National Trust Loophole by joining Scotland using in England

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  • roddydogs
    roddydogs Posts: 7,478 Forumite
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    Yes you will it has already been discussed on another thread that the Scots sticker will be enough!
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,268 Forumite
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    roddydogs wrote: »
    Yes you will it has already been discussed on another thread that the Scots sticker will be enough!

    Great - so you can cheat the English National Trust out of all its admission fees.

    Legal, yes - but moral, certainly not. Rather like tax avoidance, except that it's an English charity you're cheating.
  • roddydogs
    roddydogs Posts: 7,478 Forumite
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    I've never used the loophole, but you do realise this is a MSE forum?
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,268 Forumite
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    roddydogs wrote: »
    I've never used the loophole, but you do realise this is a MSE forum?

    And that means any morals go out of the window?
  • TomLikesSausages
    TomLikesSausages Posts: 76 Forumite
    Just to throw another scenari/option into the fire. You can join the Malta National Trust as an overseas resident and use the reciprocal agreement with the English National trust and many other including Scotland Individual membership cost 20 Euros and Joint membership is 30 Euros. It runs from December to December and you can only join/renew in that month to benefit from a full annual membership benefit. It does also clearly state parking is NOT included. For more information see .http://dinlarthelwa.org/membership/. It all perfectly legal and is a matter of conscience.
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    Doc_N wrote: »
    And that means any morals go out of the window?
    If you consider using perfectly legitimate membership benefits is immoral, then that is down to you, and nothing whatsoever to do with the money saving aspect of this issue!
  • Undervalued
    Undervalued Posts: 8,851 Forumite
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    Doc_N wrote: »
    And that means any morals go out of the window?

    I fail to see how it is immoral.

    If you choose to join an alternative body you are entitled to all their benefits including any reciprocal admission rights.

    What you don't get however are any voting privileges, magazines, handbooks etc that you would get as a NT member.

    You pay your money and take your choice. The NT still get any other spending you make as a visitor and if they feel that is uneconomic then it is their right (duty even) to change the rules.

    Also, they have not actually lost anything unless you would actually have paid the higher NT subscription, if that was the only option or bought a ticket at the gate. I suspect many people who go down this route wouldn't actually have done so.
  • beefturnmail
    beefturnmail Posts: 906 Forumite
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    Doc_N wrote: »
    A great scam - if you happen to think that cheating the English National Trust out of crucially important income needed to preserve English heritage is a good idea.

    At least the ways things are now structured, though, you won't be able to cheat it out of the parking fees too.

    Nobody is cheating the National trust out of anything - it's a legitimate reciprocal arrangement which the NT are aware of.

    Yes, they are not getting as much income, but if it were that crucial to them I think they would either close the loophole(or lower general membership fees to make the loophole less attractive). Probably they realise that people who take advantage of this loophole are the sort of people who otherwise would not go (due to the expense) and by coming at all they still able to generate revenue form them by spending in the cafe/shop.

    At the same time anyone using this loophole is providing income to an overseas charity - which may be crucially important to that charity
  • 88Sarah
    88Sarah Posts: 7 Forumite
    As a Money Saving Forum I have found this post very useful. The National Trust are fully aware of this so called loophole. There was an article about it the Daily Mail a couple of years back. I actually joined the Scottish National trust which gave me free parking and a considerable saving. I was unaware of the Malta option and it might be worth considering in the future. If the English National Trust were really concerned they would close the reciprocal arrangement or a least do away with the free parking concession.
  • Wayne's_Woes
    Wayne's_Woes Posts: 43 Forumite
    I fully concur with the above post. This forum is about Money savings availability. If it is a loophole but fully legal then you can consider if you want to take one of the options. Everyone is entitled to air their opinion but surely it should be on a separate discussion forum. We also were interested to hear about the Malta reciprocal arrangement but will stick with the New Zealand option. Some sites will not charge you for parking but it does not cover purely the coastal car parks within a walking area. Personally we have no objection to paying for parking as it gives something back to English National Trust as well as buying tea, coffee etc so it not a case of all taking and not contributing.
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