* New FindMyPast Premium Subscription

[David2416]

Just a heads up to those who may be interested FindMyPast are now offering a new level of subscription "Premium" which gives unlimited access to the 1921 Census.

[jimlad68]

following on from Another Findmypast 1921 census discount (20916), at least a step in the right direction, and earlier than I thought, for something that for similar collections would be part of a general subscription via many providers.

My postulation, I made before this offer:
- By the end of the year 2022, (when pay per view had started to dry up) FMP would offer a Premium subscription for 1921 census.
- This would further monetise for both them and The National Archives before it is offered to other providers like Ancestry and MyHeritage mid/late 2023 (2 years after 100 years), who not being UK centric will offer it as part of their world wide subscription.

[brianlummis]

That was quite opportune, David, as my subscription is due in 2 days' time! It looks as though the additional cost will be £19.99 but with the loyalty discount of 15% that should mean that I get unlimited access for £17. I was going to wait until it became part of the Pro subscription, but I guess that will be at least another year so I might as well bite the bullet. I only need to download 6 images and I am in profit!

Brian

Edit - Caution, I have just tried to upgrade, and it tells me that I will be charged £19.99 today and then £199.99 less discount in 2 days' time - I think I will wait a couple of days!! I am now wondering whether the additional amount for the annual subscription is more than £19.99.

[jimlad68]

loyalty discount of 15%

As with all these sites, pricing/discounts are not uniform especially across borders. Worth checking the USA.....com site as for some subscriptions it is cheaper, others not (make sure you pay with a no currency charge card). And then the value of the £/$ etc can make a big difference. I am not sure how it happened, but although in the UK I pay in USDollars, and the few 1921 census records I got, I had no choice but to pay in USD. But I can't complain, as a FMP PIONEER I got some good discounts for many years.

[arthurk]

Edit - Caution, I have just tried to upgrade, and it tells me that I will be charged £19.99 today and then £199.99 less discount in 2 days' time - I think I will wait a couple of days!! I am now wondering whether the additional amount for the annual subscription is more than £19.99.

If you qualify for the 15% loyalty discount, the renewal price is £169.99 for Premium, and £152.99 for Pro. My Pro sub is due fairly soon, and they've told me that if I contact them in advance they can do it as Premium, and I'll get the discount. Otherwise, if I renew at Pro level and than upgrade manually, I suspect that rather than an extra £17 I'd have to pay £19.99, which the FAQs give as a minimum charge for upgrading.

If you don't qualify for the discount, an annual Premium sub is £199.99, and Pro is £179.99.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Brian, Arthur -- thanks. My pro subscription is up for renewal at the start of November, so I'll contact them in advance as Arthur suggests.

[David2416]

Brian, Arthur -- thanks. My pro subscription is up for renewal at the start of November, so I'll contact them in advance as Arthur suggests.

Mine is due 26th October, so will be doing the same

[AdrianBruce]

... Caution, I have just tried to upgrade, and it tells me that I will be charged £19.99 today and then £199.99 less discount in 2 days' time - I think I will wait a couple of days!! I am now wondering whether the additional amount for the annual subscription is more than £19.99.

So far as I understand, it's a flat rate of £19.99 to upgrade Pro to Premium, regardless of how long your subs has to run - hence the somewhat disastrous offer of £19.99 for 2 days!

[AdrianBruce]

... before it is offered to other providers like Ancestry and MyHeritage mid/late 2023 (2 years after 100 years), ...

So far as I know, TNA will not offer it to anyone. It's up to the other companies to go to TNA and request to licence the 1921. And when that can be available will depend on how long a period of exclusive access FMP negotiated.

So far as I can see, the 1939 Register came out on FMP in November 2015, and Ancestry followed suit in May 2018 - 2y 6m, roughly.

Not sure about the 1911 because that came out (early) in 2009 on FMP and was planned to complete in 2011 on Ancestry. So all a bit vague, I'm afraid, from me.

Given the effort that had to be put into the 1921 digitisation by FMP, thanks to the security concerns, my wild guess is 2y 6m at least before Ancestry can release it.

[davidf]

Given the effort that had to be put into the 1921 digitisation by FMP, thanks to the security concerns, my wild guess is 2y 6m at least before Ancestry can release it.

But you then wonder "how" they would do it and how much FMP has "got enough return" and how much "ownership" TNA has over the digitalised data?

Presumably TNA do not want to submit fragile records to another digitalisation exercise - never mind the on-site (Cheshire Salt-mines?) disruption involved. So what are the actual ownership licencing options?

• TNA "own" the digital images, in which case at the end of the "exclusivity period" agreed with FMP, they just licence access to those images to Ancestry etc. who then apply their own character recognition process to produce another unique transcript - useful for getting a "2nd opinion" - although not getting a second "image" for a deeper "2nd opinion".
• FMP own the digital images - possibly with some agreement with TNA that they make them more generally available after the exclusivity period.
• FMP own the images and after the exclusivity period (or even during it?) can choose to onward licence the images, even the transcripts and indices to others prepared to pay - i.e "cashing out".
• Other?

That penultimate option would mean relative rapid availability; the others would imply some delay whilst Ancestry (or whoever) process the images and create their own transcripts and indices.

[ColeValleyGirl]

I'd expect it to be similar to the 1939 register digitised by FMP, for which Ancestry has used "Crown copyright images reproduced by courtesy of TNA, London England. 1939 Register", so your option 1.

[davidf]

Thanks I had missed that detail of the copyright on the 1939 Register.

Still presumably a business option for FMP to decide that the one-off sale value of the transcripts and indices to a competitor exceeds the disbenefit of a competitor getting "their 1921 census" to the market slightly quicker. Although I imagine that FMP indices may not help Ancestry that much if they cannot easily write a reliable conversion routine.

[ChrisRead]

Typical, I got a subscription two days ago after trialling FMP on a one month subscription in August (mainly to get some 1921 census entries). The £20 upgrade is cheaper then micropayments for a bunch of others I was leaving until such time as there was a package that included them, which turns out to be today .

[tatewise]

I've moved this to the Genealogy News forum as IMO it is not an FH General Usage topic.

[David2416]

My apologies for misposting

[fhtess65]

Good to know what the price will be to renew with premium. My sub doesn't expire til next May, so as a birthday treat to myself next month, I'll pay the £19.99 this once, knowing what my renewal will be next year, including the loyalty discount. I suppose I could wait til next May, but there are family mysteries that may be solved by the 1921 census. Buying them piecemeal has worked ok thus far, but it would be nice not to have to worry each time I want to buy.

Thanks for the info

If you qualify for the 15% loyalty discount, the renewal price is £169.99 for Premium, and £152.99 for Pro. My Pro sub is due fairly soon, and they've told me that if I contact them in advance they can do it as Premium, and I'll get the discount. Otherwise, if I renew at Pro level and than upgrade manually, I suspect that rather than an extra £17 I'd have to pay £19.99, which the FAQs give as a minimum charge for upgrading.

If you don't qualify for the discount, an annual Premium sub is £199.99, and Pro is £179.99.

[keith_r59]

According to the Find My Past website their exclusivity will last for up to three years.

Is the 1921 Census available anywhere else online?

As The National Archives’ digitisation partner, Findmypast is the only genealogy website to offer access to the 1921 Census of England and Wales. This exclusivity will last for up to three years. During that time, Findmypast is the only place online to search the 1921 Census, as well as view images and transcriptions of the records.

[David2416]

Hi all, I spoke to FindMyPast just now as my pro subscription expires 26 October 2022. They could not upgrade the renewal to a Premium subscription - the advice I received was to allow the renewal to go through as usual with the 15% loyalty discount, then upgrade at the rate of £19.99 - they could not give a discount on that.

So that is what I'll do.

It was pointed out I that in the meantime I could still use micropayments to view 1921 Census documents; think I can wait a few days

[arthurk]

Hi all, I spoke to FindMyPast just now as my pro subscription expires 26 October 2022. They could not upgrade the renewal to a Premium subscription - the advice I received was to allow the renewal to go through as usual with the 15% loyalty discount, then upgrade at the rate of £19.99 - they could not give a discount on that.

So that is what I'll do.

Strange - two days ago (11 Oct) they told me this in an email:

The cost to upgrade to the Premium subscription is £19.99. However, we can arrange for your account to renew to the Premium subscription on 27th October. You would receive a 15% discount which would reduce the cost to £169.99.

If you would like us to arrange this for you, please let us know before your renewal is due.

Maybe they've had a change of policy, then, as they've found that people in our position are planning to get the upgrade as part of the renewal - and then in effect get it for £17 rather than £19.99? I was planning to ring them in the next few days to arrange this, so I'll be interested to see what they have to say.

[brianlummis]

I am not sure that FMP have quite worked out how subscribers can upgrade on renewal. I emailed them 2 days ago and was told that my subscription would be upgraded to Premium on renewal today. My subscription is still detailed as Pro with renewal supposedly having taken place at 01:53 UTC and the payment being £199.99 less 15% i.e., the Premium rate. It also tells me that I can Subscribe on some pages and Upgrade on others if I pay £0.01per month including the 15% discount! I cannot get free access to the 1921 census.

I am still waiting for a response to an email sent 4 hours ago pointing out that there is a problem!

Brian

[dewilkinson]

I upgraded yesterday without difficulty, but I am part way through my annual Pro subscription. It won't be long before I have saved money.

[arthurk]

Hi all, I spoke to FindMyPast just now as my pro subscription expires 26 October 2022. They could not upgrade the renewal to a Premium subscription - the advice I received was to allow the renewal to go through as usual with the 15% loyalty discount, then upgrade at the rate of £19.99 - they could not give a discount on that....

Strange - two days ago (11 Oct) they told me this in an email:

The cost to upgrade to the Premium subscription is £19.99. However, we can arrange for your account to renew to the Premium subscription on 27th October. You would receive a 15% discount which would reduce the cost to £169.99.

If you would like us to arrange this for you, please let us know before your renewal is due.

.... I was planning to ring them in the next few days to arrange this, so I'll be interested to see what they have to say.

I've just rung FindMyPast and agreed with them that I will upgrade to Premium as of 27 October, at the quoted price of £169.99.

I don't know if this is (a) because this is their standard policy and David was given wrong information, or (b) if their policy has changed and/or I was given wrong information, but they are honouring what they put in the email.

[brianlummis]

I have obviously had a curse placed on me as I did not get an answer to my email this morning, but just received notice that I had paid the full amount of £199.99 for the Premium subscription, with no loyalty discount! Hopefully a telephone call has sorted it out and I have been promised a refund.

Coincidentally, notice of another annual subscription that I have to a newspaper was also received today, and that was overcharged as well. That has turned out better as they have given me a 50% discount as an apology for their error!

Brian

[fhtess65]

I do wonder if whoever you spoke to was mixed up given that this new sub has just been introduced. Hope you get it sorted so you can get the premium account with the loyalty discount. If it were me, I'd call back to clarify.

Teresa

Hi all, I spoke to FindMyPast just now as my pro subscription expires 26 October 2022. They could not upgrade the renewal to a Premium subscription - the advice I received was to allow the renewal to go through as usual with the 15% loyalty discount, then upgrade at the rate of £19.99 - they could not give a discount on that.

[Valkrider]

I have obviously had a curse placed on me as I did not get an answer to my email this morning, but just received notice that I had paid the full amount of £199.99 for the Premium subscription, with no loyalty discount! Hopefully a telephone call has sorted it out and I have been promised a refund.

Coincidentally, notice of another annual subscription that I have to a newspaper was also received today, and that was overcharged as well. That has turned out better as they have given me a 50% discount as an apology for their error!

Brian

I have exactly the same issue, my annual subscription was renewed automatically last month at the essential level and not the premium level which I have had for years. Got absolutely no where with customer service to sort it out and apply the normal loyalty discount. Not at all impress with FMP at the moment.