We just had a new adult register online. She had the $14 prorated main fee like expected, but she had some other $0.42 “administrative fee”.
Does anyone know what this is? I didn’t see that in any of the fee announcements.
It’s exactly 3%. Looks like a processing fee (credit card?) is being auto-added to the price, but that’s just speculation on my part.
Credit card processing percent?
Is that disclosed anywhere? It seems to be “usual and customary” now, but if we want to have full disclosure for families, it would be good to know. If it is charged for new scouts, then it will be ($66 + $25) x 1.03 = $93.73. Do you get charged the administrative fee on top of the administrative joining fee?
I don’t disagree with full disclosure. We don’t use the online application process, so I can’t be more helpful in that regard.
This is in fact an administrative fee for processing the cost of the transaction. I agree as well that it might not have been messaged out well. It went into effect with the other fee changes on August 1st at the same time that pay by check or cash was removed from the system.
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OK. Yes, I went back and checked the national communications and didn’t see any mention of it. I then went and looked at the message in my.scouting that talks about how online registration requires credit cards, it makes no mention of it.
We live in a consumer society. Heck, it is even a class in most high schools. When we tell a family it will be $91 to join Cub Scouts on January 1st and it comes back as $93.73 (3% more), people don’t just accept it. They are like “hey, it was $2.73 more than you said”. We can’t just say “oh, well, it was close” because people are like “hey, I got charged the wrong amount. It over charged me”. In the end, it is only 3%, but that is not how people see it.
Add in Boys’ Life and it is not $103 to join on Jan 1, it is $106.09.
No mention on my.scouting
“Online Registration Updates
National 07/01/2020
Effective July 1, 2020, Online Registration will be changed to no longer allow cash/check payments when submitting applications. All applications must use a credit card to be submitted via Online Registration.”
No mention on current “Cost of Cub Scouting” page…
“The annual membership fee is $66 which covers 12 months of members and there is a one time joining fee of $25 (Effective August 1, 2020). For only $1 a month, $12 for the year, Cub Scouts may subscribe to Boys’ Life magazine. There may be additional local program fees and/or dues.”
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This practice is actually illegal in some states. In FL for instance only governments and agencies can charge a higher price for using a credit card. FL does however allow for a cash discount to be given. But then the BSA has so many other legal issues right now the FL State Attorney would just have to get in line.
I suspect that’s why they no longer accept cash for online apps.
