The Power of Your Student ID Card!

So first off, I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone for getting to into UCSD! I hope that the years you spend here are as great as mine have been so far! There’s a lot of things to consider as you get ready to enter UCSD, and I figured I’d tell you about the powers of your ID card! I know you all realize that your ID card serves as your form of identification at UCSD, but there’s other things that your ID card does that you might not realize!

One of the most convenient things you can use your ID card for is Triton Cash. Basically, Triton Cash is like carrying around cash or a credit card without actually having to do so. Not only is it accepted at most places on campus including dining halls and the restaurants in Price Center it is also accepted off campus at places such as Chipotle, Croutons, Islands, and Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza. One of the bonuses to using Triton Cash is you get 10% off when you use it to pay for your purchase at any Housing and Dining location. I love Triton Cash, because even if you forget your wallet, you can still buy things you need. For more information about Triton Cash or to add Triton Cash to your ID card, you can go to tritoncash.ucsd.edu.

Secondly, for anyone of you that will be living on campus, your meal points are contained on your ID card. Whenever you go to a dining hall, you simply hand over your ID card and they’ll swipe it. The meal points will be deducted automatically. If you ever happen to lose your ID card (and believe me it will probably happen! I’ve probably lost my ID card about 4 times since I’ve ben here!) you can get a temporary ID card so you’ll still be able to use your dining points! It costs $15 to replace your ID card if you can’t find it.

Finally, when using your ID at the UCSD Bookstore or Sunshine Market, you can charge things to something called student account. What happens is rather than paying for whatever you’re buying at the time, you just put it on student account and it gets billed to your monthly UCSD bill so you can pay for your tuition, housing, and those purchases all at one time. Student account is especially useful when buying textbooks from the bookstore. My favorite guilty use of student account is charging coffee at Perks, the bookstore located in the bookstore or buying food from Sunshine Market when I don’t have money or Triton Cash!

-Sireesha Mudunuri, Group 8