NUS Extra cards aren’t value for money in Cardiff according to an investigation by gair rhydd. gair rhydd visited several retailers in the Cardiff area that are only supposed to offer student discount to National Union of Students [NUS] Extra card holders and found that our Cardiff university cards, that bear the NUS logo, were accepted by many of the retailers.
The retailers including Subway, Topshop and Claire’s Accessories all of which are on the ‘exclusive discount’ list of NUS Extra discounts. However, the staff at these retailers accepted a Cardiff University ID card, which bears the NUS logo, and offered us discount.
One of the retailers that accepted Cardiff ID card was Claire’s Accessories. But when gair rhydd contacted Claire’s to find out their student discount policy they replied: “I can confirm Claire’s only accepts the NUS Extra card and the students can receive 20% off all full priced items only.”
The NUS has previously accepted that not all retail workers will recognise the difference between an NUS Extra card and university ID or library card and urges students that obtain discounts with their exclusive discount partners without showing an NUS Extra card, to report them to the NUS.
Given that many retailers in Cardiff will accept any form of student ID when offering student discount, gair rhydd asked Cardiff Students’ Union president Jonny Cox as to whether he thought NUS Extra Cards have benefited Cardiff students: “The benefit of NUS Extra cards come in the discounts that they offer that are no longer available with just a normal student card. It is a national scheme that any student in higher and further education can be a part of. This means that there are better and more discounts on a national level for those who have NUS Extra cards than there were previously on a local level.”
During this year’s Freshers’ week, Cardiff Students’ Union promoted the NUS Extra card on the Union website, www.cardiffstudents.com and used an empty shop outlet on the ground floor of the union, so that students could sign up for an Extra card. But despite the publicity during Freshers’ week, Cardiff Students’ Union confirmed to gair rhydd that only 1,112 Extra cards have been sold so far this academic year, which made £5,226 for CUSU. Whilst this sounds like a substantial amount of money, it’s a long way off from covering the Union’s cost of NUS affiliation, which according to figures released at the recent AGM, was £46,000 last year. And that’s a drop in the ocean compared to CUSU’s trading income of over five million pounds.
We asked a range of Cardiff students what they thought about the Extra card, and not all of them were entirely satisfied, Cardiff graduate, Paul O’Callaghan said: “Paid for one of these in April last year – never arrived, no email nothing…rubbish”.
Lucie Stoker, a third year Law student told gair rhydd: “Most shops give you discount with a normal NUS card so why pay for a privilege we already have? I’ve never been asked for an NUS Extra card so the shops that are associated with it are clearly minimal, it’s not worth the money.”
Mo Bennalick, a first year Law and Criminology student said: “I bought an NUS Card in Freshers’ week because it looked cool. However I feel I was greatly deceived. I used it once on Amazon before I lost it. I can’t say I particularly miss it.”
Given Cardiff students’ low opinion of NUS Extra, gair rhydd asked Dave Lewis, National Treasurer for the NUS whether he thought the scheme had been a success: “This is a second year of a national roll out of NUS Extra, on the back of a trial in the North West of England during 2005/6. NUS Extra brought in over one million of new income into students’ unions last year”. gair rhydd requested figures for this academic year from the NUS to the reply that “this year has delivered a similar outcome.”
gair rhydd also asked the Mr Lewis the number of cards sold since the beginning of the scheme: “During last year’s first year of the national roll out we sold 250,000 cards, and to date during 2007/8 we have sold 232,000 cards. This is an increase of 7% to date year on year. NUS Extra is the world’s second biggest paid-for student discount card, and although we are someway off Brazil.”
He added “there is every opportunity to build upon the success of the last two years, recognising the areas for growth, and ensuring students get discounts and offers which make a real benefit to their life in education.”
NUS Extra was first approved for introduction by the March 2006 NUS Annual Conference in Blackpool. It was highly controversial and was opposed by a number of Students’ Unions. At the conference, individual Unions both tried to get the scheme scrapped, or asked for the trial to be extended for another year to provide them with more data.
Both options were eventually voted down by conference, and it was agreed that the scheme would be introduced. The NUS told conference the introduction of the Extra card was necessary for the financial survival of the NUS as it faced a £700,000 financial deficit in 2005.
In the NUS regional conference summer in 2006 National Treasurer Joe Rukin suggested that the NUS needed an ‘alternative income stream’ and that traditional NUS Cards were becoming ‘less relevant due to increased competition’.
The causes of the NUS’s financial troubles were believed to stem from a downturn in spending at university student unions, one of the national body’s main sources of funding. It is thought that students are spending less at the student union bars, opting instead to socialise at home with friends. The union blamed the financial shortfall on historical problems, including a “bad investment in a computer system, overspending, and a bloated administration.”
The cards that cost £10 per academic year, promised exclusive discounts at a number of high street and online retailers that would only be available to the students who had purchased an NUS Extra card. The NUS Extra website describes the card as “the definitive student discount card with a range of exclusive discounts, offers and competitions designed to make student life more exciting, more memorable and more rewarding.” The site also told buyers that “Your Students’ Union also benefits from the card as a portion of the £10 you pay goes back to them so they can invest in more services, activities and events for you – so the transaction between you and your Students’ Union has wider reaching benefits.” Currently of the £10, the national union gets £1.50, the university union £4.70 and the rest is spent on administration costs.
The NUS told us that the money generated so far by individual unions “has been used in places like Reading for coaches to national demonstrations, laptops in Glamorgan, increased funding for sports clubs and societies in Salford, increasing union activities in Exeter College and funding for increased campaigning activity at Wolverhampton. NUS Extra card sales make a difference to the activities of a students’ union, and it must continue to do so.”
The card however has caused outrage at certain unions since its launch and many students have accused the NUS of being a ‘discount club’. In 2006 Cambridge University Students’ Union refused to distribute the NUS Extra card and stated “CUSU thinks that charging students for the chance to save money is unacceptable and voted against the new scheme at the NUS national conference.” Bournemouth University Students’ Union also voted against the introduction as they thought the card was a “rip off for students”. Bournemouth union also discussed boycotting the NUS Extra card before deciding to let students choose whether or not to buy one.
Rob Stroud, Student Rep Co-ordinator at the University of the West of England Students’ Union, attended the 2006 NUS national conference where the motion to introduce the cards was passed. He told gair rhydd that he believed the introduction of NUS Extra has caused confusion: “One of the main questions around it is – does NUS want to promote itself as a discount providing organisation, or as a membership organisation, where one of the many benefits is getting a discount. What do students see NUS as?”
The cards have also come under fire on several social networking sites with groups such as ‘Petition against NUS Extra cards’ and ‘Just say no to NUS Extra’ being set up by disgruntled students. On these sites many students discussed what stores offered student discount without showing an NUS Extra card.
The cards look set to stay for the time being as they re-launched in August for the 2008/2009 academic year, The NUS has reported that the “Extra card will allow students to save a massive £98,577,500 over the course of the next academic year. Back for the third year, the NUS Extra card will mean average savings of over £281* per year for each student.”
The cards saw further discounts being added in 2007, Gemma Tumelty, NUS President said, “NUS is working hard to ensure we meet the needs of students today. Students told us last year that they wanted discounts on basic essential everyday items such as toiletries and food, so this year NUS is proud to introduce Subway, Superdrug and McDonalds to the list of NUS Extra discounts.”
Despite the extra discounts, some Students’ Unions though have reporting low numbers of Students buying NUS Cards, including Bristol University Union which recently reported “there has been an extremely low take-up – less than two per cent of Bristol students have purchased the card.”
According to the NUS though, the Extra cards are ‘extremely popular’ with students as they reported that in 2006/2007 academic year the cards were taken up by more than “250,000 students. Of these, 80% said they would recommend the card to their friends. This year we aim to further meet student needs with the introduction of Extra partners such as Matalan – giving students even more discounts than last year.”
The NUS further highlighted that there had been a 40% increase in card sales at Further Education students’ unions, which the NUS say are traditionally underfunded and continually fight to get any budget allocated. The NUS told us that “This is one of the crucial development areas going forward, it is within these unions that NUS Extra can make a significant impact upon learner voice strategies, and it is within these unions where this money is most needed.”
Students across the UK though seem unhappy with the Extra card, the website Money Saving expert, set up by Cardiff graduate Martin Lewis, features a number of discussions about the NUS Extra Card.
“My student ID (King’s College) has the NUS logo on and the words ‘member of NUS’ printed on it. I also am refusing to buy the NUS Extra card as I know the union already pay £7 per student for membership, so why on earth should I pay Extra?? From my experience so far Orange will accept student card without Extra (in store at least), All arcadia shops (e.g. Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, burtons etc), MacDonald’s. The only place I’ve been refused is HMV. I tried to argue that my student card had the NUS thing on but they were having none of it.”
Another student on the site posted “I got refused at Subway Loughborough; they said it had to be the Extra card or at least say subway on it.”
Some students were even encouraging others to go into stores that are only supposed to accept NUS Extra cards to give student discounts to see if they would accept a normal University student card, one student posted
“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. If enough people do this, they’ll realise that they’re actually going to lose money.”
Despite the NUS reporting that the Extra Cards brought in one million pounds of income last year, student paper York Vision reported in November 2007 that figures show that the NUS lost over £1.1m of student money last year – with NUS Extra cards, designed to drag them out of financial turmoil, contributing a LOSS of £18k.
The website also states that in 2006/2007 the NUS’s predictions on the income of NUS Extra were ‘significantly overstated’.
gair rhydd asked the NUS what they thought the future was for NUS Extra card and their response was “NUS is absolutely committed to the card going forward, and will be increasing the quality and breadth of discounters. The NUS also acknowledged that “we recognise the areas for improvement, and will be working hard over the summer to deliver a product for next year’s student body which reflects the principles of NUS, delivers additional funding to students’ unions, but above all, is recognised as the must have discount card for students.”
