To Think ParentPay is Crap?

[absoluteidiot]

My kids' secondary school went over to Parentpay, this year.

I'm not an old fart. I do everything online - have for years. I had Paypal before anyone I know, etc etc.

Am I right in thinking Parentpay is shite? It's clunky, badly laid out, and barely thought out at all. You have to pay in a minimum of £10. I have 2 kids at school (but it was 5 at one point). So that is a minimum of £20 per week. Payday is Tuesdays. If the kids have run out, we can't just put a couple of quid on, on a Monday. It's like they assume everyone is middle class and has a big float of money kicking around - you can't just pay for one day's.

I can see the advantages of it for the school - less admin, etc.

But the interface is like summat from 1862, and the assumption is you are loaded. There is no flexibility in it. Being poor we get a discount on school trips. That is arranged over the phone, but then the 'shopping cart' still will only accept the full amount of the trip so you have to get round it by making lengthy phone calls ahead of time, and paying for something else entirely.

Also, I swear a few times the figures haven't added up at all - it claims my kids are spending more than they are.

And whilst I'm at it - if one of my sons runs out of money but his brother still has some, the dinner ladies now won't let son A buy lunch for Son B. When this happened recently, Son A had to sneak extra food out of the dinner hall and all he could get under the eagle eye of the dinner ladies was a sausage roll, which he had to fake eating as they quizzed him who it was for.

Anyone else think Parentpay is awful? Or is it just me?

I think the concept is fine. But find another company please, schools, who can design a website so it doesn't look and act like it is from the ark.

Scopay at our primary. It's a really good website. Easy to use and navigate.

Me again,
spoke to a lovely lady at Parentpay and hopefully the situation may be resolved next week. The old school have the money in their bank account and don't want to give it up. Parentpay have a school support system that they can use in these circumstances. When you are able to talk to a human it is so much easier to explain the situation. Maybe a parent support phone line is the answer!

Ours suggests minimum balance of £20 so recently let me top it up by paying £7.92. DS doesn't need £20 a week Its just easier to go with the suggested top up amount. Can you not also get a code for DC which allows them to enter cash daily ?

We can pay any amount on ours ?
It's still a pain though I can't work out how to add a child so have two separate log ins and emails for it

All the problems should be able to be dealt with easily by phoning the school. I have only ever had to call once and the member of staff who deals with it sorted my query immediately.

I use it for everything school related and find it no problem at all to use although it's sometimes very slow running.

Hi,
Parentpay has been in touch with my daughter's old school and they are refusing to pay back the money they owe me. Apparently Parentpay have no power or authority, any money you pay to Parentpay can be stolen with no safeguards.
I spoke to another mum and her money disappeared when Parentpay got their new website.
Bring back cheques, then we at least have a record of what we've paid!

I found it awkward to set up, but haven't had the problems that other people have.

It stores my card details.

It gives me a breakdown of what has been spent.

For an expensive residential trip, the amount to pay was left blank for the parents to fill in, up to a maximum of the full cost of the trip, to allow parents to pay in instalments or to pay a discounted amount.

How can the money be stolen? I can prove what I pay into my parentpay account as it's shown on my bank statement. The parentpay site keeps an accessible record of items I have paid for with dates etc.

I find it ok.
The minimum we can pay is always the equivalent of one day's school dinner.

I have children at 3 different secondary school. 1 uses Parentpay it is my favourite programme of all of them.

I can add in pennies if I wish. I can see what she has eaten it is easy to work my way around. 2nd favourite school doent have the choice of lunch option but other wise it is a great programme

DS school uses squid I am fine with that for payment but everything else is via parentmail I do NOT like that one bit. When they recently upgraded it took 2 months before I got mine working properly again I just kept being passed from pillar to post.

Our school has sims agora which husband whinges about constantly .