Discount for paying school fees in a lump amount and where do you pay fees from

[Bamboomoon]

Just wondering what sort of discount private schools give for paying fees in advance for 3 years. I Imagine this vary from school to school but it would be good to have an idea as I may enquire with DD school; she is only starting there in Sept.

Also; if you pay school fees do you do it from monthly income, savings, investments? Trying to decide what's the most financially efficient way of doing it.

[hertsandessex]

The discount is very small (I seem to remember maybe 1-2% or so) and when I did the sums compared to basic interest rates on savings account there wasn't a great deal in it. Also remember that the discount applied to a figure that had been inflated in line with typical annual fee increases not current fees.

[WickedGoodDoge]

We get a 1% discount. I do pay the fees at the start of the year and financially it’s probably a bad idea because I would (generally) make more than the 1% if I paid monthly but I like removing the hassle of making sure the monthly fees are in my bank account and haven’t been accidentally spent. We take ours from savings- the fees are ring fenced separately from our other savings/investments. Again, not financially clever but I don’t want to take any risk with them.

[pigshavecurlytails]

Accrues interest at 2.5% and you can pay anything from one year upwards in advance

[DairyisClosed]

They normally don't allow you to pay more than a year I'm advance.

[Allthebestnamesareused]

We pay termly but the discount we would get paying yearly or more in advance is so small it is better leaving the money I our offset savings attached to the mortgage so that it reduces the term of the mortgage. If there is any risk of losing job or the money then I may pay ahead to the next stage e.g.. after gcses or after a levels so that the education is not disrupted

[ChocolateWombat]

We paid in advance - it meant avoiding the fee increases - those increases were unknown in advance, but were never below 3.5% and more like 5% or 6%. We could avoid the increase for 2 years by paying 2 years in advance. Could pay even further ahead if we wanted, but beyond 2 years, 2% added to fees.

This was a Prep and we figured we saved about £1.5k a year.

The money simply came out of savings which were not earning much.

If we had left early, we could always get the money back.

The current scheme in secondary is a composition schemes where your investment earns interest. I think it's most worthwhile if you pay well in advance of starting so the money has ages to grow - you don't avoid fee increases.

[Rudi44]

We pay by term, and prior terms extras a term in arrears. Ours comes from a savings account. I personally wouldn't want to pay too far in advance, I don't think the discount makes it worth while

[hidingmystatus]

We paid for the full time in one go - Dairy, maybe at your school it's only a year, but I paid 7 years' worth in advance, with an agreed discount rate and a calculation of "expected" increases. How mine works is that they raise the "advance payment" on the expected level and credit that against the termly fee. 5 years in, I'm still doing better than the actual fees (ie my advance payment is a larger credit than the fee) and the excess I'm "paying" is credited against extra-curriculars.
I can't remember what the discount was but it wasn't huge. The certainty was great, though.

[Bamboomoon]

Thank you

Will contact the school but doesn't sound like is worth it.