Membership frequently asked questions

Your National Trust membership card allows you free entry to over 500 places in our care.

All memberships except junior memberships entitle you to free parking at most National Trust car parks.

You can also visit places cared for by the National Trust for Scotland and organisations in countries around the world.

You’ll get a National Trust Handbook, full of information about our places, and the National Trust Magazine three times a year, packed with inspiration, interviews and news.

And you’ll have access to our online Members’ Area where you can find first-look previews and behind-the-scenes features.

Find out more

Using your membership card in England, Wales and Northern Ireland   

You can use your membership card to explore over 500 special places cared for by the National Trust across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Start planning your next trip today

Using your card across the world 

Members of the National Trust for England, Wales and Northern Ireland also benefit from free visiting arrangements with 14 similar heritage organisations in other countries including Scotland, Italy, the Bahamas and Canada via the International National Trusts Organisation (INTO). 

Once you’ve bought your membership, you will receive a confirmation email containing your temporary membership card(s). Once you have your temporary membership card(s), you can use them to start visiting National Trust places as a member immediately. 

We’ll post your membership card and welcome pack as soon as you join the National Trust. It can take up to 28 days to arrive, so we’ll also send a temporary card via email. With your temporary card, you can start visiting straight away.

Annual prices for individual membership vary depending on whether they're for an adult, a young person aged 18-25 or a junior member.

Find out more about becoming a member

Joint membership is for two adults over 18 who live at the same address. Concessionary rates are available for seniors (60+).

Find out more about becoming a member

There are family membership options for two adults living at the same address and their children (17 and under) or for one adult and their children. Under-5s go free. 

Grandchildren can also be included on a family membership.

Read more about family membership

People under 18 can buy an individual junior membership.

You can find the answers to more FAQs about junior membership in the dedicated section below.

If you are an existing member aged 60 or over and you've been a member for at least the last three consecutive years, you're eligible for our senior membership rate. We can’t currently process senior membership applications online or at our places, but we can do so over the phone. To let us know that you’d like the senior membership concession, call 0344 800 1895.

Read more about senior membership

You can also choose an individual, joint or family life membership, with reduced prices for seniors (60+).

Family life membership includes children and grandchildren.

Read more about life membership

Tenant custodian membership is available to most of our residential, commercial and agricultural tenants. 

Find out about joining as a tenant

The Education Group Access Pass is specially designed to encourage access to National Trust places for groups whose students are in full-time or early years education. It includes free admission and parking at most of our places.

Find out more about the Education Group Access Pass

All children you have parental responsibility for or who are living with you, including children you are fostering or who are placed with you for adoption. Grandchildren can also be included on family memberships. 

Yes, you can. You can either join online with details of 10 children and then call us later to add the details of the other children, or join at one of our places or over the phone when we’ll take the details of all of the children.

Yes, you can add more than two adults to a membership, but not on our website. If you want to set up this type of membership, please get in touch with our team. 

Heelis
Kemble Drive
Swindon
SN2 2NA

Tel: 0344 800 1895
Email: enquiries@nationaltrust.org.uk

If your membership card says '+ guest' after your name, you may bring a guest for free at our pay-to-enter places. Life members can’t bring guests to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) which is for members only. If your membership card doesn’t say ‘+ guest’ after your name, all guests will need to pay for entry at our places. 

Family membership (for one or two adults) is likely to be the best option for most parents and grandparents who aren’t eligible for our senior membership rate.

However, grandparents, parents or other guardians who are over 60 and entitled to our senior concession rate may find buying junior membership for their grandchildren or children a more cost-effective way of visiting places as a group.

Junior membership could also benefit life members who would like to bring children to our places.

No, children under 5 can continue to enjoy our places for free. However, if your child would like their own membership card and welcome pack, you can buy them junior membership as a gift.

Yes, if you’re 13 or over you can buy your own membership. 

As junior membership costs just £12, a monthly payment option would be too costly for us to administer.

If you live in the USA, you can join our membership affiliate, the Royal Oak Foundation, to get unlimited admission to our places.

Find out more about the benefits you'll receive and how your support helps us when you join from the USA.

If you're travelling to the UK this year, you can buy a touring pass for overseas visitors, which gives you free entry to over 300 houses and gardens.

Find out more about where you can buy and collect your overseas visitor touring pass, as well as the places you can visit.

We're unable to offer monthly Direct Debit for gift memberships. However, you can pay by either annual Direct Debit or by credit/debit card.

You can choose to have the membership welcome pack and cards delivered either to you or to the recipient with a letter explaining that the membership is a gift from you.

You can choose for your gift membership to start today, or any day within the next two months. The welcome pack will arrive in the next 28 days.

The welcome pack will arrive in 28 days, even if you choose to have the membership start at a future date. When you buy a membership online, if it’s due to start within the next 28 days, you will receive a temporary membership card by email, which you can pass on to the gift recipient for use until the welcome pack arrives.

If you've lost your card, there's no need to worry. You'll need to register for My Account, and from there you can order a replacement membership card. If you don't wish to do this online, you can still call the Supporter Service Centre on 0344 800 1895.

Replacement membership cards and car stickers should arrive within 15 days total.

You no longer need to display a car sticker to access free parking. Simply scan your membership card at the ticket machine to receive free parking at most of the places we care for. However, you still have the option to receive a car sticker, and you can tell us if you'd like one in My Account.

The asterisk indicates who makes payment for the membership or who was listed first on the membership application.

The barcode simply contains your lead supporter identification number (the lead supporter is the person who pays the membership subscription).

There is no personal information held within the barcode so if you lose your membership card you don't need to worry that any personal details such as your address or bank details have been compromised.

When you visit a National Trust place, your card is scanned to capture the identification number of the lead supporter (the person who pays the membership subscription), as well as your party size and the place, date and time of your visit.

We use the data collected to offer you more personalised communications based on your preferences, such as suggesting new places to visit via one of our local or national member emails. This makes us more efficient too, so even more of your money goes towards caring for the places you enjoy.

Scanning cards also helps us to track and prevent fraudulent use of National Trust membership cards. As a charity we rely heavily on membership subscriptions and admission fees to provide vital income to fund our conservation work.

No. All our members have scannable cards and in order to gain entry to our places you need to show your membership card to a member of staff and at places with barcode scanners we will need to scan the card to count your entry.

Our new membership cards are made of a special type of paper, which is incredibly strong and durable.

At the end of its life, you can recycle your membership card along with paper in your regular household recycling.

We're currently looking into introducing a digital card. However, we recognise that this won't be for everyone and we're considering how it could function alongside the existing card so that members have a choice.

You can become a National Trust member by buying online, phoning 0344 800 1895 or joining in person at a National Trust place.

You can pay for your National Trust membership by credit or debit card or by setting up a Direct Debit (except in the case of life or gift memberships).

If you set up a Direct Debit online, you get a £15 National Trust gift card to spend in our shops and cafés. 

No, our £15 gift card offer is only for new members joining online and paying by annual Direct Debit. This is to thank them for paying by annual Direct Debit, a payment method which reduces our administration costs so we can spend more of your money looking after special places. It's not available on junior memberships, which cost just £12.

Joining the National Trust as a life member is a one-off purchase. As such, we can’t offer payment by Direct Debit for life memberships.

Renewing your membership online is easy. Just visit our main membership page and follow the instructions there. 

If your membership is eligible for renewal and in its renewal period, this will show in My Account with a link for you to click through to renew online.  

Here are some common reasons why your promotional code might not be working:

- The promotional code isn’t valid for the type of payment method you want to use. Promotional codes only apply to payment by Direct Debit, if you want to pay by credit/debit card, the promotional code will not be valid.

- Your promotional code isn’t valid for the type of membership you want to purchase (codes are not available for life membership).

- Your promotional code may have expired.

To find out whether your promotional code is valid, please check the terms and conditions that accompanied the promotional code.

Once you have entered your promotional code into the ‘I have a promotional code’ box and clicked ‘Apply code’ on the payment method page you will see a message in the box confirming the code has been applied. 

If your order has been successful there will be a message at the top of the page saying 'Thank you'. You should also receive a confirmation email within 30 minutes of completing your order, which will contain your temporary membership card(s).

If you don’t think your order has been successfully placed, please get in touch by calling 0344 800 1895.

You should receive your confirmation email with your temporary membership card(s) within 30 minutes of joining. If after this time you haven’t received the email please check your junk folder. If you’re still experiencing difficulty, please get in touch by calling 0344 800 1895.

As a charity, we don't offer general discounts on membership. Your membership helps us to look after over 500 special places across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Now, more than ever, we need your support to continue to invest in our ongoing conservation work, guaranteeing that your favourite places are here for generations to come. 

If you are an existing member aged 60 or over and you've been a member for at least the last three consecutive years, you're eligible for our senior membership rate. 

If you join online and pay for a joint, family or individual membership by annual Direct Debit, you can receive a £15 National Trust gift card. 

If you are an existing member aged 60 or over and you've been a member for at least the last three consecutive years, you're eligible for our senior membership rate. We can’t currently process senior membership applications online or at our places, but we can do so over the phone. To let us know that you’d like the senior membership concession, call 0344 800 1895.

Find out more about senior membership

My Account is the new membership portal that gives you more flexibility to manage your membership online. It gives you options to choose how you hear from us, and you can use it to make changes to your membership online.

You can learn more about what you can do in My Account and how to register on the My Account webpage.

Yes, you can still call the Supporter Service Centre on 0344 800 1895. 

We’re continuing to develop My Account and are exploring new features to introduce in the future. We expect to share further updates later in 2024. 

We’ve updated some of our IT systems so we can offer you a better experience. My Account is the new membership portal that gives you more flexibility to manage your membership online. It gives you options to choose how you hear from us, and you can use it to make changes to your membership online.

While this feature isn’t currently available, we’re exploring its possible development in the future. 

We know that the magazine is a benefit that most members really enjoy, so we’re keen that it’s still accessible for everyone. If you would like to record this preference, please call the Supporter Services Centre on 0344 800 1895.

Our membership types are based on age, so to ensure that you buy the correct membership we ask for your date of birth when you join. We may also use your date of birth as one of our security questions when you contact us to discuss your membership.

If there are any issues regarding your membership, we may contact you by phone in order to resolve them. 

We take data protection very seriously. Read our privacy policy to find out how we keep our members' personal details safe. 

When you visit a National Trust place, your card is read to capture the identification number of the lead supporter (the person who pays the membership subscription), your party size and the place, date and time of your visit. This information is stored on a secure central database.

No personal information such as address or bank details will be collected or stored through the scanning of membership cards.

The barcode of your card simply contains your lead supporter identification number (the lead supporter is the person who pays the membership subscription).

There is no personal information held within your membership card so if you lose it you don't need to worry that any personal details have been compromised.

Anyone using a membership to visit a National Trust place needs to be named on that membership – regardless of being an adult or a child. This to ensure they’re on the correct membership, and so they have voting rights at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Children under 5 don't need to be included on memberships because they get free entry. However, you are welcome to name children on your membership if they are under 5 and they will be counted as members.

All children on a family membership must be named and have provided a date of birth in order for them to benefit from free admission. If you do not wish to name your child then you can purchase an adult membership for yourself and pay for entry each time you visit for each child who is visiting with you. Children under 5 don't need to be included on memberships because they get free entry.

You can cancel your membership at any time, but please note that all memberships are non-refundable. Payments to the National Trust are classified by HMRC as a charitable donation. As such, we’re not able to refund a donation at any time. This applies to one-off payments and Direct Debit payments.

If you pay monthly, you’ll need to continue to pay until the end of your membership year as per your monthly agreement. We’d therefore recommend continuing to take advantage of the benefits until your renewal date, at which point you can decide to not renew.

If you’d still like to cancel, you can call us on 0344 800 1895 or email us at enquiries@nationaltrust.org.uk. If you’re emailing, please include your full name, address and supporter number.