Where can I use my Blue Light Card? Discounts list 2024

A Blue Light Card unlocks exclusive discounts for the NHS, emergency services, social care sector, and armed forces, as well as other workers. Here’s where you can get your Blue Light Card discounts.

With a Blue Light Card, you can get money off your supermarket food bill, shops online and in store, and restaurants, as well as access free tickets to major events all over the country.

The discounts aren’t for the general public but have been specially set up for emergency services, NHS staff, social care workers, and many other qualifying workers.

You can’t see a list of discounts before you sign up, but we share a selection of the Blue Light Card discount list so you can decide if it’s worth it for you.

Where can I use my Blue Light Card?

You can get access to discounts with more than 15,000 local and national retailers and businesses in the UK.

Blue Light Card holders can save money on holidays, cars, days out, fashion, gifts, insurance, phones – there is something for everyone!

More small and large companies and local businesses are added daily.

Some of their more popular top deals are from major brands:

And, if you’re planning to book a staycation, check out which is the best Haven park here.

Some discounts can be as low as 2% with Apple (although that works out as a significant saving as they sell more expensive items), with up to 50% off if you eat out at certain restaurants.

Teaching staff can now access the discounts

Staff who work in schools, including below, can now sign up for a Blue Light Card:

• State Early Years and Primary Schools
• State Secondary Schools and 6th Form Colleges
• Special Schools, Vocational Schools, Referral Units, and Centrally Employed

So many people are trying to apply, so it’s crashing the website! But, keep trying or wait for a day or so for things to calm down.

Blue Light Card discounts list

Who accepts Blue Light Card? Here is a summary of other companies where the Blue Light Card works.

Restaurants and eating out

Can I use my Blue Light Card in supermarkets?

Not all supermarkets accept the Blue Light Card for discounts on your shopping.

At Asda, you used to get a direct discount when showing your ID and BLC card at the checkout, but now it’s linked with the Asda Reward app.

Scan your loyalty app when you pay, and you’ll now get 5% off selected fresh foods. However, this is paid into the app’s Cashpot.

However, to save if you’re going to be shopping anyway, you could buy a discounted gift card through Blue Light Card to use in Tesco, Asda or others.

(Morrisons used to offer 10% off in store, but it ended in January 2022).

Other food and drinks

Fashion, shoes and accessories

Home and garden

Electrical and phones

Motoring

Health and beauty

Holidays, cinemas and days out

Latest discounts and increased offers

Latest deals and increased offers currently available include:

(Check the site to ensure the offer is still live)

Latest discounts

It’s coming up to the half term break, and there are plenty of offers to enjoy a breakaway or make some memories with the family.

You can get discounts with:

Experiences

• Sea Life Centres
• Savings at Cinemas including Odean, Cineworld and Vue
• 35% off at iFly indoor skydiving centres
• Madame Tussauds

Food and drink

• Stonehouse Pizza (Monday to Friday) – 20% off your food bill
• Pizza Hut – 25% off
• Prezzo – 25% off food plus a free dessert with every main
• Zizzi – 30% off (Sunday to Thursday)
• Ask Italian – 20% off (Sunday to Thursday)
• Toby Carvery – 20% off (Monday to Friday)
• Greene King – 20% off your food bill
• Starbucks – 10% off
• Tim Hortons – 10% off

Sun and beach

• Booking.com
• Canvas Holidays
• Easyjet
• Eurocamp
• Expedia
• Holiday Hypermarket
• Hotels.com
• Jet2 Holidays
• Lastminute.com
• Loveholidays
• Top Villas
• Walt Disney Resorts

UK stays

• Away Resorts
• Butlins
• Forest Holidays
• Haven
• Holiday Extras
• Hoseasons
• Luxury Coastal
• Park Leisure
• Parkdean Resorts
• Spa Breaks

Hotels

• AirB&B
• Hard Rock Hotel
• Holiday Extras
• IHG Hotels
• Roomzz
• Thistle Hotels
• Village Hotels

Ski breaks

• Helly Hansen
• Mountain Warehouse
• Osprey
• Roxy
• Snow & Rock
• Sunweb

Cruises

• DFDS
• Disney Cruises
• Fred Olsen
• Royal Caribbean

Holiday extras

• American Tourister
• APH Parking
• Enterprise
• Europcar
• Hoppa
• Just Travel Cover
• National Express
• Purple Parking
• RAC
• Viator
• Wightlink

How much does a Blue Light Card cost?

The Blue Light Cards are not free, although they don’t cost a lot for the value you get back.

You pay just £4.99, which gives you access to a two year membership.

Who can apply for a Blue Light discount card?

The Blue Light Card is not available to everyone in the UK.

You qualify if you are a paid member of staff from certain emergency services, NHS or armed forces backgrounds or if you volunteer or have retired.

Although it’s called “blue light”, it’s not just for first responders or essential workers who work in the emergency services.

Here is a list of people who can get a Blue Light Card:

Paid staff member

• NHS
• Police Service
• Ambulance Service
• Fire Service 
• HM Prison Service/HMPPS
• NHS Dental Practice
• HM Armed Forces
• MoD Civil Servant
• MoD Fire Service
• MoD Police 
• Highway Traffic Officers
• Home Office – Border Force
• Home Office – Immigration Enforcement
• Home Office – UK Visas and Immigration
• Social Care – Care Company Workforce
• Social Care – Social Worker
• Social Care – Care Home
• Social Care – Residential Care
• Social Care – Council (Working in Care Sector)
• Pharmacy Workers
• NEW! Teaching staff including:
  • State Early Years and Primary Schools
  • State Secondary Schools and 6th Form Colleges
  • Special Schools, Vocational Schools, Referral Units, and Centrally Employed

Volunteer

If you volunteer in the following first aid or rescue volunteer services, you can generally apply with your ID card.

• HM Coastguard
• RNLI
• Search and Rescue
• 4×4 Response
• Blood Bikes
• St Andrews Ambulance
• St John Ambulance

Retired

If you have retired from one of the following roles, you can also apply for the card:

• Armed Forces Veterans
• Retired Police Officers
• Retired Firefighters
• Retired NHS

Other eligibility options

If you still don’t qualify, it could be that you can get access to the Defence Discount Service, the Defence Privilege Card.

This membership card offers top discounts in the same way to emergency workers, but specifically for Veterans and the Armed Forces Community.

• Serving Armed Forces 
• Reserve Forces 
• Spouses/Partners of serving personnel 
• HM Armed Forces Veterans (ex-serving) 
• MoD Civil Servants 
• Bereaved Family Members 
• War/Service Widow(er)s 
• Cadet Forces (over 16) 
• NATO Personnel in the UK

Blue Light Card discount FAQs

Can you get an NHS discount at Nando’s?

Nando’s do not accept the Blue Light Card.

However, they offer their own 20% discount on orders up to £20 (so a max £4 off) for collected and eat in orders.

You must show ID with the official Police, Fire, Ambulance Service, or Military logo (they won’t accept the BLC as proof of identity). 

Can you use Blue Light Card at Tesco?

There is no discount currently offered by Tesco for a Blue Light card holder.

Does Sainsburys accept Blue Light Card?

You cannot get a discount for card members in Sainsbury’s.

Can you use Blue Light Card at Asda?

Asda does not offer reductions off your food bill to card members.

Can you use Blue Light Card at Iceland?

There is no current discount ay Iceland for Blue Light Card members.

However, they do run a 10% offer at certain times of the year, so keep a look out.

Does B&M accept the Blue Light Card?

No, B&M doesn’t offer a discount service to card holders.

Does Aldi give NHS discount?

Aldi doesn’t give an NHS discount.

However, they will accept the card as proof of employment for priority shopping times.

Can I use my Blue Light Card at McDonald’s?

McDonald’s restaurants are run as a franchise.

While there is no nationwide discount, many individual restaurants offer a discount, so check locally.

Domino’s NHS discount – get 50% off everytime

Can I use my Blue Light Card at London Zoo?

London Zoo does not accept the Blue Light Card for discounted tickets. However, there are other offers, including London Zoo tickets 2 for 1 or Universal Credit days out.

Blue Light Tickets

As a Blue Light Card account member, venues around the country offer free tickets to events.

You can pick from sports events, attractions, festivals, gigs, theatre, comedy and more.

There’s no guarantee you’ll get them, but you can put your name (and the number of tickets you want) into a ballot.

You need to sign up on the Blue Light Tickets site.

Blue Light Service Days

As an extra special way to say thank you to essential workers, first responders, NHS, emergency services, social care workers etc, major theme parks hold exclusive Service Days.

This allows Blue Light Card Holders and their families access to special weekend events in theme parks that are closed to the general public.

Tickets are usually in the autumn and are heavily discounted.

They can be for places like Bear Grylls Experience, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures Resort, Legoland Resort Windsor, and Alton Towers.

Discounted gift cards

While many deals allow you to show your physical or virtual card when shopping in a store, a lot of retailers offer discount gift cards instead.

There is a range of high-street brands where you can get discounted gift cards, such as Argos, B&Q, Currys, IKEA, Just Eat, M&S, Primark, Tesco, and more.

Can you get an IKEA NHS discount?

The discounts can change from time to time, depending on special promotions.

They can be great for Christmas shopping.

You can also use the discounted gift cards at the same time as cashback sites or apps like Airtime Rewards to stack the deals.

You order the bargain and discount cards through the Blue Light Card Voucher shop website starting from £10.

Discounts include 5% off at Asda on fresh food, and discounts at Tesco, Morrisons, Iceland, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, B&M and Uber Eats.

Some retailers offer physical gift cards that are sent in the post, but many offer online discount vouchers or virtual cards sent via email.

You then need to discount code when shopping online at the checkout.

Chrome extension

It’s easy to start shopping online, then just head to the basket and checkout. But, did you forget to check if you should have had a discount?

Instead of going back and forth with their app to check for money off, you can use the BLC Chrome extension, and it’ll alert you if you’re due a discount.

You can install it here, and a pop-up will show if you can apply a discount.

This only works on Chrome desktop (not Firefox, Safari etc).

Blue Light Card Collar – pet discounts

Launched in April 2021, the Blue Light Collar was a way to get your furry friends a discount.

…it was an April Fool’s :)

They gave away 80 collars on social media to tie in with National Pet Month.

Your dog could apply for a special membership of “Service Dog”!

I’m not sure if they will run the promotion again, although there are still a huge range of pet-friendly best discounts.

Blue Light Card website and app

The Blue Light Card site is easy to find membership offers or buy a cheap gift card.

However, the Blue Light Card app is really useful when you’re out on the go.

You can use it in the same way as the site to shop for discounts online and on the high street.

There is also a virtual card to get money off (if you leave your physical card at home).

The app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Blue Light Cards giveaways

You don’t just get random updates when you follow BLC on social media.

They regularly share giveaways across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

The huge range of giveaways are just for Blue Light Cards holders, rather than everyone, so you’ve got a good chance of winning.