so don't be suprised if they say no to your generic student ID. As previously mentioned, NUS Extra have been mystery shopping outlets to reduce this.

(Not necessarily my opinion and really not wanting to get into the politics of it all but some places, particularly FE colleges have found the additional income from NUS Extra cards really valuable and its allowed them to extend their student support services. Plus our SU would be dramatically financially worse off if it left NUS as we would lose the massive discounts for our commerical outlets through buying as part of the NUS consortium therefore meaning we'd have to raise prices (never good!) and/or cut vital services such as sport or advice)

Jo x