<p>An offer came in the mail today for purchase of a Student Advantage Card. For a mere $45 it provides discounts for Amtrak, Pearl Vision, Dunkin’ Donuts and the like. This one happens to be a UD (University of Delaware) item, but I presume the same is available for other schools also.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any experience with this card? Did students find it worthwhile?</p>
<p>My S had one but rarely used it - it was helpful for getting the discount on Amtrak (this was prior to the new rule of ordering tickets 3 days ahead of travel), but that was basically the one benefit. The fee for the card was around $20, but he may have received it at a discount. The $45 charge - is that for a year or longer? I think it’s worth getting the card if you can purchase it for the $20 (the basic yearly rate), but I wouldn’t advise paying the $45, unless it was some kind of a discounted rate - for multiple years.</p>
<p>My son also bought one to get discounts on Amtrak. I think that is all he used it for, but it paid for itself.</p>
<p>there are also greyhound discounts. i had one for a couple years and it paid for itself.</p>
<p>Same experience as Shennie.</p>
<p>Ditto. Son uses it at Thanksgiving, winter break and spring break and the card pays for itself in one round-trip. We’ve also used it for online purchases at Barnes and Noble. After paying $20 per year for the past three years, I was delighted to receive the $45/4-year offer for younger son.</p>
<p>Woah … I didn’t know it was good for online purchases at Barnes and Noble. What else is it good for that I should know about?!</p>
<p>We took the $45 offer as well.</p>
<p>Here is the website: <a href=“http://www.studentadvantage.com/discountcard/[/url]”>http://www.studentadvantage.com/discountcard/</a>
This is the enrollment form: <a href=“https://www.studentadvantage.com/enrollment/[/url]”>https://www.studentadvantage.com/enrollment/</a></p>
<p>Sign up with Amtrak discounts: <a href=“http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=am2Copy&pagename=Amtrak%2Fam2Copy%2FTitle_Image_Copy_Page&cid=1083262194405[/url]”>http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=am2Copy&pagename=Amtrak%2Fam2Copy%2FTitle_Image_Copy_Page&cid=1083262194405</a>
Sign up with Greyhound discounts:
<a href=“http://greyhound.com/deals/student_discount.shtml[/url]”>http://greyhound.com/deals/student_discount.shtml</a></p>
<p>ABOUT.com Article: <a href=“http://studenttravel.about.com/od/studentdiscountcards/qt/advantage_card.htm[/url]”>http://studenttravel.about.com/od/studentdiscountcards/qt/advantage_card.htm</a></p>
<p>Discounts available for Barnes and Noble, People Magazine, Timberland, Linens 'n Things, Target, AMC THEATRES, DRUGSTORE.COM, Adobe, etc.
<p>Don’t waste your money. A lot of those discounts are already available to students (like the Amtrak and Greyhound) and most of the others are typical discount codes for online stores that can be found quickly by doing a Google search on say “Linens N Things Code”</p>
<p>You would be better off spending the money on getting an Entertainment Book or an Enjoy the City book which would get you B1G1 deals at tons of places like Dunkin Donuts and McD’s as well as to finer restaurants and discounts at hotels. I buy one of each of these books per year and just the money I save on my first hotel room alone pays for the books. Also, if you get the Entertainment book you can register it for free and then you are able to go online and do a search for other cities besides the one that your book is for and print out coupons to restaurants. Last I knew the 2007 Entertainment books are on sale now for $7 and are good through the end of December.</p>
<p>I should say your milage may vary on how many of the book deals you will actually use but you will definitely get the cost of your book back.</p>
<p>Is this a credit card or what?</p>
<p>Mom of3Stars:</p>
<p>We bought a Student Advantage card to get the Amtrak discounts – I don’t know about Greyhound, but the only way we found to get a student discount from Amtrak is with a card you must pay for (either Student Advantage or the slightly more expensive International Student Identity Card). They have a discount for children under 15 traveling with their parents, but that doesn’t help college students.</p>
<p>Agree with above posters. The Amtrak student discount is only available to Advantage Card members. If you don’t have the card you pay full price. I don’t know if that is also true for Greyhound. For the stores, you can probably find free ways to get discounts.</p>
<p>it is a discount card. i think my rents wasted $50. we got it for 4 years… i never used it once. i still get their e-mails, but the discounts they offer don’t really help me at all. </p>
<p>i also live on campus in an instate school so i never have to ride the amtrak or w/e.</p>
<p>It is definitely worthwhile for Amtrak.</p>
<p>MomOf3Stars does have a point actually.</p>
<p>The card would be useful if the student rides Amtrak a lot, but other than that, the card prob won’t be used that much. Like what MomOf3Stars mentioned, try searching for promotional/discount codes in Google or another search engine.</p>
<p>S found the card to be more useful before Amtrak changed to the 3-day ahead booking policy, because then it could be used without any major planning. Also, the AAA card also offers a discount for Amtrak, although the Student Advantage card might have an extra 5% discount over AAA (theirs is only 10%, I believe). We love the Entertainment books, because we use the movie theatre coupons, and then the book pays for itself.</p>
<p>Where can you get it for $45/4 years?</p>
<p>weenie - Hmm, I thought the st<em>d</em>nt<em>dv</em>nt<em>g</em> dot com Web Site would tell me, but it appears one needs to fill out a Web Form there before costs are presented. D’s offer was sponsored by UDelaware, and I see the same is true for many other universities also.</p>
<p>Yes, I believe the special pricing is offered through specific universities.</p>