10.2.1 Online Renewals

If your u3a has enabled Online Membership Renewal (see 9.8 Setup On-line Transactions), and if you are a current u3a member (or your membership has been lapsed for less than 12 months), you may renew and pay for your membership online via the Members Portal (see 10.2).

If another member shares your address you may choose to renew both memberships at the same time (but read the notes about Gift Aid claims below first).

IMPORTANT: Notes about Gift Aid Claims

• Claiming Gift Aid does not reduce the amount of your payment – it allows your u3a to claim money back from HMRC.
  
  
• Your u3a may not have registered to claim Gift Aid. If this is the case, ticking the Gift Aid box will have no effect on your payment.
  
  
• If you have an Individual membership and you pay online for yourself and another member at the same address, only your subscription will be used for a Gift Aid claim. Therefore, if the other member is eligible to claim Gift Aid and wishes to allow a claim it is better for their membership to be renewed separately.
  
  
• If you have a Joint membership with another member, you may claim Gift Aid on both subscriptions, even if the other members is not a UK tax payer.
  
  
• You will not be charged for using online membership renewal, although you u3a will have a small commission fee deducted from your payment by PayPal.

When can I renew my membership?
You can renew your membership any time from the start to the end of the membership year (and maybe a little earlier if your u3a has enabled an ‘Advanced Renewals’ period).

Depending on the time in the membership year, you will see a screen similar to one of the following when you log-in to the Members Portal:

Renewing Your Membership
Log-in to the Members Portal as described in 10.2 and then click Renew your membership.

Note: the Renewal Fees shown in the pictures below are unlikely to be the same as you will pay – they are for example only.

This is a typical screen that you will see if you are an Individual member:

 

If another u3a member lives at your address, the screen that you will see is different, and you have the option to pay the other member’s subscription at the same time [A]:

If you don’t wish to pay for the other member, untick the box [B] and the amount to pay will update [C]:

If you are a UK tax payer and you would like to let your u3a claim Gift Aid on your subscription, tick the Gift Aid box [D]. If not, make sure the box is not ticked. 

If you are in a Joint membership then you must renew and pay the total fee for both members.

After pressing the Make Payment button, you will be asked to confirm by pressing Continue to PayPal to complete payment.

There are 2 payment options:

• If you have a PayPal account you may log in to your account
  
  
• Alternatively, you can pay with a Debit or Credit Card

The next screen will vary depending on your device's settings and whether it recognises that you have logged into PayPal previously. There may be options to Log in to a PayPal account, to Create a PayPal account, to Pay by Debit or Credit Card or you can select Next to proceed to the "Guest checkout".

 

Paying with PayPal
When paying via your PayPal account, you will see a screen similar to this:

  Press Pay Now to proceed.

Paying with your Credit/Debit Card
When paying by credit/debit card, fill in your card and contact details and then press Pay Now.

Confirmation of Payment
After the transaction has been completed (using PayPal or a card) you will see a confirmation on screen:

 

Press Return to Merchant to return to the to the Members Portal screen, which will show your updated ‘membership continues to’ date.

You will receive 2 confirmation emails:

• A confirmation of payment from PayPal
  
  
• A confirmation from your u3a. This may have your membership card attached (if your u3a has chosen to use this facility)

Revision History

v2	2021-04-27	Graham Tigg	Added link to setting up on-line payments instructions.
v3	2021-07-12	Graeme Bunting	Updated to show changes to the PayPal screens that are presented during payment.
v4	2021-07-29	Graham Tigg	Added Joint membership class example.