Weinberg freshman Laura Peregrim gets a discount when she eats at her favorite restaurants.

All she has to do is hand over her WildCARD.

“Because I am a poor college student, I need all the help I can get,” she said.

What many students fail to realize is that such help comes in other forms as well. The Student Savings Club offers card owners discounts similar to those given to WildCARD holders. Businesses and students say few at Northwestern take advantage of the outside program.

The Student Savings Club is a Chicago-based company that offers discount programs at about 200 schools nationwide, including 18 in the Chicagoland area. The cards are distributed for free to students at locations around campus and offer discounts at more than 20 local and national businesses.

The company provided 6,000 cards to the Associated Student Government, which placed them around campus. Students can also print a guide of all the coupons offered from the club’s Web site – www.studentsavingsclub.com.

“The response that I’ve been getting from the students has been very positive,” said Lisa Dean, senior programs manager for the Student Savings Club. “We’ve had great success. We were really pleased with the efforts of the ASG.”

Participating businesses are selected with the help of ASG. They pay a fee to have their names on the card, and students are never charged a cent.

“Northwestern has been an important school for us,” said Pat Moriarty, Student Savings Club founder. “When we go to (Evanston) businesses, they don’t see much action from the (WildCARD). That allows us to come in and continue to do our program.”

“Classically, it has been mostly local, but we are developing a national presence so that students can save money by the mere fact that they are students,” Moriarty said.

Hassib Blan, owner of Olive Mountain, 610 Davis St., has never seen anyone use the Student Savings Club card at his restaurant.

Olive Mountain is also a member of the WildCARD program, and Blan estimated his restaurant issues between three to five WildCARD discounts a day.

“We’ve been with Northwestern for a long, long time,” he said. “But as for this Student Savings Club, I haven’t seen any yet. Maybe because (students) have the WildCARD. I’m not sure.”

Marisa DiLemme, a Weinberg freshman, uses her WildCARD at the dry cleaners and the Hallmark store. She doesn’t see much use for another card program.

“Instead of making the new card, they should focus on getting more places to offer the WildCARD Advantage,” she said. “(The Student Savings card will be) just another card to carry around in your wallet, and you’ll probably just lose it.”

More than 200 establishments – from local eateries to national Web sites – participate in the WildCARD Advantage program. But even though all NU students have WildCARDs, which double as student IDs, some students say knowing which stores accept the card can be a guessing game.

“You don’t know if they have a discount unless you find that tiny little sign somewhere on the window,” Peregrim said.

As the Student Savings Club continues to grow, Moriarty said there’s always room for more discounts.

“Our thinking is, the more ways students can save money, the better,” he said. “As long as it’s free to the students, everybody gains.”

Reach Matt Presser at [email protected].