How to Get an NUS Card as a Non-Student

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How I Came Across These Student Cards

I was slipping with my NUS card(s), when I had one. Barely ever used it, until the last of SIX years as a student. The main reason for the last four was because I always forgot I was a student. I studied part-time, so it wasn't quite the same. Anyway, it became a necessity once I clocked the potential of retail arbitrage. Unfortunately, my last one ran out in September last year.

Minor. I'd been aware of a clever way to secure one as a non-student for some time. In fact, I’d done the legwork a year prior. All I did was to sign up for a e-learning course. This would make me eligible for the major benefit that ‘real’ students get – NUS cards.

How to Get a Student Card When You're Not a Student

Now you know the good that can come of it, here's how you do it:

Head on over to Wowcher and get a cheap OfCourse course for £9-£15

Go to the NUS website and get a £12 NUS Extra card, stating your place of study is OfCourse and follow the steps.

Not so hard, is it.

You’re looking at a £25 investment max.

The only thing to bear in mind is that the deal won’t last forever. I got mine through LivingSocial in 2015. Since then, although it’s part of the same group as Wowcher, it’s not available there anymore. Search for an alternative course on DealZippy, Wowcher, LivingSocial or Groupon with e-Careers as the course provider, and you can become NUS-eligible without the debt.

Here are all the places you can receive discounts with this little card.

Additional Benefits of Having an NUS Card

The other major benefit of this is the actual content you receive from one of the courses. In my case, I learned how to do all of my accounting properly. If it's your first time e-learning, it's likely to inspire more. My first got me hooked.

One of my many mottos is: you can learn anything from YouTube and Wikipedia. Topped up with a couple of cheap more structured ones on Coursera, Udemy and edX, and you're unstoppable. As well as free courses, you can go and get yourself some actual university credit from a prestigious institution while studying from home.

What You Can't Access with This NUS Card?

The one thing that you can't get this an NUS student card is Unidays. This requires a university email to unlock discounts on online shopping. This is a big drawback, but something that needs to be mentioned, before you get over-excited about the potential. Even so, if you’re like me, and the main reason is to cut cost on stock to resell, any extra price reductions will help massively.