Using student discount if not a student

[DyslexicScientist]

I have a lifetime .ac.uk address from my old uni. Some sites give student discounts to anyone with an .ac.UK address.

Is this fraud to get the discount if they accept my address that clearly has graduation year in it?

The clue is in the name.

It is a student discount and you are not a student.

I imagine it depends on your personal morals.

I kept my student id's after graduation until they expired. Expiration date was the end of the year, not graduation date.
Don't feel i did anything too wrong.

Soup but I still do help out at the uni and feel like I'm still learning.

Not sure if its a moral decision, they only give these discounts to bost revenue not as some charity work.

Yanbu. I bought 2 dresses in Selfridges last week and (because I had seen it on TV) got DH to ask if I could have a discount....lovely shop assistant give me the student discount (15%). My student days are loooong gone.

IIRC university members of staff can purchase a NUS year long membership for a nominal fee. It's not well publicised but if you've purchased the member shy for £10-20, you'll probably get more in discount and maybe won't feel the same way.

I did it. I completed a postgraduate qualification in 2008, but my student id card was valid until 2011. I used it until it expired.

I have an NUS card as I am allowed to buy one as I work at a university. I pay an annual fee and am therefore entitled to NUS discount. University staff are allowed a number of academic institution discounts whether you are an administrator or a lecturer, like we can get apple discount but do so via the uni. I have no worries about using it as I pay the NUS and its a perk of working at an educational institution.

YANBU, I did the same when I graduated. My ID card didn't have an expiry date on, so I got a few extra years use out of it than I should have.

Same here as Cumber. An NUS card is one of the very few perks we get!

I'm a lecturer and LOVE my NUS card - I buy a lot from Topshop, ASOS, Warehouse etc, and it is so handy. I don't see it as any sort of fraud,

Businesses aren't charities; they don't give student discounts out of goodwill. Student discounts started in the days when most students were young and poor and businesses were trying to lure them into a lifetime habit of shopping with that brand.

It seems to me - in this day and age of online codes, groupon, membership perks, free-coffee-for-Waitrose-members, etc, etc - that most goods are priced up so that they can take a 'discount' off. Looking at you Debenhams with your Blue Cross 'sales'
I often feel a mug when paying full price because I think everyone else is getting a discount.

It's a matter of personal choice. You can probably get away with it without consequences although it is not strictly morally right

If you think about it, it's the same argument some shoplifters use, large company with big profits, faceless victim of "theft" but in the end these companies just put their prices up to maintain their profits so we all pay

I think you should probably buy the NUS card and get the discount legitimately

Staff are allowed to use them with no issues but past students using them is a bit off I'd say.

I'm a mature student doing an MA. I also work full time. I've only once had someone hesitate about accepting my student card and that was in Matalan, where I had used it without incident many times. I told the cashier that you are never too old to learn! You would have thought the discount was coming out of her pay packet for the look she gave me when I first showed her my university ID card.

I have a current student id - valid until 2017, part time masters, but I work full time and have been a student three times before (but got a full time wage for one of these). I only ever used the student card the first time, just felt a bit off using it especially the times I have been getting a full time wage. Your choice, I wouldn't.

I think you are probably wrong to use only your .ac.uk address in order to secure the discount if you are no longer connected to that institution.

However, if companies are allowing student discount based on a ac.uk address that is their mistake as anyone who works at universities has these addresses not just students.

However, I think it is perfectly legitimate to use a lifetime NUS card to obtain a discount for NUS card holders even if you are a relatively well paid lecturer as you meet the conditions of the discount. It's to attrack custom and not just aimed at the lower paid. Similarly NHS/emergency services workers can get a whole host of discounts, despite some earning above average wages.

Many goods and services are priced now so that a certain percentage of purchases will be discounted and discounts are easy to find - so in a way, you are being taken for a mug if you pay the inflated full price.

There are certain things that I would never pay 'full price' if I could avoid it, such as:

Pringles - never pay more than about £1.20
Chain restaurants - Total rip off without a voucher
Wine that is regularly sold at 'half price' of around a fiver - never worth the claimed full price.
Most theme park type places - easy to get a 2 for 1, or free child entry
Christmas gifts - many are still a rip off in the 3 for 2 deal
Always search for a discount code and cashback deal before buying online.
Gas/electric/phone/broadband/TV etc - move regularly to get the introductory deals - pay full price they are taking you for a mug.

So if you weren't getting the student discount, it probably wouldn't be hard to find another discount for the same items.

However, I hate having to do this, it's exhausting - why they can't have more consistent pricing and reward loyalty, I don't know. It's one reason why I prefer Aldi to the major supermarkets. As well as a whole host of other benefits, the pricing is consistent and you don't have to chase often fake half price or two for one deals to avoid being ripped off.

Staff are allowed an nus, it's not just because they have an ac email.

I'm with you Barbara.

Its not the same as shoplifting. I think exactly like barbs and senua.

It is annoying all these companies make you work.

With anything in life you can get a discount you just need to persist. Insurance companies and gyms are petty bad for just charging whatever they think they will get away with.

The NUS card, though, doesn't necessarily entitle you to a student discount - it entitles you to an NUS discount (where one is offered): subtle difference.

I'm not sure what having an ac.uk address would entitle you to on its own: maybe Student Amazon? I would have thought, though, that there was some kind of check, otherwise presumably academic staff would use that to (or am I the only one paying full whack for Amazon Prime?!): I personally think it's dishonest to misrepresent the truth for a discount that you are not entitled to. But each to their own.

Using your email to get a discount is dishonest in my opinion. Pay for NUS membership if you're entitled to it.

However I suspect that like your other threads you aren't asking if you're BU. You're going to do it anyway if you can get away with it.

I love my NUS card. As a PP said, it's one of the few perks of working in further education.

My sister is doing her A Levels and i'll sometimes ask her to buy something/pick up something for me and use her discount.

We also have 2 family members who work in Tescos and they'll use their discount for us too.

I'm sure this is stealing and reprehensible and all that in the eyes of many on mn but I struggle to care.

I've spoken to to livchst on dell, and they say the discount is for anyone with an ac.UK address. Result!

I think lectures are perfectly entitled to nus discounts. Well done.

Its 10% off at dell, so worth it IMO.