Membership Fees 2021

At its last meeting, earlier this month, The Board of the CHO spent some time thinking through the way The CHO is funded via member subscriptions. This has been an exceptionally challenging year for everyone, not least during the lockdown which badly impacted claims incidence. The Board also recognised that some reform of the fee structure was needed to create a level playing field and to acknowledge the impact of the pandemic on our members.

With this in mind, the Board of The CHO has agreed several changes for full and associate members during the forthcoming membership year (1 January – 31 December 2021).

Headline Fee reduction

1. Full membership tiers defined by credit hire turnover will remain unchanged. However, headline fees have been reduced in comparison with 2020 as follows –

Early payment discount

2. The early payment discount will no longer be offered as the benefit of this has already been applied in reducing the headline fee.

Payment by Instalments

3. For those members who would like to spread the cost of their membership and pay by instalments, we will offer the facility to pay by up to six monthly instalments, ending no later than 30^th June 2021. Please note that, if an instalment payment is missed, the whole of the remaining balance will become immediately payable in full.
4. The charge for this facility will be 15% of the headline fee for the relevant tier. This is commensurate with what was effectively a 25% charge for payment over ten months in previous years.
5. Please contact Emma Reid via e-mail at reid@thecho.co.uk if you would like to make use of this facility.

GTA subscription

6. CHO full membership will no longer include GTA subscription. This will eliminate the position whereby non-GTA members of The CHO subsidised the CHO memberships fees of those who were GTA subscribers.
7. As a result, all subscribers to the GTA will be invoiced their 2021-22 subscription in June 2021 and this will cover the GTA financial year from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.
8. The Board believes this is a fairer and more transparent approach to CHO membership fees.

Overall

9. Apart from Tier 1, all members will see a reduction in their net fee in comparison with 2020, even with the addition of the now separately billed GTA subscription fee. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Matt Rowland at rowland@thecho.co.uk

What to expect in 2021

The CHO are planning to host a mix of virtual and physical events throughout 2021, with physical events to resume once Government guidance allows us to.

Following on from the Autumn Series of webinars, which were well received by members, The CHO will be hosting another series of webinars early in the new year, at least while physical events continue to be restricted. This will start with a webinar for our GTA subscribing members on 14 January (1pm) where Peter Gomes, GTA Technical Committee CHO representative, will be live to answer any GTA questions you may have and take an in-depth look at the complaints process and the procedures which need to be undertaken to make this an effective mechanism.

If you have any topics or training that you would like to see provided via a webinar, please contact Matt Rowland matt.rowland@thecho.co.uk

We are hoping to be able to return to physical events from May, when we intend to host a networking lunch for our members, giving us all a valuable opportunity to discuss key industry issues and talking points face-to-face for the first time in over a year. More details on this event will be announced in due course, once we are able to confirm in line with Government guidance.

Planning is also going ahead for our annual conference. Please add the 4 November 2021 to your diaries now, and we will announce more details in the new year.