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My half-price Ancestry sub was about to expire. Lucky I checked it ... it was going to renew automatically at £234.99. Never! That is completely crazy.
So I cancelled it effective 4 January.
And now that I have cancelled, I check back for rates and now I am offered a 1-year Worldwide sub for £179.99: "Save £60". Hm.
Too late!
One of my 'free accounts' that I opened when there was something free on offer sometime in the last couple of years, when I had let my sub lapse because of the prices, got an offer today via the Canada Ancestry site (I think I had signed up for free access to military records there a couple of years ago at Remembrance Day):
one year Worldwide for half the Canadian price:
regular 300 CAD, offered for 150 CAD.
150 CAD is £73.
Not £235, not £180.
£73.
I cancelled my existing subscription in time, and under the other account, took up that offer like a shot!
If I had a tree at Ancestry under the account that had the subscription I just cancelled (which I would never ever have anyway), I would still be able to access it at that account. I will still be able to reply to private messages, and so on.
And maybe next year, that account will get an offer and I will switch back over. :-)
Meanwhile, I checked the Australia and US sites for prices for one year worldwide, just for interest.
Australia World Heritage is 300 AUD = £148
'special introductory price save AU $299"
US World Explorer is 298 USD = £202
(no special offer)
With my UK subscription running out, had I not serendipitously received the special offer via the Canada site that I was sent, I would have run to the Australia site and renewed for £148, not £235, not £180.
So even if you do not have any special offers, just before your suscription runs out, do two things:
If you do not receive any special offers when you check the renewal price, cancel your subscription.
Then sign out and sign back in (just for good measure), and see what price you are offered. It should be better than what it was going to be, if it's like what I'm seeing.
Then sign out and go to each of the .com, .com.au and .ca sites, and see what prices you are offered there.
(Make sure you are signed out, because when I was signed in, I was offered only an 'upgrade' to the highest level, not a renewal of my present level. It's all very complicated and annoying.)
Pick the lowest one, open a new account and buy your subscription at that site.
Or just try renewing your sub at the Canada site rather than the UK site. Renewing for the regular 300 CAD price is still a lot cheaper than renewing for the regular UK price.
Especially if you store information at Ancestry, of course, you may not want to be switching accounts. But I don't, I just use it for finding info, so it makes no difference to me.
You can easily calculate what each price is, in £, here:
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/
And of course it may be easier just to call Ancestry and see what they will give you.
I just reckoned they would not be offering me a price less than 1/3 of the regular UK subscription price! which is what I got by cancelling and subscribing via the offer I was sent.
And again: always keep an eye out for free offers at Ancestry or anywhere else - special offers to access military records or immigration records or such. Open a separate free account for the offer, and wait to see what else you get offered.
This is my second half-price Ancestry sub, and I'll see what comes up when my half-price FMP sub expires next summer. :-)
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I will certainly keep my eye open for Ancestry deals, thank you. Last month I got a year world FMP for about £35 - had to pay in US dollars but worth it for a bargain!. :-)
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