How to get an NUS card when you’re not a student. Shh!

So your days of classroom education and midweek benders have come to an end along with your much loved student dizzy now you’ve hit graduate life, right? Apparently not!

I recently came across a sneaky article about ‘how to get an NUS card when you’re not a student’ and like many, I thought it was too good to be true so I thought I’d give it a go. I couldn’t quite believe it at first but it worked, it bloody worked! But not only that, I actually skipped a vital step in the instructions, or what I thought was vital. Basically, I’ve cheated the system and it feels awesome. Get on this girls and boys..

How do you get an NUS card?

So, the article I read said that to legitimately get an NUS card, you have to become a legitimate student. It directed me to sign up to an online ECareers course which are on Groupon 80% of the time so if you’re a bargain ninja and on the ball it can set you back about £20 for a good deal.

Now if you’re like me, lazy and regard anything that requires more than a few steps as not worth my time, I thought pfft, I’ll just try with signing up without. What’s the worst that can happen? Being hunted down by the NUS police and forced to pay my £12 back? I’ll chance it.

So I chanced it and it processed me through to each stage, details, payment, delivery, confirmation. To be honest, I didn’t quite believe it would work until I received my shiny, new dizzy card in the post and realised I’d smashed life. Hello discounts!

Step by step:

• On the NUS website at the top right of the page click ‘Buy your NUS extra card now’.

• Enter your email address.

• Place of study: Enter ‘ECareers’ (the online course you were suppose to sign up to) and proceed.

• Educational details. Fill in anything you like here really (realistic though).

• You are purchasing: Select how long you’d like your NUS card to be valid for. I picked a year just incase it didn’t work – £12.

• Upload a picture of yourself. No group images of you and the boys last weekend or you with your nan, just you.

• Your details: Fill in as directed but leave the academic email. I was instructed to leave the student password section blank but it wouldn’t let me proceed without so I typed in any password – something I’d remember though and it should take you through to the next stage.

• Delivery: This is an important step! Make sure you select the option for it to be delivered to your home, not to be picked up at uni – let’s face it, turning up at ECareers HQ might be little weird plus then they’ll know what we’ve done!
• And hey presto, your new student card should be with you in a few days. You’re welcome!

What NUS card discounts can I get?

You’ll find 8/10 places offer student discount, sometimes you just have to ask. See the full list of discounts available over on the NUS website.

So now you know, let me know how you get on.. Good luck!

On that note, I think you graduates could benefit from checking out 8 things you need to know after leaving uni. Brace yourself!