Reply to: Joining IPSE+

[malvolio]

Correct - IIRC, it's any IPSE membership.

But make sure you compare like with like - IPSE will pay the costs of the fight, QDos TLC35 will pay the costs and any penalty you face (yes, Mal, I know they have never paid out and it's a really low risk so why bother).

Consider your risk profile, and then decide whether you want one or the other or both - personally, I have both.

And don't forget that if you use someone's Member Get Member referral code when you join (such as IPSEMGM0005 ) then you get a tenner at iTunes or Amazon, and so do I.

IPSE will pay the cost of a fight on any tax matter, not just IR35... and don't forget the other protections you get bundled in.

[TheFaQQer]

IPSE+ offer the PL/EL and PI insurances - Am i right in thinking the IPSE+ membership covers the "tax inquiry insurance" or do I still need to purchase that separately?

Correct - IIRC, it's any IPSE membership.

But make sure you compare like with like - IPSE will pay the costs of the fight, QDos TLC35 will pay the costs and any penalty you face (yes, Mal, I know they have never paid out and it's a really low risk so why bother).

Consider your risk profile, and then decide whether you want one or the other or both - personally, I have both.

And don't forget that if you use someone's Member Get Member referral code when you join (such as IPSEMGM0005 ) then you get a tenner at iTunes or Amazon, and so do I.

[asingh]

Hi Guys, I'm kind of new to contracting so a bit of a newbie question!!

I am currently thinking of joined IPSE+ membership and take out the insurances as well. Just had a quick question i'm hoping someone on here could help me with!

I have the following insurance with QDOS :-
Professional Indemnity
Public Liability
Employer Liability
Tax inquiry insurance.

IPSE+ offer the PL/EL and PI insurances - Am i right in thinking the IPSE+ membership covers the "tax inquiry insurance" or do I still need to purchase that separately?

[psychocandy]

Go to www.ipse.co.uk and look under Membership then Summary and you will get this useful list of what Normal and Plus membership gives you. But in summary it's tax investigation insurance plus a lot of protections against things like Jury Service or your Agency defaulting on their payments that can cost you lots of money for not very much money

HTH. Again.

Sticking up for IPSE here a bit. I dont bother with most of the other stuff but its a no-brainer just for the tax investigation stuff IMHO.

Jury service could come in handy too I guess.

Also, I did claim once for business interruption when agency canned gig on friday at 4pm before monday. To be fair, they probably could have knocked it back, but without any argument, they paid up a days rate as a claim.

[malvolio]

It doesn't... and you don't "HTH" either.

Go to www.ipse.co.uk and look under Membership then Summary and you will get this useful list of what Normal and Plus membership gives you. But in summary it's tax investigation insurance plus a lot of protections against things like Jury Service or your Agency defaulting on their payments that can cost you lots of money for not very much money

HTH. Again.

[flipFlop]

A damned good idea.

HTH...

It doesn't... and you don't "HTH" either.

[malvolio]

What is IPSE+?

A damned good idea.

HTH...

[flipFlop]

After reading up on various threads here and on the IPSE website, I'm thinking of taking the plunge today.

What is IPSE+?

[TheFaQQer]

They only accept debit cards for buying the gift cards, credit cards incur an additional fee.

So they don't "only" accept debit cards - they accept both debit and credit cards, although credit cards incur a fee.

It's hardly an uncommon business practice, though.

And they sometimes add a postage fee on top - so a lot of the savings are wiped out. I gave feedback on this on the IPSE forums and got an unfriendly reply from IPSE on it - the insurance probably makes it worth it, but IPSE Advantages is a bit of a con.

So don't use Advantages, then. Or do the sums and work out whether it's advantageous to you or not. To be fair, it's hardly the most important thing that IPSE does - may people don't bother, although IIRC one of the board members said that he'd saved £700 on purchases that he would have made anyway.

As mal says (and as per the IPSE forum) - members have received £60k in savings not including discounts which don't appear in the running total, so it clearly works for some people.

[eek]

They only accept debit cards for buying the gift cards, credit cards incur an additional fee. And they sometimes add a postage fee on top - so a lot of the savings are wiped out. I gave feedback on this on the IPSE forums and got an unfriendly reply from IPSE on it - the insurance probably makes it worth it, but IPSE Advantages is a bit of a con.

You mean the fact the supplier doesn't hide the fees they incur is a problem to you and you would prefer a smaller discount with them possibly taking more profit...

HSBC until last year offered a similar scheme and I didn't see anything wrong in them passing on their costs (merchant handling fees and postage) to me when they incurred them...

[malvolio]

They only accept debit cards for buying the gift cards, credit cards incur an additional fee. And they sometimes add a postage fee on top - so a lot of the savings are wiped out. I gave feedback on this on the IPSE forums and got an unfriendly reply from IPSE on it - the insurance probably makes it worth it, but IPSE Advantages is a bit of a con.

An unfriendly reply along the lines of IPSE can't dictate how their service providers operate, wasn't it? Members have collectively saved something north of £60k to date, so something must work...

[tl97]

They only accept debit cards for buying the gift cards, credit cards incur an additional fee. And they sometimes add a postage fee on top - so a lot of the savings are wiped out. I gave feedback on this on the IPSE forums and got an unfriendly reply from IPSE on it - the insurance probably makes it worth it, but IPSE Advantages is a bit of a con.

[TheFaQQer]

But yes, I will be looking at the giftcard thing again - I buy lunch in Sainsbury's most days, so might start with that one.

One of the tips from the IPSE forum today was that if you're worried about the card getting lost in the post, and it's one you can top up, then get it for a low amount (that will be covered by Royal Mail if it disappears) and then top it up once you have it.

I should have kept the couple that I've done in the past, but I didn't realise.

[mudskipper]

... Also, I believe anyone can join the Dell VIP club to get discount codes that don't work - I don't think the privilege is just for ipse members, so whether it could be considered a genuine 'advantage' I'm not sure.

[mudskipper]

The problem MS had is nothing to do with the gift card issue. Once you sign up to Dell, they email you a couple of discount codes to start you off. The problem is that the discount codes that you are supposed to apply at the checkout simply do not work!

I was lucky, I found a workaround that did not work for MS. I did complain at the time but haven't seen anything done about it.

This. I tried tractor's workaround (several times and ways - wasted the best part of a day on it. I couldn't get the discount to apply to any product - discounted or not). I then clicked the contact us link in the email from Dell, explained my problem and hit send - the mail immediately bounced back undeliverable. So I contacted edenred to tell them that the dell discount and contact email address didn't work, and they responded asking for my payroll number. I replied to explain I was a freelance IT contractor who had joined via IPSE and therefore had no payroll number, and they replied back to tell me that my payroll number would be issued to me by my employer.

I whinged on the ipse forum, and they have assured me they will look into it (the edenred/payroll thing).

Got narked with it all so bought a laptop from HP using Mr ms's employee discount Now just swearing at Windows 8.1...

But yes, I will be looking at the giftcard thing again - I buy lunch in Sainsbury's most days, so might start with that one.