The UK branch of FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) is offering a 50% discount this week on its World subscription rate using the code WDYTYA50, to tie in with the new series of Who Do You Think You Are, which kicks off tomorrow evening (Thursday). The normal rate is £129.50, so with a discount it is £64.75.
Note that FindmyPast.com is also offering a 50% discount to Irish Central readers - simply register at http://www.findmypast.com/irish-central-offer-50. The normal US rate is US$199.50, so with a discount it is US$99.75.
Worth crunching the numbers and the exchange rates to see which is best to join, because the available records are the same on both the US and UK platforms. The UK option looks to me to be cheaper just now.
I should add that a few years back I joined FindmyPast.com when it launched via its Pioneer subscription, at just over US$59. I've kept renewing at that rate, and have just received a renewal notice claiming the company tried to claim $199.50 for a new subscription, but it failed as my card had expired. Because of this email I actually took out a new subscription using the Irish Central offer instead, but then queried it when I got an email yesterday asking me if I wanted to renew my original account at the Pioneer rate! I was told that a discount would have automatically been applied to give me the subscription at the Pioneer rate, but this was not mentioned in the original email. FindmyPast is now refunding me the $99.75 from my new account (effectively cancelling that subscription) and allowing me to renew on my original account at $59. Worth flagging up for any other Pioneer subscribers who may received similar emails!
UPDATE 14 AUG: Apologies, the rate I previously gave for the UK was the British sub rate, not the World sub rate - now duly corrected.
Chris
For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.
I also "auto-renewed" but was charged the full rate. I queried this, and they offered to continue the Pioneer rate; then I also received a separate e-mail offering the Pioneer rate.
ReplyDeleteThe World rate is £64.75; the Britain rate would have been £49.75.
ReplyDeleteThe discount is for a World subscription (normal rate £129.50) so with discount is £64.75, not £49.75.
ReplyDeleteThanks - duly corrected
ReplyDeleteYou did better than I did - when I queried they said that was the rate - and no Pioneer discount was offered. I will be following this up now.
ReplyDeleteMy auto renewal went through on 15th August at full price. I queried this and was offered the 50% discount.
ReplyDeleteI pointed out that I had originally joined at the Pioneer rate (in 2012 I think it was) but had not been offered renewal at that rate.
I was told that I could only renew at the Pioneer rate if I got an email from them.
Who would I contact to query this with FindMyPast?
To be honest, I have no idea. There is no phone number I could find on the US site, so I simply used the online email form. It was sorted for me within a couple of days, and I was re-subscribed via the Pioneer rate (I did receive an email on the Pioneer renewal rate, but only the day after they tried and failed to deduct $199 from my account for renewal).
DeleteI had a similar situation with an expired Credit Card. I was able to receive a discount through the Ontario Genealogical Society , but it was a discount on the full rate and not the Pioneer rate . However, after reading your blog I contacted FindMyPast again and they are going to refund the difference and give me the Pioneer rate once again. Thanks Chris.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteSo to revive this thread after 3 years...
ReplyDeleteI joined with the Pioneer rate of $US59.40 on 25 July 2012. It was my understanding at the time that this was a "rest of my life" offer. Does anyone else remember that detail?
In subsequent years that renewed 3 times at $59.99 - an increase on the "rest of my life" price, but so minor I didn't worry about it.
Then it renewed in 2016 at $72. I queried this and was told that was the new Pioneer rate. It renewed again at $72 in 2017, and was due to expire on 5 October 2018.
Now this past Friday 5 October, I got an eMail that my renewal had failed - due to a cancelled credit card as it turns out - so I immediately entered a new credit card number as my payment, but could find no way to tell FindMyPast to apply that right now for the payment. Come Friday evening (US time - Saturday early AM UK time) my account was now inactive, directing me to the payment page. So I wrote to FindMayPast support to ask what was happening.
It's now Monday 8 October and I awake (in the US) to a reply from Sophie at FindMyPast telling me that I need to go and renew manually now, and giving a coupon code to use that would drop the regular price to $99.99.
Is anyone else still on Pioneer subscription and paying less than $US99.99?
And then later in the message:
"Please note unless communicated otherwise this will be the final year that Pioneer discount is applied however good news, all future annual renewals will be subject to 15% loyalty discount against the standard subscription price."
The standard subscription price now seems to be $19.96 a month, charged as a one time $239.50 amount.
Has anyone else seen this news?
Roger