Primary school emails - getting a touch annoyed

[MrsHouseMouse]

Oldest DS enjoys school dinners.
I pay for his weekly lunches every Monday evening so there's a few hours from lunch to the evening when the account is minus.
I recieve 2 emails in that time stating I need to top up his account...

... in red font.

It's only been this school year. Previous years have been perfectly fine.

I'm getting a little annoyed with this!

Pay for it on Sunday evening then. Or on another day or time at the weekend.
I'm self-employed and it is an absolute pain in the arse chasing up people like you who can't manage to pay for the service they receive in advance and have to be reminded two or three times until they do pay.
Yeah, I get a "touch annoyed" about that too.

How dare a cash-strapped primary school set up auto-reminders when parents haven't paid for their child's lunches, eh?

OP, multiply you paying late across other parents and the school's bank accounts - which will be on a knife-edge at the best of times - tip into the red.

Yup, and on top of that, it isn't just annoying, you also don't know whether they will actually pay or not for the service they have already received. Some do, some don't.

Correct me if I’m wrong but saying ‘from’ means afterwards no? So her child has enough money to eat lunch, that amount gets deducted and takes her child into minus and she tops up the account some hours after. The dip in funds is what triggers the automatic text. I don’t see where it says that OP is expecting the school to give her credit?!

@FuckTheClubUp if her account goes into minus as you call it then by definition she is getting credit from the school? Schools can't afford to give credit.

Do you not understand what “minus” means?

The cost of the lunch is more than the money available in the account to pay for it. The school is extending credit for the shortfall by giving her an overdraft.

Rightttt I see, I completely misunderstood it.

I read it as, ‘On Monday, Jimmy pays for his lunch with the amount that’s left in the account. Once he’s paid for this, the account takes him to £0 and I get an automatic message informing me to update his amount. I pay money into the account on Monday evening, by Tuesday, Jimmy can use the money as normal.’

If the account goes into minus when Jimmy uses it to have lunch on Monday, why would the school be giving the OP credit when he’s not going to buy anything after lunchtime? I’m clearly very confused and I doubt the OP is coming back now anyway!

If the account goes into minus when Jimmy uses it to have lunch on Monday, why would the school be giving the OP credit when he’s not going to buy anything after lunchtime? I’m clearly very confused and I doubt the OP is coming back now anyway!

Before lunch Jimmy had £2 in his account.

Lunch costs £3.

Jimmy used his card to buy lunch.

The account now shows -£1.

The school has lent Jimmy £1 to add to his £2 so he could buy lunch. That is the credit.

Jimmy now owes the school £1.

OP said that she is getting an email when the account goes into minus, not when it goes down to zero.

Why are you getting annoyed at an automatic response?

You owe them money. Their system is reminding them you owe money. You're lucky they let it go overdrawn even a little bit. Sort it out by paying earlier. You have no right being annoyed.

In that case what's the issue with the emails? It's fine for them to say hey you owe us money

@AndiOliversGlasses I’m with you now. Seems like it was me that was making things up, my bad!🫣 I was wondering why the comments were so harsh but now I get it. It’s a bit of a tone deaf post especially when you’re in the wrong, makes sense why the OP never came back

Ditto.
School lunches are the bane of my life!

You should never have it on minus.

At our school he would have toast for lunch.

It would only go into the minus if there wasn’t enough money for the lunch. If there was enough money for the lunch, it would go to £0 and therefore no email, as it would be topped up before the next day’s lunch.

£0 isn’t minus though.

Pay for 6 meals on Monday evening to include the following Monday then you’ll always be up to date. Or pay on Sunday evening. Not tricky really 🤔

OP reads as OPs balance being less than 0, so not enough funds.

Yes, that was my point. I was responding the the PP who was saying that the OP had enough in the account to pay for Monday’s lunch.

It's not really taking what hasn't been paid for. It's completely normal, including for food, to pay what you owe after it's been consumed. Your response is so weirdly over the top.

School meals are meant to be paid for in advance.

'Are meant to' by whom? When I was at school they weren't, firstly when you paid in cash after you'd been served you meal, and when it progressed to the fingerprint you had to settle up by the end of the calendar month.

The majority of schools definitely ask for advance payment.

Lots of schools are now asking for advance payment due to the number of parents not paying what they owe and the amount of staff resource needed to chase payment.

OP's school hasn't even asked for advance payment? If they had, the situation never could have occurred as OP would always be in credit.

They've just decided to go cashless and use a top up system. I'm curious, do you think I'm special when the exact same situation occurs and my Oyster credit falls below £0? Am I so special to have taken a tube journey that didn't belong to me? Or is it just a completely normal happening that didn't require your over the top reaction?

If you run a top up credit system and allow it to go into debit, you implicitly accept that that's an OK thing to happen.