Written by: Ben Reid
Student discounts are a life-saver for student life. The savings are endless with money off food, travel, clothing, fitness and more. Available to any student, your social life is sorted during your time in education. This perk is often seen as something that university students only have access to, but it is also available to most college students. Websites and apps like Unidays, Student Bean and TOTUM give access to their array of discounts for all students, college or university. All these discounts can be used online with a code being revealed once you want to use it. This can then be applied when checking out, with most sites having a box to enter them. Your discounts can also be used in stores too. When signing up, no personal information is given more than what you would give to any ordinary website, giving them a more trusted experience. Student Beans, Unidays and TOTUM are the top three sites in the UK for student discounts and we will take a deep dive into each service to see who is the best to use.
Student Beans:
Student Beans is a great site for using and gaining access to a great number of offers. The layout is pretty simple with different tabs taking you to specific categories to access offers. A search bar is also included for when you know exactly what you’re looking for. It engages with young people as it gives lists of discounts popular within the site and for special events (e.g Mother’s Day). For international students, you are able to instantly change countries and it will cater the website to your language. You are also given an online ID featuring your name and place of education, which can be used in store when redeeming offers. After scanning through, I found great offers in clothing with 50% off of Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss and in food, with free delivery with Deliveroo and UberEats. Travel is sorted with 20% off of Trainline. I found the only downside was having to renew every 12 months but it is understandable as they cannot be used after you leave education.
Unidays:
Unidays is very similar to Student Beans but I find it is often promoted more (e.g JD uses Unidays to verify their offers and is promoted on their website). The Website is likewise simple with a more simplistic design. Once pressed, the tabs give a number of subgenres to look at a range of more specific offers available to you for what you want. A Search bar is also included but it is not as simple to change the language as there is no button to just press and change it. However, it promotes Learning and Earning, and gives things like surveys to complete for free to get money. The ID is (relatively) the same as Student Beans, giving your name and your place of education. A look through and I found great deals on clothing with 10% off Nike and up to 50% off JD. Food is covered with 50% off Dominoes and £10 off your first 2 orders with UberEats. There are also 40% off trains using Liner. Like Student Beans, your account has to be renewed yearly but Unidays seems to have a much better approach to young people by doing things like giveaways and clips from their social media platforms. I would say their negative is their accessibility for international students.
TOTUM:
TOTUM has a similar layout to both of the other platforms. Tabs, search bar and giveaways (like Unidays) but there is one major difference between TOTUM and the rest. TOTUM offers a paid subscription to get more exclusive deals as well as a physical card which can be legally used as a form of ID. The website also has TOTUM Talks, a section like a blog where you can see the best deals in different categories. The deals here include clothing with 70% off Boohooman and 60% off Footasylum this half term. In food, there is 50% off of Dominoes and cashback at several supermarkets and chains (ASDA, Sainsburys etc).TOTUM also specialises in holidays, with savings of £350 on trips to Greece and Turkey. Overall it is a different experience to the other two, but does offer its many perks for its users.
Overall, each has their pros and cons but I do think Unidays offers the best access for a young person wanting these discounts and waiting to feel engaged, however I would definitely recommend the other two for anyone looking to have this amazing perk at their disposal.
