CC Rallies
We have not been on a rally for sometime and decided to try one this year. We are still required to send a deposit cheque to book a rally. The organisers of the rally insisted that you write out the full name "The Caravan & Motorhome club - XXXXXX centre". You have to be very lucky to get all of that in on the "To" line if you have bad handwriting. Surely using C&MC - XXXX centre woudl suffice? Unfortunately our cheque was refused as I had not put "centre" after the name of the centre as I could not fit it all in.
Actually I thought that we no longer had a cheque book until the wife mentioned she had seen one when moving some stuff around recently after Xmas. It had not been used for several years. Surely in this day and age centre rallies could move into the 21st century and find a different way to get a deposit payment like using Paypal or similar? After all you can book a main CC site without a deposit, but a rally insists that a deposit is paid! We are quite happy to pay the full amount upfront.
We can accept paying a deposit and have no objection except to the method of paying this small deposit using an outdated cheque book. Plus you need to remember that you have cheque outstanding and it may be "outstanding for months before it is submitted to the bank.
Surely there has to be a better way of booking rallies?
Comments
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Bank transfer is the obvious answer. It can be done at your bank either in person or by phoning them, or via online banking. Unlike PayPal, it won’t cost the centre anything to use, in fact they’ll save by not having to pay cheque handling charges.
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We would definitely prefer bank transfer but our centre does not give us that option. With bank transfer it is done an dusted and as you have the details set up, easy to make the payment of the balance the day before going on the rally.
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Exactly, it’s simple.
If your centre has a bank account, which they obviously have, there is no valid reason why they can’t give you the account details to allow electronic transfers to occur. It’s not a security issue because those details are seen by anyone in receipt of one of their cheques.
I'd contact them, Surfer.
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You can get your bank to accept obvious variants of your actual title.
The treasurers job and the jobs of marshals are all done by volunteers and we are finding that the people interested is a diminishing number so you are sometimes committed to the methods and procedures that the volunteers are most comfortable with. Every AGM we have suggestions from members of improving procedures but unfortunately they never come forward to volunteer themselves.
Another problem we find is how many landowners insist, for obvious reasons, on settlement in cash only.
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We recently joined the RCA Retired Caravanners Association and booking a rally with them is so much easier and no necessity to use cheques. Another plus is that most rallies are for a minimum of 9 days.
I appreciated that the job is done by volunteers who work very hard to make a rally successful and hats off to them however BACs or Paypal would be the way forward in the 21st century.
Paying the landowner in cash may be a problem if every one that arrived on the rally paid by cheque on the day that they arrived!
We aren't bothered with weekend rallies as they work out to be poor value for money if you take into consideration the fuel used to travel the distance you need to drive to spend less than 48 hours on a rally field. We do prefer the longer rallies with EHU.
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Our centre is finding it hard to find volunteers and although it might be easier for a rallier to pay in their chosen way I would like to think that we fit in with the preferred finance methods in order to keep centres running. No volunteers, no rallies. Hope you enjoy your RCA rally Surfer, I've yet to book a rally this year as some haven't been finalised yet, no doubt due to the volunteer situation so hats off to all who help out.
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We left the RCA because in the past you had to pay in full for a rally even if you couldn't stay to the end. Now we only pay for the nights we stay.
The good thing about the RCA is that, unlike the CAMC, their structure has found a way around the dreaded VAT payment.
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"The good thing about the RCA is that, unlike the CAMC, their structure has found a way around the dreaded VAT payment."
There is no smoke and mirrors involved there, just keep the taxable turnover below the £85,000 VAT registration threshold for 2019.
Don't encourage too many members to join or it could cross the line and prices jump by 20%.
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Yes, you are probably right as some of the sites they use are on land owned by VAT liable organisations. It is hard to credit even any modern farm these days operating sub the threshold, and proper camp sites could not sensibly operate on such a low turnover.
It does then beg the question how legally as claimed earlier, other than £3 on the £15 annual membership fee?
"The good thing about the RCA is that, unlike the CAMC, their structure has found a way around the dreaded VAT payment."
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I've just got our 2023 book and couldn't believe that you still have to book by posting a handwritten piece of paper and pay a deposit by cheque. I haven't had a cheque book for years! Also, the lack of working pens in the house might be an indication of how often I handwrite anything. My disability makes handwriting very difficult.
I would love to start attending rallies. Many of the ones in the book sound good but I'm sure booking could be made easier.1 -
Don't forget that Rallies are a bit of a Cottage Industry run by volunteers. You could perhaps ask them if you could do a bank transfer rather than sending a cheque. Must admit I don't use my cheque book very much and I get annoyed if I get a cheque in the post from someone/organisation I have previously paid online. National Lottery I am perfectly happy to receive cheques from
David
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The East Yorkshire rally book.
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I did ask but they said it isn't possible. To be honest, I haven't got the energy after a day at work to faff around with it. I'll just pay more and stay on club sites.
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