Answers to commonly asked questions
The new facility to set up auto-renewal means you can ensure uninterrupted membership, with minimal effort, while retaining complete control.
We've provided this FAQ to handle any questions you may have about auto-renewal. If you have any further questions please use the Help > Contact Us menu option
For you, the hassle of annual renewal is removed. When renewal is due we’ll give you advance notice before taking the payment. If you want to renew you have nothing to do.
For us, the payments are completely automated which reduces the amount of volunteer time we have to devote to membership administration.
UK members have the option to auto-renew by Direct Debit (preferred) or card. For overseas members only the card option is available.
Whichever method you choose to auto-renew, the process is essentially the same:
- Pick the membership options you want
- Choose between card or direct debit
- Enter the relevant details
- The auto-renewal will be set up by our trusted payment provider, Stripe. Note: in the case of Direct Debit, Stripe will communicate with your bank to implement your mandate, and you will receive whatever notifications your bank uses (may vary by bank).
- These setup steps are a one-off process and you can then forget about the need to renew
- In future, instead sending you a sequence of renewal reminders, we will send you a payment notice about 12 days before the next payment is due, and Stripe will send one about 48 hours before they take payment.
No. The traditional method of annual manual payments will remain if that is your preference. We would prefer you to use auto renewal because it reduces the amount of volunteer effort required to mange subscriptions, but the choice is yours.
There are two examples where auto-renewal is not available:
- Young Person (18-25) membership, because the preferential rate stops after age 25.
- Gift membership redemption, because you can’t gift a recurring membership
Please use the traditional annual manual renewal system in those cases
Yes and no!
If you want to auto-renew by credit/debit card, banking regulations require you to set this up yourself, online. We have no discretion in this.
If you want to auto-renew using Direct Debit (UK members only), we can set this up for you if you complete a renewal form. There will be some delay while we do this so it’s easier and quicker if you set it up online yourself, if you can.
Please do NOT send your bank details by email. Email is not a secure messaging system so you should never use it to send sensitive information.
Yes, you can include a donation with your subscription. Please be aware though that any donation will be added to the recurring payment each year.
If you prefer to change your donation decision year by year there are two ways to do this:
- Set up your subscription for the basic membership fee. Afterwards use the Donate button at the top of the website pages to make a donation. When you receive the annual payment notification, you can use the Donate button again if you want to, and you don’t even have to be logged in to do that.
- Use the traditional annual manual renewal option so you can vary your decision year by year.
None of your card/bank details are stored on our website. Instead they are stored by Stripe, a leading global payment provider that employs banking grade security measures.
We will send you an email 10-12 days prior to payment being taken and our payment provider, Stripe, will send you one 2 days prior. If you don’t have an email address we will write to you.
Yes, Stripe will issue a payment receipt directly to you via email
The Direct Debit Guarantee system applies to all UK Direct Debits and there is an established disputes process. For card payments your card provider’s relevant dispute process would apply.
The payee will be shown as ‘Stripe’ and the transaction identifier will take the form ‘STRIPEXXXXXBERKSFHS’
When you take the auto-renewal option, you will be signing up to a new plan and your renewal year will be reset to one year from the date of the new plan. Because of this your first payment of the new recurring subscription will include a small refund for the unexpired portion of your previous year’s payment.
e.g. if you sign up to auto-renewal 14 days before your current subscription expires, the refund will be about 73 pence. Thereafter you will pay the normal amount.
We have a few members who pay using Direct Debit via GoCardless. That process is mostly manual whereas our new process is automated. However, this means we have to switch to another Direct Debit payment provider. We will contact you to arrange to cancel the existing mandate.
We will notify when your card expiry date approaches
You can update your card details in your Profile page (see top menu). It’s instant and secure.
We regret we can’t update your card details for you – banking rules don’t allow it – for account security reasons.
Your new bank will have a process for transferring Direct Debits
We will update the subscription to the new amount – no action will be required from you. The imminent payment notice will show the revised amount and we will provide notifications in The Historian and the newsletters.
To resign from the Society, please email our membership secretary memsec@berksfhs.org.uk
You can cancel auto-renewal on your profile page or ask us to do it for you.
Please don’t cancel a direct debit with your bank without notifying us first, because we will be charged for any failed transaction
