Leap Card to Student Leap Card

cgcsb

So I've enrolled in a third level course. I have a non personalised leap card at present, is there any way that I can change it for a student one, what fees would apply? The website isn't very helpful.

Also at present the student travel card doesn't really have many incentives, it just looks like a scam to get €12 out of people.

LXFlyer

The main point of the student travel card is that you cannot buy any prepaid student tickets for travel in the Dublin area without one.

The leapcard feature is an added one - so you can for example use the card as an epurse for use on LUAS if you have a bus only period pass.

Victor

cgcsb wrote: »

Also at present the student travel card doesn't really have many incentives, it just looks like a scam to get €12 out of people.

But you can get cheaper weekly/monthly tickets and make your money back.

Frank Grimes

cgcsb wrote: »

Also at present the student travel card doesn't really have many incentives, it just looks like a scam to get €12 out of people.

I take 3 or 4 buses per day (depending on whether I get the X out in the mornings) to get to and from UCD - I recoup the cost of the travel card in a matter of days with the savings I make from the prepaid monthly ticket. It is hardly a scam, granted it might not be worth it if you only occasionally use public transport and/or don't go very far, or else if you're not planning to use the student tickets but if that's the case just don't buy one.

Dravokivich

cgcsb wrote: »

is there any way that I can change it for a student one, what fees would apply? The website isn't very helpful.

.

No, you'll be ordering a completely new card.

languagenerd

No, you can't change it for a Student one, because the student ones are not issued by Leap themselves. I lost mine a while back and had to apply for a new one through Student TravelCard rather than the Leap system.

As people have said, the main point of the Student Travelcard is to avail of student tickets - weekly or monthly - and the Leap part is a bonus feature. If you're getting the Luas, though, it's well worth getting a student one: you'll only ever pay €5 in one day (rather than €6.50 on an adult one) or €18 in a week (compared 20-something on the adult one). Plus you can get the aforementioned monthly tickets instead of using it as a Leap card and pay even less.

You also get 10% off in Boots, Costa and a few other places. I've made the €12 back in Boots alone...

AlekSmart

languagenerd wrote: »

No, you can't change it for a Student one, because the student ones are not issued by Leap themselves. I lost mine a while back and had to apply for a new one through Student TravelCard rather than the Leap system.

As people have said, the main point of the Student Travelcard is to avail of student tickets - weekly or monthly - and the Leap part is a bonus feature. If you're getting the Luas, though, it's well worth getting a student one: you'll only ever pay €5 in one day (rather than €6.50 on an adult one) or €18 in a week (compared 20-something on the adult one). Plus you can get the aforementioned monthly tickets instead of using it as a Leap card and pay even less.

You also get 10% off in Boots, Costa and a few other places. I've made the €12 back in Boots alone...

One other very good reason for getting a Student Leapcard now is the imminent expansion of Ticket Types available on Leap.

It is highly likely that the BAC Student Rambler products will migrate to Leapcard,which will initially see a somewhat odd downward blip in Student Rambler sales as the Student Products will ONLY be loadable onto a Student Leapcard,complete with integrated Photo-ID

cgcsb

AlekSmart wrote: »

One other very good reason for getting a Student Leapcard now is the imminent expansion of Ticket Types available on Leap.

It is highly likely that the BAC Student Rambler products will migrate to Leapcard,which will initially see a somewhat odd downward blip in Student Rambler sales as the Student Products will ONLY be loadable onto a Student Leapcard,complete with integrated Photo-ID

That'd be my main reason for paying the €12 fee to be honest, but presumably the paper tickets will still be available for some time after this function is introduced to leap. The store discounts are available to the holders of any student card. I think I'll wait until ramblers are available on leap before investing in one.

Frank Grimes

cgcsb wrote: »

That'd be my main reason for paying the €12 fee to be honest, but presumably the paper tickets will still be available for some time after this function is introduced to leap. The store discounts are available to the holders of any student card. I think I'll wait until ramblers are available on leap before investing in one.

You still need a student travel card to use the paper (student rambler) tickets.

languagenerd

cgcsb wrote: »

That'd be my main reason for paying the €12 fee to be honest, but presumably the paper tickets will still be available for some time after this function is introduced to leap. The store discounts are available to the holders of any student card. I think I'll wait until ramblers are available on leap before investing in one.

(1) You can't use student paper tickets without the Student Travelcard (if you're caught without it, it's a hefty fine and some shops won't even sell them to you without it).

(2) The store discounts in Boots and Costa are specific to Travelcards only. Normal student cards don't count (they actual scan it in Boots).

Stevek101

AlekSmart wrote: »

One other very good reason for getting a Student Leapcard now is the imminent expansion of Ticket Types available on Leap.

It is highly likely that the BAC Student Rambler products will migrate to Leapcard,which will initially see a somewhat odd downward blip in Student Rambler sales as the Student Products will ONLY be loadable onto a Student Leapcard,complete with integrated Photo-ID

Any provisional date for this yet?

cgcsb

thanks for your help everyone. Any update on when the rambler function will be introduced to leap?

AlekSmart

cgcsb wrote: »

thanks for your help everyone. Any update on when the rambler function will be introduced to leap?

I would be confident that by November, some elements of the current BAC pre-paid range will be available on Leap....I do hope i'm not OVER confident though

Victor

The Dublin Bus cap has been changed to €15, although I don't know the time period. I imagine the 1, 3, 5 day ramblers will be changed to the cap soon.

Taxsaver annual tickets changed to Leap Cards from 1 October.

daireman

Hi,

I have a student leap card and my girlfriend has the regular one.

We took a bus and she pressed her card against the scanner and it beeped once but when I did it, it beeped twice. Any idea why?



Thanks.

Daire

LXFlyer

daireman wrote: »

Hi,

I have a student leap card and my girlfriend has the regular one.

We took a bus and she pressed her card against the scanner and it beeped once but when I did it, it beeped twice. Any idea why?



Thanks.

Daire

To distinguish the two types of LEAP card - alerts the driver that someone is using a non-standard LEAP card.

hfallada

languagenerd wrote: »

(1) You can't use student paper tickets without the Student Travelcard (if you're caught without it, it's a hefty fine and some shops won't even sell them to you without it).

(2) The store discounts in Boots and Costa are specific to Travelcards only. Normal student cards don't count (they actual scan it in Boots).

Shops couldn't careless when selling bus tickets to anyone ( why would they when their commission is only 3%). And with your logic someone would have to bring their child to spar every time they wanted to buy their child a ticket.

If you have a paper prepaid student ticket and "forgot" to have your travel cardon you in person. They send you the generic fine letter in the post. You just go Dublin bus HQ with your travel card and the fine is cancelled.

Personally I think the travel card is a scam. It's €15(when you include the photo fee) for a plastic card, that you must renew every year. Most college IDs are valid for your whole course. There is no reason why you can't get a travel card valid for your whole course duration. A TCD student card is €6 to replace when lost. When is a travel card €15 other than to make money off it and you have no choice but to buy it.

languagenerd

hfallada wrote: »

Shops couldn't careless when selling bus tickets to anyone ( why would they when their commission is only 3%). And with your logic someone would have to bring their child to spar every time they wanted to buy their child a ticket.

If you have a paper prepaid student ticket and "forgot" to have your travel cardon you in person. They send you the generic fine letter in the post. You just go Dublin bus HQ with your travel card and the fine is cancelled.

Personally I think the travel card is a scam. It's €15(when you include the photo fee) for a plastic card, that you must renew every year. Most college IDs are valid for your whole course. There is no reason why you can't get a travel card valid for your whole course duration. A TCD student card is €6 to replace when lost. When is a travel card €15 other than to make money off it and you have no choice but to buy it.

I posted that a year ago and no longer live in Dublin, but I can name three shops where I was asked for the Travelcard before they'd sell me the weekly/monthly Luas ticket. You also have to write the number of your Travelcard onto the ticket and you get a €45 fine if an inspector catches you without it - I know people who have been fined because of it.

Originally the whole point of the Travelcard was to enable you to buy student tickets (I know it's stupid and something of a moneygrab btw, but that's what it's for). When I first started college, the Travelcard wasn't a Leap card too, its sole purpose was just to accompany the paper tickets.

Victor

hfallada wrote: »

Shops couldn't careless when selling bus tickets to anyone ( why would they when their commission is only 3%). And with your logic someone would have to bring their child to spar every time they wanted to buy their child a ticket.

If you have a paper prepaid student ticket and "forgot" to have your travel cardon you in person. They send you the generic fine letter in the post. You just go Dublin bus HQ with your travel card and the fine is cancelled.

A lot of the 'paper' tickets are gone - they are all on Leap card now.

Personally I think the travel card is a scam. It's €15(when you include the photo fee) for a plastic card, that you must renew every year.

Do you want the discount or not?

Most college IDs are valid for your whole course.

Some are, some aren't.

There is no reason why you can't get a travel card valid for your whole course duration.

Some people drop out mid-course.

[/QUOTE]A TCD student card is €6 to replace when lost. When is a travel card €15 other than to make money off it and you have no choice but to buy it.[/QUOTE]A reissue cost is rarely the same as a first issue cost.

Taco Chips

It's not a total rip off but €15 is steep to be honest for what you get. And its €15 every single year regardless of whether its new or reissue. Bit of a racket. And the student savings aren't all that amazing either. I suppose the daily/weekly cap is good but the cost of transport is still quite high factoring all that in.

hfallada

Victor wrote: »

A lot of the 'paper' tickets are gone - they are all on Leap card now.

Do you want the discount or not?

Some are, some aren't.

Some people drop out mid-course.

Yeah but the discount is severely eroded with having to pay €15 for the travel card. If you live within Dublin, it's still cheaper to get the €1,95 leap card fare than pay for the €20 ticket for the week. Where as elsewhere in Europe would have a city with different zones, meaning the ticket discount would be more significant.

Drop our rates are quite small compared to amount of people that go into university and a significant majority that "drop out" just transfer to another course. You can hardly justify making a student pay €60 for 4 years of travrlcards because some drop out,when most universities issue 4 year student cards.

Munich gives out free travel cards to it's students. Irish transport is a rip off to young people. OAPs get it for free ( don't know elsewhere in Europe that it happens) and students get a poor 20% discount off tickets (50% in most of Europe). It's hard to justify saying student travel is good value in Ireland. Especially when tax paying adults can get a tax saver ticket, eroding the saving between student and adult tickets