Membership subscriptions refunds policy

The RCN deals with hundreds of thousands of financial transactions annually. As well as reporting in detail on subscription income, it is also appropriate to monitor and report on financial transactions where refunds related to membership subscription payments are made.

The value, method and number of refunds made is a Membership Department key performance indicator (KPI) and is monitored and reported on a monthly basis.

When refunds can be made?

Refunds on membership subscriptions will be made only in the following circumstances:

  • Where an RCN processing error has resulted in the RCN overcharging the member for their subscription. For example a member may have been incorrectly transferred from student membership to full newly qualified membership either because there is an incorrect training completion date recorded or because of a data processing error.
  • Where a processing or system error has resulted in, or allowed a duplicate membership record to be set up and charged.
  • Where a member has contacted the RCN to cancel or amend a membership payment but where the RCN has been unable to process that request in time to prevent further payment being taken, providing the cancellation request was submitted prior to the payment collection date. Telephone requests to RCN Direct’s 0845 772 6100 telephone service will ordinarily be processed immediately. Written requests (including email) to Membership are expected to be dealt with within four working days, but at peak workload times, this standard may not be met). It should be noted that even if a member contacts the RCN before the collection date, because of lead times required for Direct Debit or annual credit card collections it may still not be possible to prevent collection of payment.
  • Where a member is transferring to a membership category with a lower annual cost having already paid in advance for a higher cost category (eg, an annual cash payer transferring from full to associate retired part way through their membership year).
  • Where a member wishes to transfer to monthly Direct Debit payments having already paid annually in advance.
  • Where a processing or transaction error attributed to the RCN has resulted in the member incurring bank charges.
  • Refunds to annual cash payers cancelling their membership. Paragraph 3.3 of the Rules of the RCN state:
    ”Any...member....shall have the right to have his/her name deleted (from membership) at any time…. In this event there shall be no rebate of any part of the subscription already paid.” Whilst there is no entitlement the practice is to allow a refund based on the balance remaining calculated on the monthly rate to the end of the membership year.

When will refunds not be made

  • Refunds cannot be made to members who indicate that they could have retrospectively been in another membership category: For example a full member who has been non-practising for a period, or on maternity leave etc. The onus must always remain with the member to inform us of required changes to their circumstances at the time of those changes.

Who can authorise a refund?

In order to maintain effective monitoring and control, the authorisation of refunds will be managed as follows:

  • Temporary staff will not be allowed to authorise refunds, but can request the action of a refund. They are able to process correspondence relating to a refund they have requested to be authorised.
  • All refunds must authorised by a Membership team leader or the departmental manager.

Monitoring of refunds

The value and number of refunds will be monitored on a monthly basis as part of Member Services key performance indicator (KPI) monitoring. Adverse trends will be reported through RCN Direct senior management team meetings.