With an ISIC card, attending your favorite bands' concerts will become much more affordable
Many tried to pity poor wandering students, but feared missing the mark and pitying not students but simply poor wanderers, and so they did not pity. But then 50 years ago, the International Student Confederation came up with the ISIC card – a standardized student ID. Its holder should be recognized as a student anywhere in the world (specifically, in 90 countries) and immediately receive incredible benefits and discounts on everything.
In appearance, the ID pleasantly resembles a credit card, but with a photo. The "credit" design was chosen for purely practical reasons: so that the card could be used as a bank card, phone card, and library card. Since 1999, ISIC holders have free access to voicemail and fax services worldwide, and also have a free email account.
How does the mechanism of distributing ISIC cards work? Each newly issued card has a unique number. The number is linked to the ISIConnect telecommunications hub. A mother (girlfriend, boyfriend) missing a student can dial a special toll-free number, then the student's ID number, and leave a voice message or send a fax. The student can retrieve the message using any touch-tone phone, and the fax can be forwarded to any fax machine of their choice. Also, the cardholder receives a free email address and can retrieve messages sent to them by opening the Istc.org page on the Internet.
Another service useful for the absent-minded student is telesafe. This is a virtual safe where you can fax copies of passports or other important documents (airline tickets, traveler's checks). If documents are stolen or lost in a foreign country, copies can be retrieved by fax or email within minutes.
To use the ID as a phone card, you need to activate it by paying at least $20. This is done, however, using an ordinary credit card, so truly poor Ukrainian students will appreciate this benefit only with time. But they are already quite capable of appreciating such ISIC advantages as discounts on theater tickets, public transport, hotels, restaurants, shops, and museums.
The discount system with the ID is not standardized, so when planning a trip, it is worth checking what ISIC discounts the journey offers. For example, in France, students can use affordable student housing in universities from June to the end of September; in the USA, some chain hotels offer students discounts from 10 to 30 percent; in India, 50 percent discounts. The Canadian railway company Via Rails gives students a 40 percent discount on tickets; in the USA, with ISIC you can get a ten percent discount on all bus routes.
The ID comes with something like a reference guide; studying it, you can choose the most economical strategy in a given country and city. For example, in Krakow, a student can stay with a 10% discount at one of the hotels listed in the guide, go to the National Museum for half price, have a snack with the same 10% discount at the "Królewski" bar or at the "Pod Okie" café, and then also buy discounted tickets to a concert.
Another service for cardholders is access to an international free 24-hour "Help Service", where you can get advice from a doctor or lawyer, or simply find out the address of the nearest home consulate.