Camping Cheques Update
Comments
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Just got the email notification on this, noticed one of the sites we have used has dropped out, however they now take Acsi. We don't have any CC's to use at the moment but if I get them as part of a ferry deal I'll find somewhere to use.
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More leaving than joining then not good for folks who use them. We gave them up 11 years ago after not finding sites where we wanted to visit. Just rely on ACSI now and never had a problem.
DianneT
We have an ACSI card as well and whilst it may be no problem as AD says, it's also no discount.
I priced a BF return in May/June 2017 last week- booked direct £518 as part of an ITX with Camping Cheques £188.65.
If using BF does not suit then it may be of little use but if it does then it's a massive saving. In 2015 we made a good saving on Stenna from Harwich and are waiting to see the discounted prices for 2017 before booking
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More leaving than joining then not good for folks who use them. We gave them up 11 years ago after not finding sites where we wanted to visit. Just rely on ACSI now and never had a problem.
DianneT
We have an ACSI card as well and whilst it may be no problem as AD says, it's also no discount.
I priced a BF return in May/June 2017 last week- booked direct £518 as part of an ITX with Camping Cheques £188.65.
If using BF does not suit then it may be of little use but if it does then it's a massive saving. In 2015 we made a good saving on Stenna from Harwich and are waiting to see the discounted prices for 2017 before booking
If only the club would do the same deals with BF for motorhomers that would be great but they don't, there is little or no differance for us, been thinking for next year to take out BF own club scheme, after just 1 trip the savings kick in and the following
year would see much bigger savings.0 -
Hi TG, as mentioned on CT before it is usually a case of 'caravans go free' with BF, so you are only paying for the car, but I was still surprised at the saving for next year. I think we are just lucky that the routes that suit us, from Cornwall, attract
such good savings.In 2015 we used Stenna from Harwich as we were going to Italy and wanted to visit friends in Holland, and may do next year once we see the discounted prices, and out motorhome friends paid the same price as a car so effectively we both paid the same as caravans
were free in day crossings.0 -
Some of those sites listed in the OP have been with Camping Cheques for a long time.
David
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In 2015 we used Stenna from Harwich as we were going to Italy and wanted to visit friends in Holland, and may do next year once we see the discounted prices, and out motorhome friends paid the same price as a car so effectively we both paid the same as caravans
were free in day crossings. JUStena Line prices are out now and the price is the same whether you order cheques or not. Ive just had a quote for £234 for a return crossing, car/van + 2 adults, out June back July both on a Sunday
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I've tried all the routes with BF through the club even the Plymouth one and get the same price with or without cheques. We are not sure of our dates for next year yet or where we want to go so haven't rung the club to see if they can come up with a good
price over the phone, but I will keep my eye on things, I did notice this year that prices didn't alter by much even if you booked just before going.Having CC as part of a deal is nice but not a deal breaker if we don't, all I want is a good fair equal price from the club/ferries.
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I wonder whether the email fom Camping Cheque is a response to the criticisms (fully justified in my view) that the camping cheque guide is next to useless because of its many inaccuracies (sites left the scheme etc).
They really have to get their act together or they will be left with a worthless business. I have given up on using cheques except that I have a few purchased as part of an ITX ferry package. In my view, there is no other reason to buy them
Why did the Club buy the Alan Rogers/Camping Cheque UK business for £4 million? What a waste of "our" money.
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More leaving than joining then not good for folks who use them. We gave them up 11 years ago after not finding sites where we wanted to visit. Just rely on ACSI now and never had a problem.
DianneT
We have ACSI as well but unfortunatley ACSI does not get us major reductions on the ferry. Often though we use neither and either pay the going rate or get long stay discounts.
..As you mostly use "over there" sites why not leave car a c/van "over there" and use your other "travel system" to get there for "free"it would also save the high cost of the odd night to and from in the uk
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I wonder whether the email fom Camping Cheque is a response to the criticisms (fully justified in my view) that the camping cheque guide is next to useless because of its many inaccuracies (sites left the scheme etc).
They really have to get their act together or they will be left with a worthless business. I have given up on using cheques except that I have a few purchased as part of an ITX ferry package. In my view, there is no other reason to buy them
Why did the Club buy the Alan Rogers/Camping Cheque UK business for £4 million? What a waste of "our" money.
I will hazard a guess about why the Club bought Alan Rogers. I suspect that this organisation had general travel expertise which the Club have used to start pushing overseas holidays (see "Worldwide Tours") which have nothing to do with sites or touring with your own outfit. Whether the expanded business is appropriate for a Caravan Club I leave others to decide.
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In 2015 we used Stenna from Harwich as we were going to Italy and wanted to visit friends in Holland, and may do next year once we see the discounted prices, and out motorhome friends paid the same price as a car so effectively we both paid the same as caravans
were free in day crossings. JUStena Line prices are out now and the price is the same whether you order cheques or not. Ive just had a quote for £234 for a return crossing, car/van + 2 adults, out June back July both on a Sunday
Harry, I was told that the only discounted prices available at the moment are on BF. I asked specifically about Harwich-Hook and was told that I would need to wait till September for the other routes to be discounted.
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I've tried all the routes with BF through the club even the Plymouth one and get the same price with or without cheques. We are not sure of our dates for next year yet or where we want to go so haven't rung the club to see if they can come up with a good
price over the phone, but I will keep my eye on things, I did notice this year that prices didn't alter by much even if you booked just before going.Having CC as part of a deal is nice but not a deal breaker if we don't, all I want is a good fair equal price from the club/ferries.
Hi TG, As I said above I have got a price with and ITX package that is a significant saving over the price with BF direct and via the club for the ferry only.
The three prices, for a May/June 2017 Plymouth-Roscoff crossing were;
BF direct £518/Ferry only with club £380/Ferry with ITX £188.
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More leaving than joining then not good for folks who use them. We gave them up 11 years ago after not finding sites where we wanted to visit. Just rely on ACSI now and never had a problem.
DianneT
We have ACSI as well but unfortunatley ACSI does not get us major reductions on the ferry. Often though we use neither and either pay the going rate or get long stay discounts.
..As you mostly use "over there" sites why not leave car a c/van "over there" and use your other "travel system" to get there for "free"it would also save the high cost of the odd night to and from in the uk
That's just what we do. We store our caravan in France and have done for about ten years. At one site we paid 200 euros per year, indoor, on another we paid 250 euros per year, and we now pay 180 - and they will bring it out and put it on a pitch for us, either to stay (which we are doing now) or to take it away elsewhere (which we may do tomorrow to a site not more than twenty-five miles away).
Insurance costs are no more than they are here, we save on fuel, tolls and ferry costs, and we can still tour where we want.
If you do decide then my advice would be to think carefully about your storage area - in terms of journey time from home, planned and likely destinations, and frequency of travel. Hotel and meal stops can add substantially to the cost of getting to the caravan if it involves one or two overnight stops and you don't have the caravan on the back for cheap picnic stops and overnights!
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Just had an email from Camping Cheques with the latest additions and withdrawals from the scheme
Hi AD, We have been using cheques for years, both direct and via the Club, and have, in the past, received marketing e-mails but have not,to memory, had an e-mail detailing sites joing etc as you mention?
The last few times have been as part of an ITX, which I believe is what you do, so I am puzzled why I dont get these e-mails and a quick look at the website does not reveal the info either??
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There seems to be an assumption that the Club's purchase of Alan Rogers was to do with Camping Cheques which I somehow doubt. The Club is in an ideal situation to judge how popular Camping Cheques are and I doubt its a growing market.Commercially you usually
expand into growing markets rather than shrinking ones! I suspect the purchase of AR was more to do with having access to their site/holiday booking business.David
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There seems to be an assumption that the Club's purchase of Alan Rogers was to do with Camping Cheques which I somehow doubt. The Club is in an ideal situation to judge how popular Camping Cheques are and I doubt its a growing market.Commercially you usually
expand into growing markets rather than shrinking ones! I suspect the purchase of AR was more to do with having access to their site/holiday booking business.David
Write your comments here...
I don't know whether or not the Club's purchase was because of Camping Cheque or the AR sites/holiday booking business - or both. The Club hasn't ever offerred any of their rationale behind OUR purchase.
Neither do we have any information about the number of CC's sold - increasing or decreasing . As far as the AR sites/holiday booking business enters the equation, what does/did AR do that the Club doesn't/couldn't do? So, why was the purchase made? Was it
classic empire building?In my view, a complete waste of OUR money.
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Val
The e-mail came direct from Camping Cheques. I don't recall ever buying Camping Cheques from the Club. However I do have a Silver Card and a Camping Cheque log-in.
David
PS sent you a copy, maybe twice!!
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I think those who receive the email are those who purchase their Camping Cheques through the Caravan Club. We have a Gold card, so buy ours on line, but we haven't had a similar email (though I do get the odd one from them).
I received the email but it's years since I last bought any CCs from the club, about 10 at a guess. Only bought them that way once. Did buy some about 3 or 4 years ago via the Dutch website as there was an offer of free cheques and no admin fee at that
time.0 -
I received the email from Camping Cheques UK. I have a Gold card and got 3 chqs as part of an ITX deal this year. I think I also subscribed to Camping Cheques emails / newsletter some timweago as I do receive emails on a regular basis. Also when you use
the chqs the receipt is sent by email so the system knows who is using it. As far as Camp. Chqs go, the system has been going downhill for a long time. We go to Spain, there were 42 sites in Spain accepting chqs, now some of them have left and not been replaced.
Compare this situation with the growth of ACSI.0
