One job, they have one job, why cant they do it?

[GnomeDePlume]

I'm an accountant, like loads of other accountants I have to renew my membership every year before 1st January.

Every year the same - they cant process the payment. Why? Because they dont invest in a decent payment system which can cope with the entirely predictable volume of transactions.

What are they spending the membership fees on? In my nearly 30 years of membership the only thing I have had from them is a free orange juice once at a conference. I'm not even sure they paid for that.

Sorry, I needed to vent before I send them a snotty email using un-accountant language!

Surely they havn't sent out your first membership renewal reminder 2 days before the end of the year?

I am a member of 2 professional bodies, and they both wanted payment by 1 Dec for 2025 fees.

It's not my first reminder but also payment isn't due until 1st January. Most of the people I know pay their membership fees over Christmas.

It is just annoying that an accounting organisation can't organise something so basic as fee payment.

What are they spending the membership fees on? In my nearly 30 years of membership the only thing I have had from them is a free orange juice once at a conference.
I hear you.
You'd think that they, of all people, would understand the concept of 'value for money'.

FYI if you forget and don't do it until later in January nothing bad happens. Or at least nothing bad has happened to me yet.

DH is on direct debit but I can't have both of them coming out of the joint account on 1 January. We'd be bankrupt. So I pay mine once I've got back to work and put in a preemptive expense claim.

I just wish mine would take monthly direct debits. ( one of my subsidiary quals manages this)

Surprising AND disappointing since the thing most websites can do best is take your money instantly! 😂

And it's not even 31 Dec - I might be more sympathetic to them if it were. Plus, although there are surely many accountants nationally, that can't possibly be a number sufficient to crash a website.

Its not worth the money to upgrade the system though for the sake of a few days disruption a year (as frustrating as it is). I just make sure I pay before the last week.

I hear you. I'm retiring from public practice on 31 Dec so need to remove the practising certificate from my membership renewal.

Spent 1hr20m waiting for a live chat operator to tell me that I needed to email them. One address responded with an autoreoly saying they would respond in 10 working days, and the second said 15 working days.

Hence they definitely won't be getting paid by 1 January.

CIMA are shocking for this.
I am retired. They can't retain that fact and you have to contact them to get the retired rate. But not by phone, only by online chat. Which frequently has no operator available to chat.
It is crazy!

@Chewbecca
Do you mind if I ask why you pay a retired rate? What is the benefit to you of membership if you are no longer working?

Good question!
I have retired early and have no intention of working again but couldn’t quite bring myself to give up my letters!

Yup, that's the one. I am wondering if they got their new system (it didn't used to be this bad) from Fujitsu.

Omg - I have just realised I haven't paid CIMA for 2024 - no reminders nothing!!!!
I am really not sure what they do with subscription as I don't think I got anything from them even when I did pay....

Interesting you had no reminders yet they reminded me constantly (weekly since about August I would guess?) even though I told them I was retired! They don't have any way of recording that fact apparently?! Their IT is shite, and agree that the new system is even worse than the old, which was also shite.

Perhaps they will take your membership away one letter at a time. Eventually you will be left with an A but you won't know whether it stands for Accountant or Associate.

@Chewbecca it all headed downhill when CIMA merged with the other lot.

Are you allowed to pay it early or set up an annual direct debit/standing order?

I can well imagine. I might start a thread about the poor administration at CIPD, notwithstanding the boilleaux on their website that bears little resemblance to actual practice.

I knew this would be CIMA, last year I couldn't pay until well into the new year because they couldn't take my payment - think the fees have give up quite a bit, guess they weren't invested in processing payments anyway...

Paying early feels like rewarding their incompetence. Also you can't pay until they set the new fee.

They can't manage to take a very straightforward payment. Do I trust them to be able to manage taking a payment every year?

CIMA drive me bonkers. The renewals process in impenetrable / worse again if you need a practising certificate.

I happen to work with quite a few trade and industry bodies and (with only one or two exceptions) they are nearly all completely administratively chaotic organisations. But there's no excuse for large, well funded bodies like CIMA. just wish it was easier.

Does yours not autorenew?

I've had umpteen emails from them to tell me I will be charged January 1st for my membership but haven't had to do anything as the card details are the same.

Might be an option to set it to do this?

@Sunshineandlollipop I thought I had ticked the box to say autorenew last year but I had so many goes last year I may have forgotten in the sheer relief of finally getting my payment accepted.