Membership and subscription FAQs

The RTPI has different classes of membership for different levels of experience. All applicants to join the RTPI must complete an application form. The RTPI considers each application for membership in detail. There are different fees and closing dates for each type of application. You will find more information on each membership class page.

If you are unsure which membership class is right for your level of experience, try our membership class wizard.

The RTPI is committed to supporting and working with you at every stage of your professional career. We offer access to knowledge, information and networking, as well as a range of tailored member benefits and support to help you get the most out of your membership.

You will find your membership number on your membership card or the packaging of Planning magazine.

To access your My RTPI profile, member-only or network-only content on the RTPI website you will be asked to log in. RTPI members should log in with their membership number. The first time you log in you will be asked to change your password. If you have forgotten your password please click here If you are not a member of the Institute, but are a network member, you will have been supplied with your user id when joining the network. If you have any queries please contact your network manager. For any other problems please email login@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI members can change their contact details through My RTPI. You will need to log in to access this service. You will be able to view and update the primary address, telephone number and email address that we hold for you as well as your employment details. If you would like to change any other contact information that the RTPI holds for you please email changeofaddress@rtpi.org.uk

If you’d like to be more involved in the work of your Institute, there are a wide range of opportunities open to you. See get involved for more details.

Your RTPI subscription is due for renewal on 1 January each year. We will send you a renewal notice in the post in October.

The RTPI provides a number of ways that you can pay your membership subscription fee. One of the simplest ways to pay is by Direct Debit or online with credit and debit card. You may also pay by BACS or bank transfer, or post.

Your annual subscription fee is calculated according to your class of membership. Take a look at the table of fees and charges or the individual membership class pages for more details. Your renewal notice may include other items such as subscription arrears.

Yes, it is possible to spread the cost of your annual subscription by paying in equal quarterly instalments by direct debit.

If you are a UK tax payer, and pay your RTPI subscription yourself (i.e. the cost has not been reclaimed from your employer) it may be possible to claim UK tax relief on the cost of your subscription. See our subscriptions and fees page for more details.

If you have completely retired and no longer receive payment for any planning work, you may want to transfer to the Retired members’ class and pay a reduced subscription of £50. No member is automatically transferred to retired membership; you will need to complete a form applying for transfer. Members may also pay £740 for lifetime membership.

You may be entitled to pay a reduced subscription fee for 2013 if your gross income falls below the threshold of £19,370 (for the 12 months ending 31 December 2012).

You may be entitled to pay a reduced subscription fee for 2013 if you started your maternity leave during the 12 months ending 31 December 2012. Members are maternity leave are exempt from CPD monitoring* for 6 months. If you take a longer period maternity leave, you are required to keep up to date with CPD. * Article

Student members who are in their final year of an RTPI accredited course are entitled to free membership for that year. This is only available by application. If you are already a student member, you will be charged an annual membership subscription fee unless you complete the application.

Subscription renewals are due and payable by 1 January 2012. Recognising the administration cost to the Institute of dealing with unpaid accounts, a late payment charge of £25 will be levied on all whose subscriptions are outstanding on 29 February 2012. New members elected during the year have until the end of the month, two months after their election date, before receiving this charge (e.g. if elected on 3 February then the charge date is 30 April).

Employer payments

Cheques

• the date the cheque was sent to RTPI
• the actual amount of the cheque (it could be paying other members' subscriptions)
• the date the cheque was cashed on your employer's bank statement

If after giving this detail to the Subscription Team the payment still cannot be found then the Team will ask you to obtain the returned cheque from the payer's bank. This will have detail on the back of the cheque which help the Team trace the payment.

BACS

• the date the payment is expected to reach RTPI
• the actual amount of the payment (it could be paying other members' subscriptions)
• the sort code and account number used to make payment to

If sort code 50-00-00 or 40-42-18 was used then the payment has been made in error. The payment was likely to have been made to Kaplan Hawksmere trading as RTPI Conferences. Please call the Kaplan Hawksmere finance team on 0191 434 0554 and ask for the payment to be returned. The correct BACS details that should be used can be found here.

If sort code 42-93-73 was used then the payment was made in error. This sort code was taken wrongly from the subscription notice bank giro credit slip. There is a probability that payment has been returned to the payer's bank account so please ask your employer to look. Otherwise, the Subscription Team will look for it - it may have to contact RTPI's bank to look for it. Please ensure the correct BACS details are used in future.

Personal Payments

• The date the cheque was sent to RTPI
• The actual amount of the cheque
• The date the cheque was cashed on your bank statement

If paid by on-line banking, please provide the Subscriptions Team the following details:

• the date payment was made
• the actual amount of the payment
• the sort code and account number used to make payment to
• the reference used when making payment - it is quite possible that the payment has been received but the identity of the payer cannot be established. The payment reference should be in the form of your membership number first, your surname second then your intials last.

If you paid on-line, please provide the Subscription Team the following details:

• the date payment was made
• the actual amount of the payment

Please look at the receipt that would have been emailed to you by PayPal. Was the payment made as a Subscription payment or and Adminstration Fee payment? If it was the latter then the payment will not have been applied to against your subscription account. Please pay future subscriptions on-line here.

RTPI has recently issued over 20,000 subscription notices. The Subscriptions Team is currently receiving a high volume of telephone calls which means its lines may be busy. Please call again later or, alternatively, contact the Team by email. Members wishing to make a payment can do so online. An answer to most queries may be found by looking at the help pages under the Subscription and Fees section of this website.