1)
What is EURO<26?
- EURO<26 is European youth card that is being issued since
1987. Basis of the card is made by group of the discounts
or different advantages that is provided by the card to the
cardholders, so to all young people younger than 27 years
that pay membership fee. In this way we effect to the standard
of the young (the discounts consist of all the areas that
could be interesting fir the young-transport, food, culture,
sports, fashion, clothes, even furniture).
In 1987 the Lisbon protocol was signed between the distributors
of 6 national youth cards with a goal to make a discount from
one country available to the users from all of the other 6
countries. This principle of reciprocity of the discounts
(benefactions) of the cards was used as a base to expand the
youth cards throughout Europe and creation of the new association-EYCA
(European Youth Card Association) that will deal with coordination
of these activities in Europe. Each new country, and it’s
organization (government, non-government or tourist agency)
interested to distribute EYCA cards at the beginning of work
signs the Lisbon protocol by witch they can provide the discounts
from other countries on their territory, but also their discounts
for the users from other countries.
By the beginning of 2003 this association had 60 members from
38 different European countries. Together they have about
4.200.000 users.
Since 1991 EYCA was linked to European council and European
parliament by special, partial agreement. This agreement is
a sign of an effort from the European council to motivate
mobility of the young people, and by that to help a creation
of so-called European awareness in youth population. Increased
movement of young people means that they will meat new cultures
and people and it’s a base for overcoming misunderstandings
and issues from the past. Therefore every organization-distributor
of EURO<26 has to organize seminars, summer schools and
other ways of socializing of youth from all over the Europe. 2) How does it look?
- There are a few types of cards:
a) CLASSIC EURO< 26 has a form as a credit card. The next
description is standardized for all countries:
On the right side is a sign of the EYCA (Hercules with the
stars)
In the middle there are the next data:
- Serial number (already printed)
- Date of expiration (365 days since the date of joining,
unless the user is turning 27 years, in that case the card
is valid until the day of the 27th birthday regardless to
the date of joining)
- Date of birth (important because of the previous)
- First and last name of the user
The dates are being written in the next order and form: DAY
(XX)/MONTH (YY)/YEAR (ZZ)
On a left side is a place for a photo of a user (size of an
personal ID)
On the back of the card is a commercial space (free design).
b)
COMBINED EURO<26 card. Design of the front is as in the
previous case (standardized). On a back is a card of some
partner firm (for example a scout card or a ferial alliance
card)
c) CO-BRANDED EURO<26 card-a combination between a credit
card of some bank with EURO card. In this case the design
of the front is being changed as necessary. Only fix element
is a SIMBOL of the card (Hercules with the stars). 3) Can a card be used in the name of the child by
his parent (or could someone else use the card instead of
the member)?
-Basically, no! The card is IDENTIFICIONAL, which means that
it can be used only by the member (a person which personal
data is on the card). But, in the case of the child, it is
normal to presume that a 7 year old cannot buy a TV set or
a bedroom, so it’s on a salesman how would he act in that
situation. 4) If I go to the restaurant with my friends, can
I get a discount for the whole bill, or just for me?
-It’s in the interest of the restaurant owner to get as many
customers as he can, in order to get high bills, so it’s in
his best interest to give the discount to everyone. But, as
in the prior case, he is OBLIGATET to give the discount to
the card owner, and everything else is a matter of his will. 5) How can I be sure that my discount will be granted?
-Whit every discount giver we, as an association, have signed
a special contract, by witch he is obligated to give a certain
discount. But if there is a problem users can always contact
EURO. We will get the shop owners attention on the signed
contract. Be careful, especially in restaurants or large shops
because they could have hired new people (waiters or salespersons)
which haven’t been informed about all of their duties, so
it is better to look for someone in charge and check with
him. Anyway, first be sure that you can get a discount and
then go shopping! 6) How can a discount giver be sure that there will
be no mistreatment of the card?
-First, there is a protective foil that secures the card.
All of the cards are printed in Italy. There, the card is
being protected, so the safety is at maximum. Basic problem
of restaurant owners is in the control of their staff (how
can they make sure that their waiters will not report 10 discounts,
instead of the 2 real, and then keep the money?). For this
problem, there are two solutions:
a) We can print some coupons in our brochure that will be
valid in specific restaurant (Example: 6 coupons on one page
witch could be presented to the waiter along with the card,
so he can later show it to his boss). This option is in expectable
to the most discounters because these coupons are printed
in the full color with the add and it is being paid.
b) We can give to the discounters a special lists where they
can write down all of the card users in their shop, restaurant…
If some card user would appear too often or if the discounter
had any other reason to doubt the validity of the card, he
can call the central office of EURO where is a database of
all the users. Then we can call the user and verify if he
actually used his card. 7) What if the user loses his card?
-It is possible to get a new card, but a user must pay a penalty
fee of 150 dinars
The procedure is as following:
a) Buyer comes with the copy of the contract (which he gets
when he buys the card) to a certain distribution office
b) Using that contract, which has a date of purchase and an
expiration date of the card, new card is being issued (new
serial number!!)
c) To make this possible, the new contract is being signed
with the user and the card has an expiration period from the
old contract
d) In this case, only the new card is being issued, without
the handbook 8) How can I get a list of all of the discounters
from some other country whit EURO<26?
-On our website (www.euro26.org.yu) you can find a link to
the European website (www.euro26.org). From there you can
access to all of the sites of all of our European colleges.
On most of the sites you can find a list of the discounters.
The right of every user of the EURO<26 is to get in contact
with the representative of the EURO<26 in the country where
he intends to travel (all of the contacts can be found on
the European or on a national website). The representative
organization must send a booklet to a user, free of charge,
to his home address or to address him to the nearest distribution
center in a city where the user will stay. There the user
can get a copy of a booklet for a country where he’s located.
