Student Discounts and How to get them

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4 Min Read

By Hassan Khan

How much can I save with a student discount?

Whether you’re going out for a pizza with friends or treating yourself to a new pair of jeans, it’s a good idea to check whether you can pay less with a student discount.

Discounts can range from around 5% to 40%, so there are some big savings to be made.

How do I get a student discount?

If you have an ID card from your university or college, this will be accepted by many places for student discounts.

However, for online discounts – and access to other exclusive discounts – you may need another card. For example:

Totum: this is the new name for the NUS extra card. It offers more than 200 UK discounts on big and small brands. A 1-year card costs £14.99. Totum comes with a free one-year International Student Identity Card (ISIC) too – more on this, below.

Unidays: this is an app rather than a plastic card, and it’s completely free to use. Anyone who’s 16+ and is studying at a university, sixth form, or college can use it.

Student Beans: this is also free, and you access discounts via the app.

International Student Identity Card (ISIC): this opens up tens of thousands of discounts in more than 130 countries. It costs £12 if you’re happy to hold it on your phone, but £15 if you also want a physical card.

It’s worth noting that each service offers its own exclusive online discounts, so you’ll get different deals with each.

It makes sense to use Unidays and Student Beans as they’re free.

And you may want to research and compare the discounts offered by the paid-for Totum card with the other options – whether it’s worth buying will depend on what you tend to spend your money on.

Can apprentices get discounts?

If you’re doing an apprenticeship, you may want to get your hands on the NUS Apprentice extra card.

It gives you a range of discounts – this includes 10% off at The Co-op, a cheaper Amazon Prime subscription, up to 40% off at Las Iguanas, and more.

The card costs £11 for a year.

Bear in mind that the NUS Apprentice extra card won’t necessarily give you the same discounts as offered by Totum.

If you’re doing a degree apprenticeship and have a university email address, you should be able to access other student discount schemes.

Can I use my student discount on already-discounted items?

Don’t feel like you’re being too cheeky by asking if you can use your student discount on items in the sale.

Indeed, many shops let you do this, meaning there are even bigger savings to be made.

For example, a dress may be on sale for £20 from £30 – and a 15% student discount means you’d pay £16.50.

Where can I get a student discount?

We can’t list every shop that offers a student discount, but here are a few of the kinds of discounts you can expect.

Shops offering a student discount

Topshop and Topman: 10% via Unidays and Student Beans

Asos: 10% via student validation form, Unidays, or Totum.

Miss Selfridge: 10% via Unidays and Student Beans.

Warehouse: 10% via Totum and Unidays.

Timberland: 10% online via Totum.

Restaurants, bars and cafes offer a student discount

You can get a student discount for eating and drinking out, too. Places offering this include:

Pizza Express: 30% off your meal Thursday-Sunday, via Totum and Unidays.

Meat Liquor: 25% off, via Unidays.

Domino’s: 25% off online orders costing £25 or more via Totum, but 35% via Student Beans and Unidays.

Pizza Hut: 20% off full-price menu items Sunday-Thursday.

Your local bars, cafes, and nightclubs may also offer cheaper prices for students.

Using your student discount on entertainment

Did you know that students can save 50% on Spotify Premium, so its costs £4.99 a month?

And that, even though Odeon offers cheaper tickets for students, you can use a Totum card to save an additional 25% Monday-Thursday?

All of this just goes to show that it’s really worth checking if you can get a student discount for whatever you’re doing.

Use your student discount on things needed for your course

If you need or want to buy some books for your course or for some escapism, you may be interested in Waterstones’ 10% discount on online orders via Unidays.

Foyles also offers 10% off for students showing a valid in-date student card.

If it’s software or other techy stuff that you’re after, there are savings to be had with Adobe Creative Cloud services, HP products, Microsoft Office, and Apple products, too.