Student Travel Card Scam

smeedyova

Your uni/college issues you student id and then then the state (Irish Rail) will not accept it as a form of student id. Instead you are offered the possibility of paying a private company €15 for a student travel card. The irony being that you have to show your "invalid" uni/college id in order to purchase the thing. Why are people buying into this? All of these companies should accept the official id issued by the uni/college. The travel card comapny is a private company, probably owned (in some way or other) by a politician. Further, student union reps spend their time administrating this card. That means that they are, in effect, working for free for this private company, despite being elected to represent students. Why don't students stop paying into this corruption???

annieoburns

.... and the hassle of getting into O'Connell Street and having another photo taken etc etc

smeedyova

annieoburns wrote: »

.... and the hassle of getting into O'Connell Street and having another photo taken etc etc

Indeed. You have to wonder why students are supporting this private company, though. I expect that there is a very high level of corruption behind this --- supported by all Student Unions, I might add.

OctavarIan

smeedyova wrote: »

Why don't students stop paying into this corruption???

Because you get fined if caught on the bus without one. I never believed the stories of it happening, but after a year and a half getting by fine with my uni's card I eventually was. Bought the silly travel card (~2 mins in Trinity) the same morning and fine was removed the next day.

It's only €15. You are getting scammed out of MUCH more than this every year, in every facet of life and your daily activities. Even more so when you graduate, get a career and settle down. You've already lost about €80,000 of your future income thanks to the ***** who've loaned the country away. Don't waste your energy on a €15 travel card, especially in a forum where there are students genuinely struggling financially.

I'm all for challenging the unfairness created by capitalism, but some things just aren't worth the time. Getting upset over the travel card is like getting upset over a fly on a piece of poo

[edit]And stop calling it corruption. It's not an example of corruption, just a typical capitalist form of generating extra income.

smeedyova

OctavarIan wrote: »

It's only €15.

If €15 means so little to you could you please ask all of your friends to send me €15 and send €150 yourself?

I'll remind you that this private company, and the possibly corrupt people behind it, are living very well out of the many €15 donations that you don't care about it.

Do you own the company?

OctavarIan

smeedyova wrote: »

If €15 means so little to you could you please ask all of your friends to send me €15 and send €150 yourself?

I don't have it handy to send it to you. In the grand scheme of things it's nothing though, two hours work, an odd-job.

I suspect you're pretty young? Too young to fathom that:
a)The university IDs of many colleges are still very easy to forfeit. No holograms or watermarks; just a simple piece of laminate plastic.
b)Some IDs used to have no date on them (UCD for example), meaning someone who graduated four years ago could still be a student for all a cashier/inspector knows.

smeedyova wrote:

I'll remind you that this private company, and the possibly corrupt people behind it, are living very well out of the many €15 donations that you don't care about it.

Again you're showing off how naive you are. The money they bring in from the travel cards wouldn't be enough to keep a business in profit. They real income they make is through discount deals with retailers and other organisations etc

smeedyova wrote:

Do you own the company?

Yes I own the company, was that not obvious based on the generalised and non-specific information I gave in my previous post? :rolleyes:

RoyalMarine

Im locking this thread before it goes any further.