Gardeners World magazine subscription

WhatARipOff

Loyal subscriber - ripoff prices

I have subscribed to the BBC Gardeners World for over 10 years, yesterday I received a renewal notice from BBC Gardeners World Magazine, advising the new 2017 price for 12 issues £48.60 a saving of 15% allegedly - this went up from £37.92 in 2016 which is a wopping 28% increase.

The publishers have advised that it has increased in price due to the price of paper, which has increased by 10% (not sure then why the price increased by an additional 18% on top

Yesterday I did a quick search and the same company BuySubscriptions.com had offers for a 12 issue subscription via Vouchercloud for £29.99 for new purchases sadly on clicking the link it showed £34.99 but still this was a substancial saving - especially as Quidco / Topcashback offer £5 cashback which has tracked on my new order! :doh:

I know previously Martin has warned to check insurance products and do price comparrions - but never in a month of sundays thought this would be true for my magazine subscriptions!

I have now contacted the company and cancelled the old over inflated subscription and bought a new subscription at a substancial discount of £13.61 with the chance of an additonal £5 cashback too

Davesnave

I can't understand why anyone wants to pay subscriptions to magazines of this kind, longer term.

When we bought a smallholding in 2009, we took out subscriptions to the relevant mags, but by 2011, we realised that much the same old stuff was being trotted-out as in our first year's issues, so we ditched them.

By then, our knowledge had gone beyond the basics, so we bought a couple of good reference books and used these + the internet to tackle problems and do research for different things.

I think falling subs is probably behind the increase in prices just as much as rising paper costs.

I_have_spoken

>much the same old stuff was being trotted-out<

I get Gardens Illustrated but digital issues on Zinio so it's about £2/month and you don't create a collection of paper

Davesnave

I_have_spoken wrote: »

I get Gardens Illustrated but digital issues on Zinio so it's about £2/month and you don't create a collection of paper

Ah, I like those. I especially like the ones an elderly lady gives me when she's done with them.

Primrose

You will probably find you can read them free of charge in your local library if they have a subscription to it........that,s is if your local library hasn,t closed due to austerity cuts.

Kyrae

I just use the 5 issues for £5 offer, unsubscribe for a couple months, then do the offer again, and repeat! Much cheaper! These days I read online through the library though

EmmyLou30

Look for magazine subscriptions with Tesco Clubcard as well. I get GW mag each year for less than £15 (just looked and it's currently £15.50), which is a massive saving and a good use of your clubcard points.

I notice they also have tickets to GW Live at the NEC for £7 in tokens which is a fair saving too (think thickets are £20ish).

Niv

These days I don't really want much for Christmas / birthdays and tell people not to buy me anything that can be used up (e.g smellies / vodka, dairy milk), but recently moved house so asked for a subscription as a gift.


Very MSE - costs me nothing and my family are happier that they can buy me something I want.

andrewf75

agree with Dave, I recently stopped my sub to gardeners world for this same reason. It’s a nice thing to flick through, but there is only so many articles/subjects and with an unlimited amount of material available to everyone online I’m sure that is reducing circulation and therefore increasing costs.

malebolge

If you're an Amazon Prime customer, you can now get a variety of magazines (& books) free sent to your kindle. Gardeners' World is one of them.