OiYOiStudent guide
Student discounts worth signing up for
UK student discounts are something you sign up for – shops won't hand them over unless you do. Here are three, ranked by value for money:
- How long
- One sign-up each, a few minutes; you verify with your uni email or proof of enrolment
- What you need
- Your uni email can receive verification messages; before buying anything at a "student price", check you're actually eligible
- What you get
- Student prices on food, clothes, everyday stuff, exhibitions and fun – sign up once, save all year
One: UNiDAYS (free – do this first)
It bills itself as a free discount platform for students, covering loads of brands across fashion, food, subscriptions and more. Verify with your uni, grab a code and check out. It costs nothing, so make it one of the first things you do once you've landed and have a spare moment; Student Beans is a similar free one, and there's no harm signing up to both.
Two: Student Art Pass (£10 a year – worth it if you love exhibitions)
Official price and perks: £10 a year for full-time UK students, free or discounted entry to hundreds of museums and galleries, and half price on major exhibitions. London's permanent collections are free anyway, so the real point of this pass is the paid exhibitions – see two big shows in a year and it's paid for itself. It often comes with paid arts opportunities too.
Three: "student" subscription plans (sort out renewals before you cash in)
Amazon, music streaming services and the like usually have a student plan – check each official page for current prices. The rule for all of them: free trials roll into paid plans automatically, so on the day you sign up, set a reminder for just before the trial ends – then either keep the student price or cancel in time. Don't end up paying full whack.
Common traps
- Signing up with a personal email and failing verification. Student checks go by your uni email or proof you're enrolled.
- Buying an annual membership just to get a deal. A membership you use less than twice a year is a cost, however big the discount.
- Buying a pass for permanent collections. London's major museums are free for their permanent collections – don't spend a penny on that.
Prime Student: try it free, then decideA few minutes to sign up; the date that really matters is the day the trial ends
The short version
Students and 18-24s can get Prime at half price, and new members get a free trial first. The thing to watch isn't how much you save – it's that the trial rolls into a paid membership automatically. Ignore it and you've effectively signed up.
Current prices (checked on the official site, 2026-09-05)
Paying annually works out at roughly a fifth off the monthly price, but the whole year is taken in one go – if you're on a one-year course and leaving next year, do the maths first.
The trial: read the small print
The official wording is: 6-month trial, sponsored by Microsoft Surface, new members only; when the trial ends it renews automatically at £4.49 a month.
Three things:
- The "6 months" comes from this particular sponsorship deal – it isn't a permanent perk. If the sponsor changes or the offer is pulled, the length changes. Whatever the page says on the day you sign up is what you get – don't count the days off someone else's guide from last year.
- New members only. If you've had Prime before (even one you started yourself while on a family share), you might not get a trial.
- It auto-renews; it doesn't auto-stop. This is where people most often lose money.
Four steps
- Before you sign up, check you count as a "new member", and how many months of trial the page is offering.
- The day you sign up, put a reminder in your phone calendar for two days before the trial ends. (Not the end date itself – by then you've probably already been charged.)
- Make the most of it during the trial: next-day delivery, films and TV, whatever you'd actually use.
- When the reminder goes off, decide: keep it at half price, or cancel. You cancel under membership settings in your account, and you can usually still use the rest of your trial after cancelling.
Easy ways to get caught out
- Keeping it because "half price" sounds cheap. £4.49 a month is about £53 a year; if you shop online fewer than ten times a term and don't watch much, you're better off keeping the money.
- Paying annually to save, then graduating and leaving. The annual fee covers a full year, taken up front.
- Trusting someone else's guide from last year. Trial lengths and prices keep changing – the table above shows the date we checked, so if it's been a few months, have another look at the official site.
Official pages
Checked against official pages on 5 Sep 2026.
Not official advice. Rules change, so always check the official page.