Ancestry fee increase

[Hackstaple]

"They replied saying they had no plans to introduce a direct debit option (which I hadn't mentioned at all, grrrr)". 


Just a mild query - how else could they offer a monthly sub unless by Direct Debit?

[claire31]

Mmmmmmm not too impressed and only been on it for 5 mins.  It gave you 10 free credits and gave the impression that searching was free.  Tried to locate someone on a census - who I know is on a census I just need some extra info and it says they are not there.  I tried a range of spellings etc and then realised they had taken 5 credits away.!!!

Claire

PS now am very dubious

[Sloe Gin]

"They replied saying they had no plans to introduce a direct debit option (which I hadn't mentioned at all, grrrr)". 


Just a mild query - how else could they offer a monthly sub unless by Direct Debit?

The same way you pay them for anything - online credit card payment, cheque in the post, whatever.  I'm talking about paying for one month's access, not a year's sub paid monthly.  Sorry if I wasn't clear, but I did spell out what I meant in my email to them.

Claire31, which site are you looking at, is it The Genealogist?

[claire31]

Yes sorry I was looking at The Genealogist as mentioned by The Musicman.  It si incredibly vague as to how it works or I am just not getting it.  It could be either at the moment.  The only consolation is the credits costs me nothing and they only have my email address, so I guess the worst they can do is send me lots of annoying emails??  Maybe I am being naive!!!

I may try it again today and see if anything works without removing credits!

Claire

[Selina]

I seem to recall the same thing happening to me when I tried The Genealogist.

It's odd that Ancestry appear to be alienating customers with increased charges and reduced services just when FindMyPast looks to be on the up and up in popularity.

This is the time they should be reversing their policy - reduced charges and increased services!

Selina

[claire31]

I have just had another bash at the Genealogist.  Credits have gone and I have learnt nothing and I don't think I can find anything else out without new credits.  The BMD are just the same as everyone else.  The census is a pain, they want you to choose a county first, so if you have lost a relative you could be there for a while.  It doesn't give you enough info to make an informed decision about which to pay to look at.  So you can see surname and age, but not area, male/female.  I think it talks a good talk but you would lose alot if you did it on credits and spend a lot of time messing on a full subscription.  In addition to that, I lost credits through  pages not loading, did someone say that happened to them on other credit based sites??  All in all I wasn't impressed.  I am going to spend my life in the library instead!

Claire

[Nick29]

About a month after I renewed my annual Ancestry World Membership, I purchased a copy of FTM 2008 which had 6 months free subscription, so it topped up my membership for another 6 months.  So, I'm fully paid up until September 2009 ! 

[jc26red]

I used to have an unlimited annual membership for the Genealogist at the time when 1841 had just come online but not yet on Ancestry.  Credits are just not worth it!
It is also very good for BMD Index  search and no missing pages like Ancestry, you can zip through the trawl easily.

It doesn't have 1881 census but it does have the others. Searching is done by county so could take longer but you can also search by street or add occupation. The result list has occupation so you can filter quicker if your person had a defined occupation.  I  often found my person in the Genealogist which had been poorly transcribed or even missing in Ancestry

In the end, it wasn't worth having 2 subs one for Ancestry and one for the Genealogist but I liked both of them.  Parishes are not worth it  and other small databases they have - never found a sausage in there. As I had done my major BMD work,  I opted to stay with Ancestry for Censuses and other databases.

Jenny

[Necromancer]

pretty much the conclusion I reached - plus Genealogist struck me as over-heavy in useage conditions and also somewhat arrogant.