National Trust Membership cancellation within 14 days cooling off period

saversaver9

Hiya,

I requested cancellation of National Trust England membership within 24 hours of signing online. It has not been used. They are referring to their terms and saying that I need to pay for full 1 year, although I did mention the consumer contracts regulations 2013 providing me the legal right to cancel the subscription within a14 days cooling-off period. Seems they don't care. Surely they cannot be right?

I checked National Trust Scotland's website and they do allow cancellation within 14 days.

Thanks.

DullGreyGuy

saversaver9 said:

Hiya,

I requested cancellation of National Trust England membership within 24 hours of signing online. It has not been used. They are referring to their terms and saying that I need to pay for full 1 year, although I did mention the consumer contracts regulations 2013 providing me the legal right to cancel the subscription within a14 days cooling-off period. Seems they don't care. Surely they cannot be right?

I checked National Trust Scotland's website and they do allow cancellation within 14 days.

Thanks.

This is a complex issue impacted by several pieces of legislation and ultimately comes back to what can and cannot be claimed for GiftAid... if something is refundable the charity cannot put it through GiftAid scheme in England.

If you read the terms the money you pay is deemed to be a donation rather than payment for goods or services and hence falls out the scope of the CCR.

The CCR is going to be broadly replaced by Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 for renewing subscriptions when it comes into force later this year. It has an explicit exclusion of subscriptions to charitable organisations for cooling off periods rather than relying on the slightly clunky definition that its a donation which was an unintended consequence of the CCR

fatbelly

I can't see them trying to enforce this but if you've given them a payment method, I can see them trying to take payment

user1977

The National Trust and the National Trust for Scotland are completely independent organisations (albeit they have reciprocal recognition of membership for access to sites).

saversaver9

DullGreyGuy said:

saversaver9 said:

Hiya,

I requested cancellation of National Trust England membership within 24 hours of signing online. It has not been used. They are referring to their terms and saying that I need to pay for full 1 year, although I did mention the consumer contracts regulations 2013 providing me the legal right to cancel the subscription within a14 days cooling-off period. Seems they don't care. Surely they cannot be right?

I checked National Trust Scotland's website and they do allow cancellation within 14 days.

Thanks.

This is a complex issue impacted by several pieces of legislation and ultimately comes back to what can and cannot be claimed for GiftAid... if something is refundable the charity cannot put it through GiftAid scheme in England.

If you read the terms the money you pay is deemed to be a donation rather than payment for goods or services and hence falls out the scope of the CCR.

The CCR is going to be broadly replaced by Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 for renewing subscriptions when it comes into force later this year. It has an explicit exclusion of subscriptions to charitable organisations for cooling off periods rather than relying on the slightly clunky definition that its a donation which was an unintended consequence of the CCR

Thanks. Understood. They have not deducted any money from my account yet, and it was not through GiftAid any ways. 

Understood on Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Thanks. 

saversaver9

user1977 said:

The National Trust and the National Trust for Scotland are completely independent organisations (albeit they have reciprocal recognition of membership for access to sites).

Yes, they are. Thanks. But if NT Scotland can cancel the contract within 14 days (their website says so), but NT England not doing so is odd

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Contracts for leisure are excluded from the right to cancel so I would assume that includes the National Trust? 

saversaver9

fatbelly said:

I can't see them trying to enforce this but if you've given them a payment method, I can see them trying to take payment

Thanks. I did cancel the direct debit when requesting the membership cancellation from NT. Have not paid anything yet!

Aylesbury_Duck

saversaver9 said:

user1977 said:

The National Trust and the National Trust for Scotland are completely independent organisations (albeit they have reciprocal recognition of membership for access to sites).

Yes, they are. Thanks. But if NT Scotland can cancel the contract within 14 days (their website says so), but NT England not doing so is odd

Not really, they're entirely separate organisations, similar in name only.

Aylesbury_Duck

user1977 said:

The National Trust and the National Trust for Scotland are completely independent organisations (albeit they have reciprocal recognition of membership for access to sites).

It used to be the case that the Scottish membership was cheaper, I think, which made it sensible for English residents to apply for Scottish membership and use it to access English NT properties.

DullGreyGuy

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Contracts for leisure are excluded from the right to cancel so I would assume that includes the National Trust? 

Contracts for leisure are only excluded when it is for a specific date not for a general admission pass like this.