Membership Renewal

[partviking]

I have just tried to renew online and it appears the only way I can do this is to use Paypal. Whilst I appreciate this may have benefits for overseas and new members my perception (though I'm happy to be corrected) is that Paypal have punitive charges and whilst online renewal may be easier I want my membership money to go into the club coffers not the finacially bloated multinational that is Ebay/Paypal.

In this electronic age is there not an argument for giving current members the clubs bank details so we can pay by BACS which should (I think) cost the club nothing....or am I missing something and Paypal are doing this free of charge?
I haven't renewed yet and await confirmation of the cheapest (for the club) method of renewing or does the online renewal method save so much time in the form of cheque processing that any costs are recouped indirectly?

Perhaps a brief synopsis on the renewal payment methods and their costs to the club in the next Overdrive may clarify matters.

Please note I am NOT criticising the payment methods just asking for clarity on which is cheaper for the RSR and suggesting that it may be worth looking at BACS and perhaps Direct Debits if, as I perceive, these may be the cheapest of all.

Many Thanks

Alan Francis

[Phil - Nottingham]

I used Visa last November on line

[chris dancey]

I would be happy with Direct Debit, we pay our MGOC subsciption this way.

[GOY189]

First, sorry for the time taken to reply, Computer and washing machine meltdown play havoc with carefully planned weekends! We will publish a full explanation in Freewheel, but in short:- Paypal use does mean paying a fee, but our experience is that it is reasonable, and we get confirmation of name and address and money quickly credited to our account. Paying the RSR by card again means that we pay a fee but it's convenient for members. Paying by cheque is less costly, but the cheques have to be banked (now by the registrars, once sent to the treasurer for banking, incurring special delivery charges). Incidentally, the days of cheques in the UK are numbered, the UK Banks want to do away with them by 2018.

BACS payments and standing orders may have cost advantages, but both suffer from the weakness that unless a reference is sent, it is impossible to determine which Mr Smith has paid! That said they do work where there is a central "back office" function, The RSR approach is devolved, that is there are a number of volunteers working from home.

We have investigated Direct Debits but they would only work for UK members and contrary to what you might expect, they are costly for small operations like the RSR. The only practical way to engage in the direct debit scheme is to use an agent , who offers a number of debits per month for a fee, (no carrying unused debits forward) then an additional per debit charge. The cost over 3 years of operation when we looked at it last, was £2,400.

So rather a complex picture that we will expand for Freewheel

Best regards

Mike Maher
Chairman

[partviking]

Many thanks for the reply Mike and hope I didn't cause to much time to be wasted on what turned out to be a bit of a non-issue. Knowing how much some organisations can charge for their financial services I was concerned we were being 'robbed' !

I look forward to my next Freewheel

Regards

alan