Blue Light Card Discounts

If you work, volunteer, or are retired from the emergency services, NHS, social care sector or armed forces, then some fantastic Blue Light Card discounts await! Find out everything you need to know right here…

Ever heard of the Blue Light Card? It’s the single most amazing discount card in the UK. If you are eligible for one, you’ll find its value trounces all other cashback and loyalty cards, with exclusive discounts at thousands of online and high street retailers, service providers, restaurants, and more.

In this article, we examine the unrivalled benefits of the Blue Light Card. We look at eligibility for the Blue Light Card, and we take a peek at some of the incredible discounts available.

What Is the Blue Light Card?

The Blue Light Card is an exclusive discount card, reserved for a list of very special workers in the UK. The name is a bit of a giveaway – you’ll be eligible if you belong to a list of specific keyworkers in the UK. We look at this list in more detail later in the article.

The card is available as a physical card and in a virtual format that you can store on your mobile phone, and costs only £4.99 for a two-year membership.

Where Can You Use a Blue Light Card?

Visit the Blue Light Card website, and you’ll get a taste for the types of outlets in which you can use your Blue Light Card. However, you won’t get the full list unless you register for the discount card. It’s as if the discounts are that good, they don’t want the general public to know about them!

So, here are the basics first:

• The Blue Light Card is accepted in more than 15,000 national and local retailers.
• You can use it instore or online.
• You’ll save money on anything from groceries to days out, to holidays, fashion, gifts, mobile phones, insurance, and more.
• Discounts can be as high as 50%. Yes, you read that right. 50%!

Here’s a list of a few of the most popular Blue Light partners:

Blue Light Card  ─ Making Your Whole Life Cheaper

There are so many discounts that you’ll find it hard not to save money on almost anything you need or wish to buy. From major brands to boutique shops, you’ll be hard pushed to walk down any high street without receiving money-saving prices.

The discounts aren’t limited to retail stores, either. As well as being able to use your discount online, you’ll also find that you will save money at restaurants, days out at theme parks, holiday bookings, mobile phone contracts, and insurances.

Let’s look at a few of the Blue Light discount partners you could save money with.

Weekly Shopping

As a Blue Light Card holder, you can wave goodbye to rocketing food prices. Most supermarket chains will accept the Blue Light Card, though the discounts do vary.

Some discounts are given as a cash discount upon checkout online or when you pay instore. You can also buy discounted gift cards from retailers like Argos, Marks & Spencer, and Tesco.

Supermarket chains and grocery stores that partner with Blue Light include:

• Bargain Foods
• Co-op
• Iceland
• Marks & Spencer
• Sainsbury’s

Clothes and Fashion

Want to look your best without breaking the bank? Whip out your Blue Light Card at any of the following stores:

Health and Beauty Savings

Look great for less! From head to toe, your body will thank you for all the discounts you get on all the things that matter most for your health. Here is a small selection of health and beauty discounts available to you:

Home and Garden

As well as ourselves, we also love our homes and gardens to look good, don’t we? When you have guests round for a takeaway treat (paid for with your Blue Light discount, of course), it’s great to sit and relax with a cheeky bottle of wine (thanks to your discount from Naked Wines) in beautiful surroundings.

Achieve home style you want for less with discounts from retailers that include:

Electrical Goods and Mobile Phones

Despite the soaring price of electricity, we can’t get enough of our electrical products. Whether it’s the latest iPhone, a state-of-the-art laptop, or the latest craze for airfryers (Mrs B and I have just invested in our first), our lives are packed with electrical products.

Here are a few of the stores and online outlets where your Blue Light Card discounts could shock you:

Mobile phone users aren’t ignored, either. Ring up discounts of up to 25% at:

• O2
• EE
• Virgin Mobile
• And more

Discounts for Motorists

From discounts on fuel to money-off deals on new cars, you could save hundreds of pounds each year as a motorist. Drive away with a new car with 10% off. Save money on everyday car purchases. Slash your fuel costs.

As a motorist and a Blue Light Card holder, you can take advantage of great deals and discounts at the following retailers among others:

Restaurants, Food, and Drink

Who doesn’t like an occasional culinary treat? When you’re shopping with kids on a busy Saturday morning, what better way to unwind than a light lunch before you head home? After a busy day, isn’t it refreshing to pop into a country pub for a swift shandy?

With a Blue Light Card, these special moments in life don’t have to leave your bank account on life support. Here are just a few of the places where discounts will apply:

Holidays and Days Out

Whether it’s a short getaway or your family’s annual holiday, the more you can save the better time you’ll have. All the following companies offer fantastic money-saving deals to Blue Light Card holders – meaning you have more cash in your pocket to create lifelong memories:

For wild days out, you’ll find discounted tickets available with some of the UK’s major theme parks and tourist attractions, including:

I remember when a trip to the cinema only cost a few quid. Now it seems to cost an arm and a leg. But not if you hold a Blue Light Card. Save money on tickets and snacks at:

Discounts for Pet Owners

Is your household one of the 57% of UK households that own a pet? Whether you own a dog or cat, an exotic pet, or a hamster, you’ll want the best you can afford for your pet.

With the Blue Light Card, you can afford a little better for your beloved companion. Specialty retailers that offer discounts to pet owners include:

Other Ways to Squeeze Value from Your Blue Light Card

As a Blue Light Card holder, you don’t only get access to draw-dropping discounts. There are other ways to take advantage of your membership. Here are three you’ll love.

Blue Light Tickets

The list of discounts is by no means exhausted yet. If you love to attend live events, your Blue Light Card could help you get to watch your favourite sports team or artist for free.

The Blue Light Tickets site offers ballots and first-come-first-served ticketing. All you need to do is sign up via your Blue Light Card to take part.

Imagine scoring tickets from a free-to-enter draw, and attending music, comedy, theatre, or sports events with no cash outlay needed.

This is a site to watch fervently. As you can imagine, competition is strong, and tickets are limited. You’ll need to be quick to strike gold.

Member Days

Blue Light also runs ‘Members Days’ at several major theme parks across the UK. These may be for a single day, or last a whole weekend. These events are usually booked up quickly after the heavily discounted tickets go on sale at the end of January. Again, you’ll need to be quick.

To give you a flavour of what’s on offer each year, here are the dates and locations for 2023’s Members’ Days:

• Alton Towers ─ 11^th and 12^th of March
• Chessington World of Adventures ─ 18^th of March
• Legoland Windsor ─ 11^th of March; 11^th and 26^th of November
• Thorpe Park ─ 18^th of March; 4^th and 5^th of November
• Warwick Castle ─ 8^th October

These events offer incredible value, especially for families. (Even better than the up to 50% discounts available on tickets to these parks as a Blue Light Card holder.) On these days, many of the parks provide free parking and discounted food, drink, and shopping on the premises.

Competitions and Giveaways

You’ll also find regular giveaways and competitions to take part in. These are usually publicised on Blue Light Card’s social media accounts. Visit them as part of your weekly schedule to keep abreast of all that Blue Light has to offer – Tuesdays and Thursdays is when you can enter live competitions.

At the time of researching and writing this review, here are a few of the most recent competitions and freebies available:

• 15 pairs of tickets for All Elite Wrestling at Wembley Stadium
• Win an exclusive beauty bundle worth more than £300 from Elizabeth Arden
• A hot air balloon trip to be won
• Win a £100 Amazon gift card

The Best Blue Light Discounts

It is hard to beat any of the discounts available as a member of Blue Light. But some of the discounts are almost unbelievable. So, we thought we’d highlight a few of them here, so that you know what you’re missing.

(Remember, many of the discounts available will change over time. They may expire, alter, or be replaced by an even better deal!):

• O2 – Discounts up to 25%
• Argos ─ Buy Argos vouchers to receive between 4% and 8% discounts
• Asda – A 10% discount awaits you, in the form of cashback applied to your Asda Rewards App
• Burger King – 20% off your bill
• Clarks – 20% off full-price footwear
• Domino’s Pizza – 50% off
• EE – discounts of up to 20%
• Esso – get a free Esso Card for discounted fuel
• Go Compare – an Amazon gift card worth up to £30
• Halfords – Half-price MOTs and 7% off instore purchases
• New Look – 15% of full-price items
• Nuffield Health – 30% off monthly subscriptions
• Rhino Home Protect – 10% off homebuyers’ protection insurance
• Sky – Sky Q and Superfast Broadband for £30 per month
• TGI Fridays – 20% off
• Virgin Atlantic ─ £60 off flights
• Vodafone – Discount of up to 25%
• Warmzilla ─ £100 off a new boiler
• Wilko – Up to £15 off online shopping

Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Better – Seasonal Specials

As if the range of discounts, Blue Light Tickets, giveaways, and competitions wasn’t broad enough, along come the next great deals from Blue Light – seasonal specials!

Christmas is the biggie, of course, and you won’t be disappointed. Christmas offers are usually published early in October. Last year, they released 30 bumper Christmas offers from some amazing retailers. These included:

• 10% off when shopping for the kids at shopDisney, JoJo Maman Bébé, The Entertainer, and My 1^st Years
• 20% off at The Body Shop, GHD, and Beauty Bay
• 15% off Converse, and Cath Kidson
• 20% off online and instore purchases at New Look
• 20% off at Goldsmiths
• 30% off at Abbott Lyon
• 20% off Virgin Experience Days

£4.99 for a two-year membership with Blue Light? You’ll smash through that value with only a couple of Christmas gift purchases!

Nestled between Halloween and Christmas is Black Friday when sales prices couldn’t get any better. Or could they? The answer is a very loud ‘yes’ if you have a Blue Light Card.

Only a month before Christmas, these Black Friday deals will help you save even more money and your gifts be even more looked forward to. A few of the Black Friday specials in 2022 included:

• Hotpoint – an extra 30% off Black Friday prices
• Lovehoney – an extra 20% off Black Friday prices
• Ninja Kitchen – an extra 10% off Black Friday prices
• River Island – an extra 20% off Black Friday prices
• Virgin Experience Days – an extra 20% off Black Friday prices

How Do You Claim Your Blue Light Discounts?

One of the bugbears of the Blue Light Card is that there are so many ways in which to claim your discounts:

• In some stores, you can simply show your card to have discounts applied on the spot.
• Other times, you’ll need to buy a gift card or voucher from the Blue Light website to use instore – and you may need to wait a few days for these to be posted to you.
• If you have gift cards from Blue Light, you can top them up on the site, but this may also take a couple of days to activate – so shopping trips need to be planned.
• When shopping online, your physical card isn’t going to cut it. Usually, you’ll need to get a unique discount code from Blue Light to use on a retailer’s eCommerce site.
• Similarly, some restaurants may ask for a discount code.

In short, you’ll need to make sure you use the right method, and have the correct vouchers or codes when you go shopping for Blue Light Discounts. This means a little bit of work on the Blue Light website before you go shopping. But boy, is that effort worth it!

Are You Eligible for a Blue Light Card?

Unsurprisingly, a membership card this good is not available to everyone. This card is designed to give certain workers (and, in some cases, retirees) a little thanks for their service. The clue as to who is in the name, though it’s not only for blue light workers.

Below are the organisations that are covered for Blue Light Card eligiblity:

Paid Employee

Volunteer

Retiree

• Armed Forces
• Police
• Fire Service
• NHS

Discounts while you work, and throughout your retirement. An incredible gift to those who serve.

How Much Does the Blue Light Card Save Its Members?

It’s not rocket science to understand that the Blue Light Card is popular. But how popular is it, and how much does it really save its members?

Here’s a few numbers from the Blue Light website for 2022:

• Blue Light Card membership increased from 2.39 million to 3 million during the year
• Members saved over £250 million
• More than 100,000 free event tickets were given away to Blue Light Card members
• More than 50,000 tickets were sold for Member Days

What do these numbers really mean? The average Blue Light Card member saves around £100 per year because of their membership. Around £200 over two years – a terrific return for a £4.99 investment.

How to Maximise the Savings Potential of Your Blue Light Card

What makes this card so special is its exclusivity and the savings you can make. Anyone can sign up to the best cashback apps or carry a Tesco Clubcard, but eligibility for the Blue Light Card is strictly limited to certain occupations.

However, we think that the average savings per year of around £100 could be much higher. You see, like all discount, cashback, and loyalty cards, the savings you can make all depend on how you use them.

Remember, too, that the average savings number will be masking many far higher savings.

Here are our top 12 tips to make the most out of your Blue Light Card.

1. Know Which Retailers Participate

Not all retailers participate in the Blue Light discounting scheme. However, there are lists of retailers and other organisations which accept the card on the Blue Light website.

You’ll see these when you log into your membership account. Make sure you familiarise yourself with this list.

2. Always Carry Your Card With You

Always keep your Blue Light Card in your wallet or purse. You never know when you might come across a participating retailer.

3. Always Ask Instore

One thing you’ll find is that, even if you know the list of participating retailers by heart (and if you do, you’re a memory genius – there are so many of them!), not all are on the website lists.

Partly, this is because more organisations are being added every week and it’s a challenge to update the website.

Therefore, a golden rule is to always ask instore. You may also find that some smaller or local shops may offer a discount even if they aren’t officially affiliated to Blue Light.

4. Check for Online Discounts

Some retailers may offer online discounts to cardholders. Before making an online purchase, check if there’s a Blue Light Card discount code available.

5. Review Offers Every Week

The deals available aren’t static. They are constantly changing and updating. New offers – maybe for trial periods or as specials – can be added any day.

Stay on top of the latest deals and partnership changes by making it a habit to check the Blue Light website and social media accounts at least once a week, and more often of possible.

6. Don’t Allow Offers to Expire on You

Some of the discounts may be time-limited, or carry certain conditions. Always read the terms and conditions and use your discounts before they expire.

7. Combine Discounts

Some retailers let you double up on discounts, by using their own loyalty schemes and sales prices as well as the Blue Light Card.

That outfit you desire in the sale. It’s a bargain with 30% off. Add in your 20% Blue Light discount, and you really are ‘quids in’. (Remember Tip 3, to always ask instore.)

8. Do Your Maths When Buying Big Ticket Items

The prices on popular holiday booking sites may not be as good as you can get. Before pressing the ‘Book now’ button, do your maths.

For example, if holiday company A is offering family accommodation for £1,000, and holiday company B is charging £1,100 for the same accommodation, check for a Blue Light Discount on both.

It could be that company B could work out cheaper by applying a Blue Light discount.

This logic goes for other items as well – TVs, mobile phones, laptops, days out, gifts, and even buying a new car.

9. Enter the Competitions and Ballots

You’ve got to be in it to win it. If you don’t buy a ticket, you won’t win a prize. The online competitions and ticket-giveaway ballots are easy to enter. It only takes a few seconds on Blue Light’s social media accounts.

Keep an eye on them. And get entering!

10. Sign Up for Notifications

Receiving automated notifications into your inbox or through the app will help you to stay one step ahead in the discount game and avoid missing a great offer – though you should still surf the Blue Light website and social media as we recommend in tip 5 above.

11. Plan Special Occasion Shopping

With so many seasonal offers available, start planning your Christmas shopping early. Review the Blue Light offers, and make the most of them.

The same applies when buying any gifts ─ birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and other special occasions. Always scour the Blue Light deals before purchasing presents.

12. Use It Wisely

Remember, just because there’s a discount doesn’t mean it’s always the best price or that you necessarily need the item. It’s still important to shop sensibly and compare prices.

How Do You Apply for the Blue Light Card?

It’s easy to apply for the Blue Light Card. You can become a member by applying online. You’ll need to provide these few pieces of information:

• Name
• Email address
• Employer’s information
• Job role
• County

You’ll need to create a password for your account, too.

Once this information is accepted, you’ll be asked for your address to receive a physical Blue Light Card. Shortly after, you’ll be advised that your eligibility has been confirmed and you’ll receive you card in the post. (Don’t forget, you can also have a virtual card on your mobile phone.)

The Bottom Line

The Blue Light Card is an amazing innovation, and the perfect way to say thank you to people who put their lives on the line to make the UK a safer and greater place to live. If you are an employee or ex-employee of any of the public services that make you eligible for a Blue Light Card, you should apply for membership.

The savings, special offers, and freebies available through Blue Light are not only tremendous, but can also make a big difference to your finances. The trick to make this happen is to follow our tips to maximise your Blue Light savings and use your card to its full advantage.

You do so much for the nation, you deserve a little more in return. The Blue Light Card is one way to reap the rewards of your dedicated service.