Educationet, 'New NUS card remarkably similar to ours'- Student Zone
Educationet, NUS to contribute to overdrafts
By Joe Rukin
Five years ago BBC Watchdog exposed Endsleigh Insurance for offering over-priced insurance to students which in many cases, they didn't need and the way that NUS, who set up and part-owned the insurer operated restrictive practices.
Last week, NUS president Mandy Telford was invited to the show to help expose a company called Access All Areas which sells discount packages to students, saying that in the small print AAA reserve the right to take the full payment (£5/month) in one go, to pull out of the scheme is extremely difficult and that some of the advertised discounts may not actually exist. Miss Telford then took the oportunity to remind students that their NUS card entitles them to free discounts on a products across the UK and the internet. There's only one problem. It doesn't.
NUS radically changed the way the NUS card operates this year. While some retailers still offer up-front discounts, ones which are part of the new scheme, run through Splash Plastic, will swipe discounts into an 'e-wallet' which students have to transfer into their own bank account. The scheme has had it's critics as it seems to be based loosely on the Student Debt Reduction Scheme launched by the Student Zone, except students do not receive any interest while money is held on their 'e-wallet'. When Melissa Bean, Womens Officer at the University of York glanced at the small print she found a bit more that hadn't been pointed out to her, which as she'd spent the week explaining the system to freshers didn't exactly impress her.
She found;
"Apparently, to transfer the money you save at Habitat, Topshop et al to your bank account, you have to spend 100 pounds of your money/student loan with them first (which equates to a £10 discount @ 10% off) in order to be elligible to transfer money back to your bank account. When I read the information on the NUS card leaflet, I was under the impression I could go to HMV, buy a CD for £10, receive my £1 discount, and then go home and transfer that pound to my HSBC bank account: apparently not - you have to have at least £10 on your card in the first place!"
So working at a 10% discount, a student will have to spend at least £100 before they can get their discounts back, and once this has been done, another £100 of spending will have to be accumulated each time a student wants to get that cash. All the time that that money is held on their e-wallet, it will recieve not one penny of interest. She also stumbled over the fact that there would also be a charge to for a student to get their hands on their cash, only after carefully reading a mailing inviting her to buy an orange mobile phone.
She continued;
"I received an e-mail from ITM the other day with some offers from Orange Mobile. Apparently, students buying an Orange Nokia 3510 from NUSonline will receive 25 pounds in their NUS e-wallet. HOWEVER: if you wish to transfer this money to your personal bank account, a 3% charge is added (ie, you get charged 75p to convert that money to cold hard cash). Is this going to be the same when I shop at Topshop and they swipe my card? I understand that the money I save at Topshop goes onto my card, which I then access online. If I choose to transfer my savings to a bank account, will I be charged 3% of the total? I don't like hidden charges, and it's unfair that this isn't made clear upfront!"
With an investigate journalist hat on, educationet contacted Splash Plastic (at customerservice@splashplastic.com), who run the scheme for NUS, and got back exactly the same reply Melissa had to her query, which on the question of the 3% charge was an unsurprising yes;
"Thank you for your email.
It is possible to withdraw money from your e-Wallet. Please note that
there is a small administration fee of 3% to be paid on the total to be
withdrawn and there is also a minimum withdrawal amount of £10. E.g. if
you withdraw £10 we will transfer £9.70 into your bank account.
If you wish to withdraw money from your account please supply us with
the
following:
1/ Your NUS 16-digit card number.
2/ Amount to be withdrawn from your e-Wallet.
3/ Details of where and when you last topped up your e-Wallet.
4/ Sort code and account number of your bank account.
5/ Please indicate that you are aware of the administration fee we will charge.
It will normally take 3 working days for the money to appear in your
bank account.
Hein"
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Educationet, 'New NUS card remarkably similar to ours'- Student Zone
Educationet, NUS to contribute to overdrafts
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