It was only a matter of time before the club charged to be an official member. The cost of maintaining and "backing up" a database with the details of every person who's ever been to a game (so had an Accesscard) must have been colossal.
The club aren't too bothered about giving fans a free Accesscard when they only go to one game every year. It costs the club money to send out e-mails and texts to these fans and administer the data.
By getting a tenner/£25 off members, they automatically get buy in from the people who will be purchasing match tickets on a regular basis.
Anyone moaning about shelling out a tenner needs to wind their neck in (in my opinion!). Yes, it was free - when you had the pleasure of watching world beaters like Samaras, Bischoff and Sibierski.