Student and pensioner cards: How useful are they really?

In November 2023 student card was presented as a revolutionary idea. Minister of Finance Sinish Mali he announced then that every student will have the right to his own card with which he will be able to obtain various benefits. The card will also be paid for, and everyone who applies for it will receive 1.000 dinars as a gift from Poštanska Štedionica.

One year later: what happened to the revolutionary student card? How useful is it to students?

Most of the students with whom "Vreme" spoke say that they have a student card, but that the decision to apply for it was not in their hands. Namely, since the last school year, along with the introduction of the student card, it was decided that all student loans and student scholarships paid by the Ministry of Education will be paid to an account in the Poštanska štedionica bank that is opened - by applying for a student card.

Therefore, all recipients of student loans and scholarships, in order to be paid, were obliged to apply for student cards. Lazar (22), a student of the Orthodox Faculty of Theology, tells "Vreme" that he uses the student card exclusively to take out a student loan.

"I had no need to use it"

Some of the students, on the other hand, are not beneficiaries of either the scholarship or the loan, but they still took the student cards. One of them is Aleksandra, a student at the Faculty of Political Sciences. However, she adds that she never uses the card.

"The card does not have any great advantages, in certain situations it is more worthwhile for me to use other types of discounts or payments, so until now I have not had the need to use it." Although I have a card, it has not significantly affected my daily life," says Aleksandra (22) for "Vreme".

Some of the discounts that can be obtained by using the student card, Minister Mali boasted last year, are: 10 percent discount on airline tickets of the company "Air Serbia"; 20 percent discount for students for "Srbijavoza" train tickets; "Roads of Serbia" approved a two percent discount on tolls, and "Cineplexx" a 15 percent discount for cinema tickets.

While students may benefit from these discounts, you should pay attention to other discounts for train tickets and tolls - and how profitable they compare to them in general.

As for the train, "Srbijavoz" issues its own personalized "SRB PLUS" discount cards with a one-time payment of 400 dinars (for those under 26). With this card, the user gets a 30 percent discount, which, despite the one-time payment of 400 dinars for making the card, is much more profitable in the long run than the 20 percent discount provided by the student card.

As for the two percent discount on the toll, for those students who have cars, the vocabulary is as follows: the toll from Niš to Belgrade is 1.130 dinars for vehicles of the first category, and the new price, with a two percent discount, is 1.107 dinars. So, from Belgrade to Niš - a saving of 23 dinars. If a student wanted to travel by car from the very south to the very north of Serbia, with a student card he would have to pay 2.450 dinars for the toll from Vranje to Subotica, which is 50 dinars less than the regular price.

Therefore, although the student card brings certain benefits, it is certainly not "revolutionary". Most students already have EYCA and ISIC universal student cards with which discounts can be obtained throughout Europe, and which are also necessary to use the services of student canteens and dormitories.

Pensioner cards

Before the students, it was the pensioners' turn. This October, one year has passed since the publication of the first ones pensioner cards, which have also been announced as a very significant benefit that will help the oldest citizens cope with the rising cost of living.

For example, every Wednesday, for months, all pensioners with pensioner cards get a 12 percent discount in Roda, Mercator and Idea organic supermarkets, according to the website of the PIO fund.

Given the impression that prices in markets are increasing day by day, any discount is not out of the question. However, how useful is this type of relief for pensioners?

In the continuation of the announcement of the PIO Fund, it is written - the discount is not valid for excise, sale, items with a final price, items discounted with the Super Card for Super Card users, fresh meat, tobacco products, daily newspapers and magazines, technology and small household appliances.

What, then, does the pensioner card refer to? There, primarily - with the exception of fresh meat - all food products, as well as chemical products. Since food is more expensive every month, this type of relief is not out of the question either.

However, if one opens the catalog of one of these supermarkets, it becomes obvious that the 12 percent discount is of little importance.

There are also bigger discounts.

As an example, you can take the catalog "Naj naj delicates", which contains products from the Roda and Idea markets, which are on sale from October 25 to November 24.

It has a wide variety of cheeses and other dairy products, cured meats and smoked products - all at a discount ranging from 15 to 50 percent. So much bigger discounts than pensioners are offered every Wednesday of the month. Since the discount with the pensioner's card is not valid for already discounted products, it cannot be combined with products on sale. Of course, for products that are not discounted, pensioners can take advantage of the discount provided by the pensioner's card.

Pensioner Borka (70) from Belgrade tells "Vreme" that she does not have a pension card, but her husband does. But he never uses it, and no one has ever asked him about it.

In addition to discounts in markets, pensioners are also provided with numerous other discounts in the fields of tourism, pharmacy services, sports and recreation, insurance, banking services, cultural institutions...

However, most of these services are limited to larger cities, so pensioners from villages and smaller towns do not have many options for obtaining more favorable prices.

Ratomir (81) from the Zlatibor village of Šljivovica tells "Vreme" that he has never used his pension card.

"Whatever I grab at the store - it's not subject to a discount." First of all, meat. "I have never used the card because there is never anything I need on the discount," says this pensioner.

How many users are there?

Nevertheless, despite all the shortcomings of the pension card, the acting director of the Republic Fund for Pension and Health Insurance, Relja Ognjenović, believes that "the project has justified its purpose."

In May of this year, he announced that over 1,12 million users had applied for a pensioner card, that 98 percent of the cards had been created, and that over 80 percent had been downloaded and are being used every day.

It is in Serbia in the 2023/2024 school year. around 250.000 students were enrolled in 110.000, according to the data of the Republic Institute of Statistics. About XNUMX students applied for a student card by the beginning of this year, according to data from the Ministry of Finance. It is possible that this number will increase further this school year, due to the payment of new student scholarships and loans.