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This is one of the best hustles that I know. I’ve convinced a lot of people at each office I’ve worked at to become a student and get a TOTUM card. The amount of offers you can get are insane, the best being 10% off Apple, 10% off the CO-OP and half-priced Amazon Prime. If you are lucky enough to grab a card for 3 years when one of the loop-holes open, go for it! They’re worth every penny. As you’ll see from the strike-throughs, this post was actually written a while ago. The loop-hole then closed so this never got posted. Yesterday, it opened up again with a different method. I’ve now got my 3-year card coming in the post! So if you want to benefit from all of these savings, hurry! It might not last long. WARNING: It didn’t last long. Learndirect is now not recognised. Go to the comments to see if a new loop-hole has opened up.

Being a student is great, not just for all of the free time that you get, but for the amazing student discounts too! Apple currently offers students a 10% discount on MacBooks, a 20% discount on Apple Care and they’ll also throw in a pair of £249 Beats headphones for free.[note]The Beats headphone promotion only runs between July and October.[/note]

Being a student isn’t an exclusive club for the young; anyone can be a student. It doesn’t matter if you’re retired, working, or claiming benefits. NUS doesn’t discriminate. Bearing that in mind, the 21st century saw the doorway to education open up like never before, due to one thing; the internet. The internet bought into fruition the ability to learn online with millions of online courses available to anyone who has the inclination to learn. 1 in 4 students now opt for an online course rather than attending a brick and mortar school. This also brings the unique opportunity to become a student with next to no effort at all. Strapped for cash? Go to this post to make £30 in 10 minutes! The way it works is you find an online course which is either free or very cheap, you sign up to it, you’ll then be eligible to buy an NUS Extra TOTUM card which is the card that will unlock all of those great student discounts. Let’s walk through the process from start to finish.

Finding a course

You can now sign up to a free course on Learndirect which makes you eligible for a TOTUM card! Go to Learndirect and click ‘Free employability course’ at the bottom of the page. After entering your details, confirm the email that they send to you and you’re done! You’ll need to find an online course through a provider that NUS has a partnership with. I recommend using New Skills Academy courses. These guys offer some great deals through Groupon for very cheap courses to unlock your student discount benefits. Just type ‘New Skills Academy’ into their search bar and sort by lowest price first. The lowest I could find on Groupon (via this link ) is currently £12. Remember, you don’t actually have to do the course, you’re just buying it for the student discounts!

Applying for the NUS TOTUM card

After you’ve enrolled onto the course, you’re then ready to apply for a TOTUM card. The card costs £12 for 1 year, £22 for 2 years or £32 for 3 years. I’d recommend getting it for 3 years so you don’t have to go through this process again for a while. The cost is worth it even if you only get the Amazon discount. Follow the steps below.

  1. Launch the NUS/TOTUM website by clicking on this link
  2. Enter your email address and then confirm it
  3. Type in the course provider as your place of study (learndirect if you went with them)
  4. Enter the start and end date, if you are choosing a 3 year NUS card, enter your end date to be 3 years from now
  5. Choose “Professional/Vocational” for the course level
  6. Enter the length of time you want your NUS card to last (I would recommend 3 years)
  7. Upload a photo of yourself, this will be displayed on the card
  8. Enter your personal details. If it asks for a student number or password, you should be able to find this in the account which you’ve set up for your online course