direct debit charges for membership

golfguy1 · 08-01-2021 2:20pm #1

hi all
looking for feedback from different clubs regarding direct debit charges.
the club I'm a member of have this yr decided to charge 5% "banking fee" for those who pay their membership by direct debit.
will in some cases add up to €60 to the annual fee.
I believe this to be very unfair charge especially this yr where we are likely to lose 2/3 months golfing minimum

is this common in clubs??

thanks

cjfitz · 08-01-2021 3:01pm

golfguy1 wrote: »

hi all
looking for feedback from different clubs regarding direct debit charges.
the club I'm a member of have this yr decided to charge 5% "banking fee" for those who pay their membership by direct debit.
will in some cases add up to €60 to the annual fee.
I believe this to be very unfair charge especially this yr where we are likely to lose 2/3 months golfing minimum

is this common in clubs??

thanks

Maybe we are members of the same club, got the same email last night. I am annoyed about it. I have always paid by direct debit and think this extra change is needless and greedy tbh. Not to mind if n the current climate. Was thinking of emailing the club, but they prob don’t care.

Walter Alright · 08-01-2021 3:06pm

That’s ridiculous, I don’t think they will be charged anything to receive your payment. If they were it would probably be .30c to .50c each transaction.

That’s very unfair and a 5% charge is absolute robbery and taking the piss out of memebers.

blue note · 08-01-2021 3:21pm

Direct debits are expensive to operate. They bounce and you have to follow up with the member to see what to do. And then you need to decide whether to suspend their membership until sorted out or let them play for free for a while. Sometimes they won't pay again and will just enjoy the free golf until you cut them off. You have to factor this into the cost of offering DD. You've to deal with cancellations, assembling and checking the file each month and the mistakes that you'll occasionally make.

Taking payment in one go is much more straightforward and therefore cheaper. I paid by DD in my first year and paid about €50 for the privilege. I thought it was fair enough.

Mushy · 08-01-2021 3:27pm

Yeah in my club the direct debit option works out more pricey. Not a separate charge, but it's like 70 more I think. Dont know full membership price tbh, think its 850

chalky_ie · 08-01-2021 3:32pm

I've to pay 50 more to do a 9 month DD payment of membership fees. I always thought it was a rip off.

Wichita Lineman · 08-01-2021 3:47pm

The bank charge the club for a direct debit facility if the club is monitoring the payments themselves - ie not outsourcing to a 3rd party like 'Fairway Credit' so all they are doing is passing the charge on to the members who have decided to make it easier for themselves by spreading their payment.

golfguy1 · 08-01-2021 3:52pm

Wichita Lineman wrote: »

The bank charge the club for a direct debit facility if the club is monitoring the payments themselves - ie not outsourcing to a 3rd party like 'Fairway Credit' so all they are doing is passing the charge on to the members who have decided to make it easier for themselves by spreading their payment.

member paying fee €1200 over 7 direct debits will be charged €60.
sounds like a Rip off to me.
7 dds bank charges would be less than €2 and a bit of admin dont add up to €60
no direct debit fees in previous yrs

blue note · 08-01-2021 4:11pm

Is it not the same for paying car insurance or the like? Is it an issue then?

Having worked in an organisation that ran DDs (admittedly we were running thousands) I can attest that they are a lot of hassle. And hassle costs money. The 5% could be to encourage people to pay up front as well as covering the costs of it.

blindside88 · 08-01-2021 4:16pm

In previous years my club has used close premium finance for the direct debit option. Fees are similar to the above mentioned of 5% if I remember correctly. They also don’t allow DD in your first year of membership

jimmycrackcorm · 08-01-2021 4:27pm

The direct debit fee is not a bank charge. It is a charge to compensate for not paying the full amount upfront. This is no different from paying car insurance/gym membership fees monthly.

08-01-2021 4:40pm

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

The direct debit fee is not a bank charge. It is a charge to compensate for not paying the full amount upfront. This is no different from paying car insurance/gym membership fees monthly.

This is it in a nutshell. Look up "time value of money". That money is better off in the clubs coffers (from their POV) as early as possible. It makes it easier to plan, budget, secure credit, get better loan deals and all that jazz.

It's not really, or at least it shouldn't be, a penalty for paying by DD. It's a benefit of paying it all in one go. Pretty standard in most places. Car insurance is a great example.

blackbox · 08-01-2021 4:56pm

Our club uses Premium Credit for people who want to pay in installments.

I guess the club gets paid up front and doesn't have to worry about loan arrangements, late an non- payers etc.

Must save a lot of hassle.

golfguy1 · 08-01-2021 5:19pm

cjfitz wrote: »

Maybe we are members of the same club, got the same email last night. I am annoyed about it. I have always paid by direct debit and think this extra change is needless and greedy tbh. Not to mind if n the current climate. Was thinking of emailing the club, but they prob don’t care.

I have already contacted the mens club captain and he has passed on my questions to management committee.
would have thought it would have been mentioned before last night's email.
I dont mind a charge to cover the direct debit charge but what they are charging is way above that

cjfitz · 08-01-2021 5:46pm

golfguy1 wrote: »

I have already contacted the mens club captain and he has passed on my questions to management committee.
would have thought it would have been mentioned before last night's email.
I dont mind a charge to cover the direct debit charge but what they are charging is way above that

It’s not a good look for the company.

Of course it’s ideal for the club if everyone has paid by Paddy’s day but not everyone is in a position to pay by then. Our sub is expensive enough without adding another €60 to it. There’s plenty of money wasted within the club and maybe that’s where they should start if they can’t afford the paperwork.

chalky_ie · 08-01-2021 6:15pm

Comparing golf clubs to insurance companies doesn't make sense to me, one is a community based place where you would expect a friendly, empathetic attitude towards most things; the other is a money sucking enterprise, designed to rip as many people off as possible. I was certainly never charged more by my local football club when paying my fee in parts.

golfguy1 · 08-01-2021 6:21pm

conor-w wrote: »

Comparing golf clubs to insurance companies doesn't make sense to me, one is a community based place where you would expect a friendly, empathetic attitude towards most things; the other is a money sucking enterprise, designed to rip as many people off as possible. I was certainly never charged more by my local football club when paying my fee in parts.

my thoughts exactly. add in the fact that the club made around €100,000 profit last yr I think they are taking the piss with the members who have supported them despite lots been out of work with Covid.

AnBeagalltach · 08-01-2021 6:23pm

conor-w wrote: »

Comparing golf clubs to insurance companies doesn't make sense to me, one is a community based place where you would expect a friendly, empathetic attitude towards most things; the other is a money sucking enterprise, designed to rip as many people off as possible. I was certainly never charged more by my local football club when paying my fee in parts.

If everybody decided to pay direct debit the Club would barely make it through January. In most services the direct debit option is more expensive to incentivise people to pay up front. If the direct debit is the same cost as the annual lump why would anyone forego the money from their pocket and pay the lump?

I think it’s completely fair enough to charge more for DD if only to reward the upfront payees as their cash is effectively keeping the Club afloat for the first few months of the year.

ShivasIrons · 08-01-2021 6:37pm

To me this tends to show that golf clubs, which are run by staff, have a staff-centric attitude as opposed to a member or customer-centric one.

What's been said here is - 'yes, we want your money but we don't like how you're giving it to us!' Clubs should take money anyway they can and be glad of it

Many things are done to make life as easy as possible for the staff, rather then looking at how can we make things easier/better for our members/customers. Having flexible payment solutions is a good idea. Yes, it might cost a little more money and time but isn't that what the staff are there for? To work for the members/customers?

The amount that it adds to the bottom line can be figured out easily enough, so if it means a member of staff has to spend one day a month going through the direct debits, that cost can be figured out, if there's extra bank costs that also can be figured out. Add it up and divide it amongst the members, it would be less then €10 per member.

The OPs club must need money, and are looking at the easiest ways of doing it, which just means kicking the hard work or decisions further down the line. They will have to do both eventually.

AnBeagalltach · 08-01-2021 6:45pm

ShivasIrons wrote: »

To me this tends to show that golf clubs, which are run by staff, have a staff-centric attitude as opposed to a member or customer-centric one.

What's been said here is - 'yes, we want your money but we don't like how you're giving it to us!' Clubs should take money anyway they can and be glad of it

Many things are done to make life as easy as possible for the staff, rather then looking at how can we make things easier/better for our members/customers. Having flexible payment solutions is a good idea. Yes, it might cost a little more money and time but isn't that what the staff are there for? To work for the members/customers?

The amount that it adds to the bottom line can be figured out easily enough, so if it means a member of staff has to spend one day a month going through the direct debits, that cost can be figured out, if there's extra bank costs that also can be figured out. Add it up and divide it amongst the members, it would be less then €10 per member.

The OPs club must need money, and are looking at the easiest ways of doing it, which just means kicking the hard work or decisions further down the line. They will have to do both eventually.

This is not only an admin issue. If annual fees are 1200 per year, the Club get 1200 from the upfront payee.

On the direct debit option the Golfer can choose to stop paying in September and save 480 by not playing over winter and either giving up or moving to a new club. This is not a bogus scenario but something that DOES happen in golf clubs. It is only fair that the convenience of being able to waltz away from the payment results in higher monthly costs compared to upfront payees.

Luckycharm · 08-01-2021 6:59pm

blackbox wrote: »

Our club uses Premium Credit for people who want to pay in installments.

I guess the club gets paid up front and doesn't have to worry about loan arrangements, late an non- payers etc.

Must save a lot of hassle.

Ours are the same think it is around 4.5% extra if you pay by DD, suits me as our sub is alot and can't afford it all at once.

ShivasIrons · 08-01-2021 7:04pm

AnBeagalltach wrote: »

This is not only an admin issue. If annual fees are 1200 per year, the Club get 1200 from the upfront payee.

On the direct debit option the Golfer can choose to stop paying in September and save 480 by not playing over winter and either giving up or moving to a new club. This is not a bogus scenario but something that DOES happen in golf clubs. It is only fair that the convenience of being able to waltz away from the payment results in higher monthly costs compared to upfront payees.

Have they not signed up to an annual membership? Are you saying they can choose to pay for only 9 months, not pay for 3 and then join again the following year? The club allow this? What does that say about the club?

AnBeagalltach · 08-01-2021 7:27pm

ShivasIrons wrote: »

Have they not signed up to an annual membership? Are you saying they can choose to pay for only 9 months, not pay for 3 and then join again the following year? The club allow this? What does that say about the club?

Was referring to club hoppers or people who give up membership

golfguy1 · 08-01-2021 7:29pm

AnBeagalltach wrote: »

This is not only an admin issue. If annual fees are 1200 per year, the Club get 1200 from the upfront payee.

On the direct debit option the Golfer can choose to stop paying in September and save 480 by not playing over winter and either giving up or moving to a new club. This is not a bogus scenario but something that DOES happen in golf clubs. It is only fair that the convenience of being able to waltz away from the payment results in higher monthly costs compared to upfront payees.

wouldn't be the case at my club as their is now a waiting list and entrance fee

ShivasIrons · 08-01-2021 7:33pm

AnBeagalltach wrote: »

Was referring to club hoppers or people who give up membership

Charge an entrance fee, even if it's only €100 or €200. It will mean less club hoppers.

AnBeagalltach · 08-01-2021 7:37pm

ShivasIrons wrote: »

Charge an entrance fee, even if it's only €100 or €200. It will mean less club hoppers.

So people would pay 200 entrance fee to avoid a 60 euro direct debit surcharge?

ShivasIrons · 08-01-2021 7:43pm

AnBeagalltach wrote: »

So people would pay 200 entrance fee to avoid a 60 euro direct debit surcharge?

No, the entrance fee is to curtail the golfer stopping the direct debit payment after 9 months.

gypsy79 · 08-01-2021 7:51pm

It is exactly the same principle as paying your insurance premium. You pay about 8% extra to pay monthly.

So some might say it is cheap financing option

Bill Ponderosa · 08-01-2021 7:57pm

gypsy79 wrote: »

It is exactly the same principle as paying your insurance premium. You pay about 8% extra to pay monthly.

So some might say it is cheap financing option

Just signed up for car insurance today with Bank of Ireland, no charge for direct debit or nothing extra for paying monthly.

gypsy79 · 08-01-2021 7:59pm

Bill Ponderosa wrote: »

Just signed up for car insurance today with Bank of Ireland, no charge for direct debit or nothing extra for paying monthly.

Did you ask them for a quote to pay up front?? Then do the sums

I would be absolutely shocked if their wasnt

I am an actuary btw

MorganIRL · 08-01-2021 8:05pm

No DD charge for membership of my club. I'm a 1st year member, only downside is that it has to be pd by end of 1st quarter. So this stops hoppers and people paying for summer and cancelling albeit won't get much Golf played in 1st quarter.

Bill Ponderosa · 08-01-2021 8:44pm

gypsy79 wrote: »

Did you ask them for a quote to pay up front?? Then do the sums

I would be absolutely shocked if their wasnt

I am an actuary btw

Yeah you get the quote, you can either pay monthly or all in once, works out the same amount. Very handy. Probably helps they're a bank.

chalky_ie · 08-01-2021 9:54pm

AnBeagalltach wrote: »

If everybody decided to pay direct debit the Club would barely make it through January. In most services the direct debit option is more expensive to incentivise people to pay up front. If the direct debit is the same cost as the annual lump why would anyone forego the money from their pocket and pay the lump?

I think it’s completely fair enough to charge more for DD if only to reward the upfront payees as their cash is effectively keeping the Club afloat for the first few months of the year.

This doesn't make a lot of sense, the club should be able to manage their money over the year to be ok at any time of the year. By this logic, the club would be struggling big time in the last 3 months of the year, as all DD payments have finished.

You will always have people that want to pay it all up front anyway, and the DD ends in September, so you couldn't cancel for the winter months to avoid paying the full thing, you would have to miss out on half a year of golf if you wanted to do something like that.

gypsy79 · 08-01-2021 10:16pm

Bill Ponderosa wrote: »

Yeah you get the quote, you can either pay monthly or all in once, works out the same amount. Very handy. Probably helps they're a bank.

Yeah cross selling is the main reason I can think why they would do this

Very odd

Deporhostia · 09-01-2021 2:21am

conor-w wrote: »

This doesn't make a lot of sense, the club should be able to manage their money over the year to be ok at any time of the year. By this logic, the club would be struggling big time in the last 3 months of the year, as all DD payments have finished.

You will always have people that want to pay it all up front anyway, and the DD ends in September, so you couldn't cancel for the winter months to avoid paying the full thing, you would have to miss out on half a year of golf if you wanted to do something like that.

I don't think this comment makes sense.

If a club charged DD quarterly with 1st payment Jan 1st, then pay Jan 1st, April 1st, July 1st, play till September 30th (and however long they don't come after you), don't pay October 1st, save 25% and don't bother playing once winter begins.

That's presuming we start on Jan 1st of course. And that's why a lot of clubs would take the first payment around Sept/Oct/Nov, to avoid this.

doublej · 09-01-2021 10:43am

Our Club offers members the option of paying their annual sub through a single payment, or at least one that is fully paid by the end of January; those that do this receive 3 Green Fee vouchers.

They also allow for a Standing Order for an equal amount divided over the Jan-Sept (9 months) period without any admin charge.
it’s the same amount whether payment is once off or 9 amounts, the vouchers are an incentive for early payments but there isn’t a penalty for electing to spread the cost of your sub.

Payment by standing order is an additional cost to the Club but the emphasis is member-friendly solutions, much better to have (relatively) happy members than placing a barrier between their Club and their pocket.

chalky_ie · 09-01-2021 12:58pm

Deporhostia wrote: »

I don't think this comment makes sense.

If a club charged DD quarterly with 1st payment Jan 1st, then pay Jan 1st, April 1st, July 1st, play till September 30th (and however long they don't come after you), don't pay October 1st, save 25% and don't bother playing once winter begins.

That's presuming we start on Jan 1st of course. And that's why a lot of clubs would take the first payment around Sept/Oct/Nov, to avoid this.

I'm talking about my own club, the last payment is in September, so you're going to miss out on September and October golf(which are both completely grand months for golf), as well as the final 2 months of the year.

Also, more importantly, literally nobody is going to do this ridiculous suggestion, there are waiting lists and joining fees at half the clubs in the country these days, and it's being proposed that a 50 quid DD fee is going to stop someone from skiving off the last few payments? If someone is scabby enough to do this, I don't think the 50 quid fee is going to stop them from not paying the >50 remainder of a DD. This person that goes out of their way to go through the hassle of joining a golf club, only to leave after 8/9 months to save a bit of cash. This has to be an absolute fringe case at best.

doublej wrote: »

Our Club offers members the option of paying their annual sub through a single payment, or at least one that is fully paid by the end of January; those that do this receive 3 Green Fee vouchers.

They also allow for a Standing Order for an equal amount divided over the Jan-Sept (9 months) period without any admin charge.
it’s the same amount whether payment is once off or 9 amounts, the vouchers are an incentive for early payments but there isn’t a penalty for electing to spread the cost of your sub.

Payment by standing order is an additional cost to the Club but the emphasis is member-friendly solutions, much better to have (relatively) happy members than placing a barrier between their Club and their pocket.

This is an excellent setup, and the sort of attitude every club should have. I wouldn't mind at all if any actual cost incurred from having the DD setup was passed on to members using it, but in the case of my club anyway, it just seems like another racket.

ShivasIrons · 09-01-2021 4:43pm

doublej wrote: »

Our Club offers members the option of paying their annual sub through a single payment, or at least one that is fully paid by the end of January; those that do this receive 3 Green Fee vouchers.

They also allow for a Standing Order for an equal amount divided over the Jan-Sept (9 months) period without any admin charge.
it’s the same amount whether payment is once off or 9 amounts, the vouchers are an incentive for early payments but there isn’t a penalty for electing to spread the cost of your sub.

Payment by standing order is an additional cost to the Club but the emphasis is member-friendly solutions, much better to have (relatively) happy members than placing a barrier between their Club and their pocket.

This is a much better structure, an incentive to pay one way rather then a penalty to pay another way. It's nearly the same thing but perceived quite differently by the customer.

Golf clubs are pretty poor at pricing structures and don't seem to even use relatively basic ideas like the one above. A simple example could be a club that's needing €950 for a subscription, a way to do it is 9 monthly payments of 110 or 10 monthly payments of 1000, so then call the sub 990 or 1000, payable in monthly installments and 950 if it's paid up front.

Are golf clubs that devoid of expertise? It would seem that they are.

Ollieboy · 09-01-2021 5:09pm

ShivasIrons wrote: »

This is a much better structure, an incentive to pay one way rather then a penalty to pay another way. It's nearly the same thing but perceived quite differently by the customer.

Golf clubs are pretty poor at pricing structures and don't seem to even use relatively basic ideas like the one above. A simple example could be a club that's needing €950 for a subscription, a way to do it is 9 monthly payments of 110 or 10 monthly payments of 1000, so then call the sub 990 or 1000, payable in monthly installments and 950 if it's paid up front.

Are golf clubs that devoid of expertise? It would seem that they are.

Most subs are set by membership type at a AGM, so having a different payment amount based on payment type would define these as different membership class/types. It would be very confusing at a AGM. That’s why the easy option is to charge a fee for members that want a installment plan.

Paying money over a installment plan as a cost to everyone involved. It’s not free money.

We already have to many different types of membership and this creates huge additional administration work. We moved systems this year to try and make savings by improving processing and communication. Allowing members to manage payment themselves.

I’m involved with the finances of my club and payment plans are very expensive to operate. It’s not only the bank fees, it’s reconciled the payments, updating systems and extra bad debt. It also creates a lot of work when members DD don’t come through for whatever reason. These are never easy phone calls.

It also makes business planning more difficult.

One of the positives is funds coming in every month and clubs not going into overdraft at the year end.

People need to realize most clubs are not run as professional business, they are ran by volunteers and part time staff that aren’t accountants. This helps in keeping the cost of golf down for clubs. To do what some people ask in this thread would require full time professional staff with investment in good systems.

We used the model of free green fees if paid in full but at this stage most members rather monthly installment plans and that’s what the market expects.

We still have some members insisting on paying in cash whenever they want!

I think the point I’m making is that customers don’t realize the work they create for clubs by not paying in a single payment or missing payments. This is money that can be used to improve the facilities or reduce subs.

To me personally, it’s not fair to member A who pays in full gets the same rate for member B who pays monthly and costs the club more. Why should members A cover this cost for members B?

I think a fee is the fairest way but we still don’t do it and discuss it every year. But most clubs I know do charge it.

From a marketing view, it is easy not to charge it and increase everyone’s subs to cover the cost but the fee charge for online payments is massive and I don’t think people realise this but also the fee for handling cash is high.

ShivasIrons · 09-01-2021 6:04pm

Ollieboy wrote: »

Most subs are set by membership type at a AGM, so having a different payment amount based on payment type would define these as different membership class/types. It would be very confusing at a AGM. That’s why the easy option is to charge a fee for members that want a installment plan.

Paying money over a installment plan as a cost to everyone involved. It’s not free money.

We already have to many different types of membership and this creates huge additional administration work. We moved systems this year to try and make savings by improving processing and communication. Allowing members to manage payment themselves.

I’m involved with the finances of my club and payment plans are very expensive to operate. It’s not only the bank fees, it’s reconciled the payments, updating systems and extra bad debt. It also creates a lot of work when members DD don’t come through for whatever reason. These are never easy phone calls.

It also makes business planning more difficult.

One of the positives is funds coming in every month and clubs not going into overdraft at the year end.

People need to realize most clubs are not run as professional business, they are ran by volunteers and part time staff that aren’t accountants. This helps in keeping the cost of golf down for clubs. To do what some people ask in this thread would require full time professional staff with investment in good systems.

We used the model of free green fees if paid in full but at this stage most members rather monthly installment plans and that’s what the market expects.

We still have some members insisting on paying in cash whenever they want!

I think the point I’m making is that customers don’t realize the work they create for clubs by not paying in a single payment or missing payments. This is money that can be used to improve the facilities or reduce subs.

To me personally, it’s not fair to member A who pays in full gets the same rate for member B who pays monthly and costs the club more. Why should members A cover this cost for members B?

I think a fee is the fairest way but we still don’t do it and discuss it every year. But most clubs I know do charge it.

From a marketing view, it is easy not to charge it and increase everyone’s subs to cover the cost but the fee charge for online payments is massive and I don’t think people realise this but also the fee for handling cash is high.

I'm not sure you're getting my point, the fee is set higher to include the cost of the finance and an option of a discount is given when some wants to pay up front. It doesn't seem confusing.

As you're involved with the finances of a club, what is the cost of a payment plan? Saying it is expensive isn't putting a figure to it.

As for saying, member A shouldn't cover the costs of member's B finance, the whole idea of a membership price is it covers the costs of all members, what do you say to member C who plays 25 times in the year and thinks it's unfair that they have to pay the same as member D who plays 100 times in the year? Member D costs the club more, through extra wear and tear etc

Ollieboy · 09-01-2021 6:46pm

ShivasIrons wrote: »

I'm not sure you're getting my point, the fee is set higher to include the cost of the finance and an option of a discount is given when some wants to pay up front. It doesn't seem confusing.

As you're involved with the finances of a club, what is the cost of a payment plan? Saying it is expensive isn't putting a figure to it.

As for saying, member A shouldn't cover the costs of member's B finance, the whole idea of a membership price is it covers the costs of all members, what do you say to member C who plays 25 times in the year and thinks it's unfair that they have to pay the same as member D who plays 100 times in the year? Member D costs the club more, through extra wear and tear etc

I can’t give you a exact figure but I reckon it’s easily 50 per plan.

The cost is massive, not only the bank fees which are higher on DD that get missed, you have all the staff time waste. They now have to process and reconcile something 12 times instead of once. It’s a huge waste of time and inefficient. Also bank statements don’t make the job easy and people don’t add proper references.

Every club would rather every member pay at the start of the year and not doing it creates massive amount of work that would create savings or free up resources to do other things.

Remember subs are made up of a combination of fees, GUI, insurance, bar etc, so the first two months of DD might only cover those costs and the club get nothing.

I’ve a staff member spending at least 2 full days a week doing this stuff and at the start of the year setting all these plans up takes two staff nearly two months to complete. It’s such a huge burden.

If you got paid for a job and one customer told you he would pay in full at the end and the other ask you to pop back 12 times over the next year, which would you want and why? Now multiple that question by 1000 and think of all the extra work involved.

Charging members different subs isn’t the way to do it. It’s a service a club offers to members, so a member should see the fee for it separately as a extra cost.

Most people understand this because you see this on other payment plans for insurance, gyms etc. I also think you are not allowed to lower fees because of how someone pays you.

On your last point, subs aren’t based on how often you play, that’s a personal issue and not the clubs fault if you don’t use it enough. Every member is given the same access. Subs are design to split the cost of running the business between all the members. If how a member pays adds cost to the club then that’s a cost a member should pay.

As I said, we offer this service free because we are a members club but I feel it’s wrong and the reason we don’t change it is because of comments in this thread. People just have a negative reaction to it but we do work with each member to try and make the process simple.if a member misses payments etc, they won’t get it the following year.

mighty magpie · 09-01-2021 7:18pm

We pay by standing order however it starts 6 months in advance so by the time billing comes around anyone paying monthly has half the annual sub paid and will continue to pay monthly.

No extra charges.

Seve OB · 13-01-2021 12:59am

As pointed out already the increased charge is for paying by instalments. This is normal, yes it might be a new concept to your club, but it is business, and golf is big business.

DD is just a method of payment and is not the reason there is additional cost.

My club, instalment options are processed through a fee finance company which is quite common practice. If you want to pay upfront you can avoid the extra cost unless you pay by credit card, there is a small charge as it costs money to process cards.

doublej · 13-01-2021 8:49am

Seve OB wrote: »

As pointed out already the increased charge is for paying by instalments. This is normal, yes it might be a new concept to your club, but it is business, and golf is big business.

DD is just a method of payment and is not the reason there is additional cost.

My club, instalment options are processed through a fee finance company which is quite common practice. If you want to pay upfront you can avoid the extra cost unless you pay by credit card, there is a small charge as it costs money to process cards.

Since January 2019 the charging of a fee, surcharge or levy based on the method of payment for a product or service is prohibited, you cannot charge extra for a credit or debit card. This does not apply to charge cards or fees associated with additional administrative work such as charging for DD processing.

direct debit charges for membership

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