Payments by Bank Transfer or Sterling Cheque
The options to pay by Bank Transfer or Sterling Cheque are offered (for one-off subscriptions) to be helpful to anyone who is not used to making payments over the Internet or who does not have a credit/debit card. Please note that payment by debit/credit card or PayPal account, via our collection agent, would be quicker & easier (& probably more reliable) to arrange than payment by either bank transfer or sterling cheque. Payment by cheque involves an administration charge of £2 (two pounds). For more information on our Membership Scheme, see Membership FAQ.
Please note that, for Payments by Bank Transfer, we do not have a facility in this site for you to enter your bank details. Instead, we ask you to instruct your bank to pay the amount required to our bank. Our bank details are given below. Please remember that, until we have confirmed that we have activated your subscription, any payment you have made by transfer/cheque will be treated as ‘Pending’ and you will not be treated as a Member and so you will not be able to view the Families Database without interruption. However, you should have registered an account with us. If you use that account to pay for another subscription whilst you have a payment still Pending, you may cause unnecessary confusion which might cause things to go wrong for your account – so please don’t do that!
PAYMENTS BY BANK TRANSFER
Payment by Bank Transfer is acceptable for one-off subscriptions (it cannot be used for Recurring subscriptions) provided that all of the following are satisfied:
1. You must have registered with us before we receive your funds (see Note T1 below).
2. The payment must be instructed in favour of Stirnet Limited (at Bank of Scotland, 167-201 Argyle Street, Glasgow G2 8BU, Scotland)
– using sort code: 80-11-80 account number: 00666139
– BIC ref: BOFSGB21009 IBAN ref: GB87 BOFS 8011 8000 6661 39
– ensuring that the amount we receive is no less than the amount due (see Note T2 below).
– providing a reference or name to enable us to identify the payment as being from you (see Note T3 below).
3. Send us, promptly, an e-mail (to the email address shown on the Contact us page):
– identifying yourself by giving your registered Username and, if possible, your Stirnet Registration ID.
– confirming your application to purchase a Membership.
– identifying your country of residence.
– giving the date on which you instructed the payment and (if known) the date on which you expect the payment to be completed.
– giving any reference you have obtained to enable us identify the payment (see 2 above).
– giving the date you would like the membership period to start, if possible (see Note T4 below).
3. The payment must cover the amount due for the subscription period sought (see note T5 below).
Days of Membership | Fee for payment by transfer | |
14 days | £10.00 | |
31 days | £15.00 | |
93 days | £30.00 | |
365 days | £60.00 |
When we have received your email, we will check our bank account as soon as practicable (see note T4 below) and send you one or more confirmatory e-mails, depending on how quickly we see that your transfer has been received in our bank account. We will confirm the date from which your Membership has started/will start.
Notes
T1. It is possible to register and apply for a subscription at the time of registration but to set the subscription to be paid later, offline (which includes through a bank transfer or sterling cheque). In that event, your subscription will be shown as ‘Pending’ until we change it manually to become ‘Active’. Pending status does not provide Membership so you will not be able to view our Families Database without interruption whilst that status prevails.
T2. Membership Fees are set in Pounds Sterling. If you do not operate in Pounds Sterling and you wish to pay by Bank Transfer then you must instruct your bank to pay our bank in Pounds Sterling and ensure that any charges raised by your bank are not deducted from the amount received by our bank. [Most international banks make this easy to do nowadays. A small bank may not.] If we receive an amount less than the full amount due then we reserve the right not to complete the transaction. In such an event we will give you the option of sending the additional amount required to complete the transaction or having a subscription period for less than the normal length (the length being at our discretion, normally significantly less than proportionality would suggest) or (possibly, depending on the amount involved) having the amount we received returned to you subject to deduction of any costs involved in the return (to which may, at our discretion, be added a Returns Administration Charge of up to £20), it being possible that such return might take a few weeks to complete. If we receive an amount that is more than the amount due then, except to the extent that we decide to give you extra days (normally up to a maximum of 31 days), we will retain the excess and deem it to have been a Donation.
T3. If you do not provide a reference or name which we can associate with you, there is a risk that there may be a delay before we can confirm that your payment has been received. That is probably not a large risk, for a problem would only apply if there were one or more other similar transfers around the same day, but it would be a risk nevertheless.
T4. Normally Peter checks for new emails several times a day, and is able to check Stirnet’s bank account without any difficulty, but there are days when he does not have access to emails. They are relatively rare but, when they happen, they will probably coincide with it being difficult for Peter to check Stirnet’s bank account. If you do not hear from us within a reasonable time of telling Peter (by email) that you have made the transfer, try another e-mail to Peter but please be patient if there is a delay in your receiving a response.
T5. Payment by bank transfer no longer involves an administration charge (by us). We reserve the right to change this in the future. The fees shown above are the same as our fees for payment through our standard Registration/Subscription process.
PAYMENTS BY STERLING CHEQUE
WARNING: Payment by cheque is likely to lead to delay when Peter is away from his normal address.
Payment by cheque is acceptable provided that all of the following are satisfied:
1. You must have registered with us before we receive your cheque (see Note C1 below).
2. The cheque must be drawn on a UK bank in Pounds Sterling and be made out in favour of Stirnet Limited.
3. The cheque must cover the amount due for the subscription period sought (see Note C2 below).
– Please note that the amounts due are £2 (two pounds) more than the normal fees because they involve an administration charge (because dealing with cheques causes us some inconvenience).
Days of Membership | Fee for payment by cheque | |
14 days (normal non-cheque cost is £10) | £12.00 | |
31 days (normal non-cheque cost is £15) | £17.00 | |
93 days (normal non-cheque cost is £30) | £32.00 | |
365 days (normal non-cheque cost is £60) | £62.00 |
4. The cheque must be sent to the address shown our Contact us page with a covering letter that:
– confirms that the cheque is in respect of your application for a Monthly, Quarterly or Annual Membership as applicable,
– identifies your name and the Username & e-mail address you have registered with us (and, if possible, your Registration ID).
– identifies your country of residence.
– the date you would like the membership period to start (assuming that we have confirmed clearance of the payment by that date). “As soon as possible” may be the most sensible thing to ask for.
When we have received your letter & cheque, we will send you an acknowledging e-mail, submit the cheque to our bank account as soon as practicable (see Note C3 below), and check our bank account on a regular basis until we have confirmed that your payment has been cleared into our bank account. Once that has been confirmed we will send you a second e-mail advising you of that fact and confirming the date from which your Membership has started/will start.
Notes
C1. It is possible to register and apply for a subscription at the time of registration but to set the subscription to be paid later, offline (which includes through a bank transfer or sterling cheque). In that event, your subscription will be shown as ‘Pending’ until we change it manually to become ‘Active’. Pending status does not provide Membership so you will not be able to view our Families Database without interruption whilst that status prevails.
C2. If we receive an amount less than the full amount due (including the Payment Administration Charge) then we reserve the right not to complete the transaction. In such an event we will give you the option of sending the additional amount required to complete the transaction or having a subscription period for less than the normal length (the length being at our discretion, normally significantly less than proportionality would suggest) or having the cheque torn up. If we receive an amount that is more than the amount due then, except to the extent that we decide to give you extra days (normally up to a maximum of 31 days), we will retain the excess and deem it to have been a Donation. If we receive a cheque in Pounds Sterling but it is not drawn on a UK bank then we reserve the right either to tear it up & ignore the application or to process it (which may take many days if not weeks to clear). If we receive a cheque in a currency other than Pounds Sterling then we will probably just tear it up and ignore the application.
C3. Peter lives in the countryside, several miles from the nearest bank. A week or two can pass before he can get to a bank though, if he thinks that may be the case, he is normally able to post a cheque to Stirnet’s bank. There may be occasions when there is no-one at our home/office to receive the letter & cheque. This may lead to delay before the application is processed. If you do not hear from us within a reasonable time of posting the letter & cheque, contact Peter by e-mail. Even whilst away, he will normally be able to view his emails and advise you when to expect the application to be processed. Please be patient if there is any delay.
C4. If you instruct a non-UK organisation to arrange for a cheque in Pounds Sterling to be sent to us then they may charge you for that service. We suspect that, if you live outside the UK and do not have a Sterling bank account, it will normally be easier & cheaper for you to instruct your bank to pay us by direct transfer than to arrange payment by Sterling cheque.