Ancestry help please

[quiffdo]

Hello

I want to join ancestry and im just looking at the prices now but i dont understand.

I want to pay monthly as in a set amount out of my bank account each month and i also need to know which one you guys thinks is the best value for money.

Thanks

Danny

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

Two packages for UK records

Essentials or Premium

The price has been hiked up recently and if you went on a monthly payment option you get walloped again, the (basic) Essentials package will cost a massive £10.95 per month I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

The UK site is probably the most expensive of all the Ancestry domains available.

The way things are going FMP is better value but they don't have quite the depth of records.

[Tom Tom]

Personally, I prefer ancestry to all the other sites but don't know what I will think in July when I have to re-new.

I paid it up front, and wasn't aware that you could pay monthly. I did see on the site where it gives you a price per month but it had a * next to it which then said you paid it all in one go.

I am not sure what the different packages are at the moment, but the things I use most on there are the census, the telephone directories, the war records, the BMD indexes and the medical registers.

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

Ancestry vs FMP

See page 5 and 6 on the following thread

http://www.familytreeforum.com/research-qs/48021-gobsmacked-cost-ancestry-mo.html

[quiffdo]

I really hate always asking for help with viewing census so im going to have to join a site soon but now the prices seem extremely steep im going to have to pick carefully.

Danny

[Tom Tom]

Ancestry have more census records available, but the quality of FMP transcriptions are better.

I am so used to ancestry now though that I don't really want to change.

[KiteRunner]

I would definitely say ancestry but not sure if I will be able to figure out how you get a monthly subscription because I usually find it impossible to get to the info about buying a UK sub as I already have a world one. I used to have a quarterly sub but I know they don't do those any more.

Your best bet might be to phone ancestry up and ask what the options are - their number is 0800 345 7917.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Danny

Well, you could try this:

Pay for one month and then cancel. I guarantee you will then receive an invitiation to subscribe again but at a lower cost.

I think Ancestry are losing a lot of subscribers due to the hike in costs, which, to be fair to them, does have something to do with the appalling exchange rate, pounds to dollars.

OC

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

Danny

I appreciate the annual sub is a big lump of money at one go but if you took the monthly package it's an obscene amount of money to pay.

Just checking on the site the price difference between the annual and monthly option is £48 (£83.40 annual vs £131.40 monthly).

http://www.ancestry.co.uk/subscribe/signup.aspx?offerid=0%3A7858%3A0&SourceId=&TargetId=

[quiffdo]

Ive decided to go for Ancestry for sure, and i think ill try OC's advice first.

I can pay for 1month and see if they offer lower after that.

Thankyou all for your suggestions, ive bookmarked this page.

Danny

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

Pay for one month and then cancel. I guarantee you will then receive an invitiation to subscribe again but at a lower cost.



OC

Hope that isn't a personal gaurantee OC,
I have cancelled twice now just prior to when annual sub has expired, quoting the increased prices as the reason but never had any discount offered, nor did i have any joy when i tried on the phone when others did succeed. I reckon Ancestry are getting tougher with pricing policy and discounts are out the window altogether.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Erm, perhaps I should therefore amend my post to read

"I can almost guarantee" lol!

OC

[Darksecretz]

Danny,

I recently let my ancestry subs lapse, and having credits on FMP for the beta testing thought, hmmm perhaps I'll sub to FMP instead for a year.

looking at the prices something like £92 for FMP Explorer and £82 for Ancestry,

I know ancestry back to front and tried to get my head around FMP but it seems so cumbersome to search... it seemed to take forever to search the bmd index.

It might be just me, but I did succumb and have taken out another ancestry sub, but if the prices get much higher i doubt whether I will continue to subscribe.

'tis upto you laddo....

[Punchs mum]

Ancestry subs

Like I have said before a while ago, when you divide up the annual cost of Ancestry in to 52 weekly payments, it only works out at £1.60 a week! What can you get for £1.60 a week. My paper bill is double that! The problem is having to pay up front with the £83.40!!

Having said that, I still have not renewed since my subs. expired in early December. Am still waiting for that elusive e mail with an offer of a discount!! Don't know how much longer I can hang out though. Now that Christmas is over and I have more time, I am now beginning to miss Ancestery and it won't be long before I renew.

Does anyone know if I can renew through Quidco using the same e mail address and user name as I have been using? At least that way there is a chance of getting the 25% discount.

Lesley

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

No idea about the Quidco query, Heather PT is probably the font of knowledge on that one.

The way Danny is proposing for his sub works out at over £2.50 per week, it doesn't sound much but for the year he would end up paying £48 more than the standard basic package. Or put another way, close to a 6 month top of the range package on the FMP site.

Ok so just on annual subs the options are

Ancestry Essential £83.40
Ancestry Premium £107.40

FMP Discovery £64.95 (bmd, overseas bmd and census)
FMP Voyager £89.95 or 6 months at £54.95

FMP also have a loyalty discount scheme, i seriously doubt Ancestry will freeze prices for existing members let alone offer any loyalty bonus.

Ancestry might offer a bit more in the way of records but it's a lucky researched who can use the entire database of any site to the full potential, loking at how my tree is developing the overseas bmd records on FMP look more appealing all the time and the death duty records have been useful in the past. Horses for courses but in my case FMP is likely to get the nod this time.

[KiteRunner]

Danny, it will be worth checking what you are agreeing to if you decide to pay monthly - are you obliged to keep subscribing for a year or are you allowed to stop after 1 month?

[quiffdo]

I was wondering about that Kite.

Do you happen to know that if i subscribe for the year, when the 1911 census comes out will it be added to ancestry and will it be included for the subscribers?

Danny

[Sammy]

I have just come off Ancestry as the hike in subscription is far to high another good site is The Genealogist which is £68 for the year or Family Relatives which is only £37 for the year
Sammy

[Elaine ..Spain]

The 1911 census will initially only be available on a pay per view basis, through the official 1911 census site. At a later date - we don´t know when - it looks as if it will be available through the Findmypast site as part of the subscription package.
No idea if or when it might be included in Ancestry - but I would imagine it´s a long way off

[KiteRunner]

Danny, initially Find My Past will be the only site to have the 1911 census but it won't be included in subs to Find My Past at first, you will have to buy pay-as-you-go credits for it. I'm not sure exactly when other sites such as ancestry will be given the chance to index and scan images for the 1911 census but no doubt when they are allowed to, they will include it in the existing subs as they have done when the other censuses have been added. I have no idea if this will happen within the next year, though.