Camping Cheques
Received a phone call this morning from the clubs overseas travel to inform me that changes are to be made to Camping Cheques. They will be going up by £1 in the new year and unless I paid the full amount for my ferry crossing and cheques today I would not only have the extra charge but would have to have paper cheques as they will not be able to load my Gold Card in the new year.
I am lucky as I only order the minimum (3 on this booking) to get the ferry discount but if you do use Camping Cheques and have a Gold Card to pay for your campsites you may want to order this side of Christmas.
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This may be of interest from an e-mail I have just received:-
We'd like to inform you about some important changes that are taking place to the Camping Cheque scheme in 2017.
The Caravan Club and Alan Rogers act as an agent for Camping Cheque, which is owned and operated by Vacalians Group in France. Below, we explain the changes that will take effect from January 1 2017.
Multi price structure
Vacalians Group has introduced a multi price structure for Camping Cheque in 2017. Each site is now priced at either €15, €17 or €19, depending on its quality and facilities. For the 2017 season and beyond, Silver and Gold Cards will function as debit cards onto which a value of money is loaded, rather than individual Cheques.
How does this affect my existing Camping Cheques?
Paper or digital Cheques priced at £14.95 that are bought before January 1 2017 will be honoured and valid until the original expiration date and accepted throughout the Camping Cheque site network. In other words, you can use Cheques just as you did before. You won't however, be able to extend the life of your Cheques after they expire.
How do I purchase Camping Cheques in 2017?
Unfortunately, the Caravan Club Contact Centre and website are no longer able to support transactions on Silver and Gold Cards. Silver and Gold Card holders can load a monetary value onto their cards via the Camping Cheque website and this will be in euros only.
Customers who use paper Cheques can still purchase individual Cheques via the Camping Cheque website or combined with a ferry via the Caravan Club Contact Centre and website throughout 2017. These will be priced at £15.95 and valid until December 31 2018, and will be accepted across the Camping Cheque site network.
Can I buy Cheques at £14.95 until the end of the year?
You can continue to buy paper Cheques at a price of £14.95 per Cheque until December 31 2016. These, however, will expire at the end of December 2017 and cannot be renewed or extended. If you choose to buy these, you will be required to pay in full at the time of booking.
What about ferries?
The Caravan Club and Alan Rogers cannot sell in euros, nor are we able to package a ferry crossing with a monetary value. Unfortunately, this means you will only be able to purchase a ferry crossing with paper Camping Cheques.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your valued custom and offer our support, should you have any queries or concerns.I can see the sense of them having a multi price structure and I think the move to euro pricing is sensible.
David
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Last week I booked an ITX package of ferry and cheques.
Reading Davids post I am left wondering what it means for me, and assume that the club will at some point contact me, but having taken the minimum 5 cheques to get the deal I can live with the possible £5 additional cost to get cheques that will be valid beyond 2017.
I used to use cheques exclusively and never had an issue using them up but in recent years I buy them to get the ITX fare and tend to be using them up the following year.
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Another nail in the Camping Cheque coffin.
We are no longer to be allowed the convenience of gold or silver cards - except on their website. Some people will have gold cards, purchased at a price of (I believe) 45 euros, supposedly valid for three years. Will they be offered compensation for the (partially) unusable portion? I doubt it.
Will the sites receive more than the current 11 euros, which I suspect is the main reason for the massive drop in the number of sites which accept cheques.
if we want the reduced ferry prices that come with the purchase of cheques we will have to pay £15.95 which is almost 19 euros (even at the recently fallen rate of exchange). Will this cover the full range of site prices of up to 19 euros?
What we need is some better means of access to the ITX ferry rates. let's hope it comes in 2018 !!
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Don't forget when you buy something in Euros on a credit or debit card your bank may charge a commission for this service
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So I can buy a paper cheque from the Club at £15.95 and spend it in France at a campsite which may only be charging £12.58 (15 euros). A Bargain?
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It's interesting that on the Camping Cheques France website there is no indication that prices are going to be 'in bands' - just a single advertised price per cheque of 16 euros (£13.40 at today's rate) - and both Gold Cards and Silver Cards are still being advertised.
Given that the Caravan Club were advising us that they had 'hedged' purchase of euros at 1.25 to the pound in order to secure good value for customers, I wonder if the exchange rate we're expected to pay for the new 'Euro' Camping Cheques actually reflects that.
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I have a ferry crossing booked with the club and a site for the first week.
The site works out at £12.80 per night. However the site is a Camping Cheque site so booking and paying with cheques is £15 at the new rate, something wrong with the system I think.
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Got my call at 1500 today.
Whilst I can appreciate that the changes could be seen as a negative, it seems that those using Silver/Gold cards fare worst, for most people the savings must dwarf the additional costs.
Our 2017 trip, Brittany Ferries Plymouth/Rosoff out Thursday night in May and back Sunday morning in June, and the cost of the ferry portion of the fare was £241 including the cabin.
The price booking direct with BF? ................£573 so a saving of £332.
So, after the increased cost of £5, I am still £327 in pocket.
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I just took Camping Trologot as an example, looked it up on the new Camping Travel Club website - and it says 6 Cheques for 7 nights. But you will have to look in the same way for any site which interests you.
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I don't know. As you say you have already booked presumably you have pad a booking fee, agreed to pay their standard tariff, and have a contract with them on that basis. I don't know whether they will let you change the terms of the booking you have made. The whole essence of Camping Cheques was always that they were for people who had not booked. Perhaps others can advise.
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If you've booked already then the site might not be happy about you trying to change and use Camping Cheques. The idea behind Camping Cheques is that sites can fill empty pitches, at a somewhat reduced price............ so they're not going to want to lose your booking. You may also find that the saving is so small that it's not worth buying the cheques, adding on the Admin fee..............etc.
Stick to your booking, but if you're visiting France in June next year then I would suggest it's very rarely necessary that you book in advance, and that way you can use your ACSI Card or Camping Cheques and move on as and when you wish.
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Occasionally, depending on your particular circumstances, the ACSI rate can even be higher than the site's standard tariff! I expect the same applies to Camping Cheques, though I have never used them.
Like many others, I never book sites abroad.
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