Online Payment

First, you must log in to Beacon. There are two options here, the links for them are shown at the bottom of this page, but don't click them just yet. When you have successfully logged into Beacon, you'll see the option to renew your membership, and this will then guide you through the payment process.

The payments portal is run by PayPal and you can check out as a guest.

You don’t need to have a PayPal Account to use it
- you can just use your debit or credit card
as usual when buying goods online.

Please note:

Renewals opened on Tuesday July 14th and a few users have experienced some niggles.

Firstly, note that these days some banks want you to approve payments by using their app or text messages. This is scam prevention for your card provider and is normal.

Secondly, PayPal have changed their processes this year, and some users are either being forced to log into their PayPal account (if they have one) or led to create a PayPal account (if they haven't got one). We recognise that this is unsatisfactory and have contacted the u3a national office who provide the link with PayPal.  They have assured us that a revised PayPal process is being tested but is unlikely to be in place by September.  However, almost all of you will still be able to use your debit or credit card to make your payment.

Some of the documentation in the guides we have produced may not reflect these latest changes by PayPal, but it seems that different members may see different screens, and since the PayPal process is going to be updated soon, at this stage we don't intend to modify those documents.

Deleting PayPal cookies prior to Renewing may overcome some of these issues, but this will not always be the case. But if you'd like to try this, we have produced a Guide on how to do it by clicking here.

We have set up 2 Support Sessions for those who think they might need help in renewing online. These are on the mornings of August 7th and August 10th. Please contact the Membership Secretary to let us know if you would like to attend and which of the dates (or either) would suit you.

Having said all this, a large number of members have already successfully renewed online, so please give it a go. As you can probably appreciate, online renewal saves our Membership Secretary ( a volunteer) a large amount of work.

The overall message  remains that, apart from a very small number of you (who may need assistance from our support team), you can successfully use your credit or debit card using PayPal as a guest.

We've created a guide on how to go through the PayPal process which you can view as you go through it (or maybe print off before you start). As mentioned above, what you see on your screen may be slightly different. This guide starts from the point at which you have logged in to Beacon, so if you haven't yet registered for Beacon access, you'll need to do that first (using the appropriate button below). The guide will open in a new window but after reading/printing it please return to this window to continue the process.

To open the guide, please click on the button below:

You will not be charged for using online membership services, although our u3a will have a small commission fee deducted from your payment by PayPal - but we think this is worth it.

Completing the form will mean that you agree to the terms of our Data Protection policy, which you can view by clicking on this button:

Right, ready to continue? Then please click on the appropriate button below