Season tickets – where does your money go?

Make your way down to the ticket office and hand over cash, and the money is the club's, pay by cheque and there is only a short delay whilst the cheque clears, but hand over your credit card or your debit card to pay and the club will be waiting for their money a lot longer than you might think.

Should you pay by either of these cards, and there is no difference between credit and debit, then I learned just over a week ago that the club will only receive the money in instalments over next season.

Do you find that difficult to believe? Barry Kilby said only this weekend that Burnley Football Club are still to receive some of the money paid by us for season tickets in April last year, if we (and in my case it was a debit card) paid by card.

Outrageous, too damn true it is, but there appears very little the club can do about it, but it has been explained in the 2006/07 season ticket brochure, a brochure that should really have been in every season ticket holders hands by now.

It reads: “An issue that has become more and more important for the club over the last couple of years is payment by credit card for season tickets. Many supporters will not know that the final instalment of the money you pay us back in April by credit or debit card will not actually reach us until May the following year!

“Since a number of high profile clubs went into administration, the credit card companies have taken the view that clubs are at risk of not completing their fixtures due to financial difficulties.

“When you pay by credit and debit cards, there is a guarantee that if Burnley were unable to complete their fixtures mid-season, something that we all hope would never happen, you would be able to claim back on a pro rata basis the remainder of your season ticket monies that had not already been used. It is for this reason that the credit card companies do not pass on the full amount of your season ticket payment to the club in April.

“As a supporter you would expect that the money you are paying to the Club goes straight into the Club's bank account to help budget for the season ahead. The actual situation is that the credit card companies hold onto the full amount and then pay the Club monthly over the course of the season, after the month's fixtures have been completed.”

It continues, but that section explains it well enough and it does give each and everyone of us food for thought. I would have been paying by card again, now I'll do it by one of the two old fashioned ways and either write a cheque or even draw the money from the bank and pay cash.

It's not that simple for everyone, and some of you living some distance from Turf Moor have no option but to use a card. Burnley Football Club have decided not to penalise you if that's the case, unlike other clubs. Some, such as Derby, are now refusing to accept either credit or debit cards for season ticket payments, others are making a charge. Stoke for one are charging £25 per ticket to try and discourage people from using their cards.

I'm certainly not telling people not to use their cards to pay for their season tickets, it really isn't practical for some supporters, but I am asking people where possible to consider paying cash or by cheque.

Our club get a lot of things wrong, this one though I think they have got absolutely right in the way they are dealing with it. Let's help them where we can.