Hello Hans,
Let me remind you first that I do support moving to a yearly
billing! Just not on this proposed tight schedule.
Thats great. I agree that the schedule seems a bit tight, but I understand from Gwens message that the intention is to offer a way to do payment in installments for those with cashflow limitations. As I understand it it will be a «change the default» to one bill once a year, with an option to spread the payments. I trust this will be clearer when the plan is published.
But your calculations seem totally wrong as RIPE NCC allows us
to pay through PAYPAL which means 0 (0 USD/EUR) fees for us.
Surely RIPE NCC pays the fee for our transaction, but even in
this case we see excess redistribution.
If I pay by PayPal it would be more expesive for me as our accounting system has an integration with the bank to pay bills.
If I do PayPal I have to user a credit card, and expense the amount, which takes more of my time but also another transaction in our accounting department.
In either case I might save the cost of the bank transaction (and let the RIPE NCC pay the PayPal 2.9% fee) but not the cost of handling the 11 additional invoices.
Moving to yearly billing, would mean maybe more excess
redistribution, but it's not very clear, because the money could
be redirected elsewhere. So no clear savings for the members.
The spending of the money is deceided by the members trough the anual activity plan, make sure to engage in the discussion in the services working group.