AIBU to think Busy Bees charging £4 per payment for parents who pay via Tax-Free Childcare outside their app is outrageous?

[DtM1988]

Busy Bees (390+ nurseries, UK's biggest chain) have told parents that from 1 April, all payments must go through the Busy Bees App. If you don't use the app, you get charged £4 per payment.

We pay via HMRC's Tax-Free Childcare scheme directly. That's how the government designed the system to work. But Busy Bees say paying that way means it "is not being made correctly" and now want to charge us extra for doing it.

The app doesn't just handle payments. It also processes child observations, messaging and account management. So the only way to avoid the charge is to consent to all of that. I don't want to link my government TFC account to a third-party app with poor reviews just to avoid a penalty.

I raised a formal complaint with head office. They defended it as covering "manual reconciliation" costs, but every TFC payment already includes a unique HMRC reference. They wouldn't give any detail when I asked about their data protection impact assessment.

I've filed with the ICO and Trading Standards. We're leaving early because of this head office policy. Other parents at our branch are doing the same.
Anyone else at Busy Bees been hit with this? Is it happening at other branches too?

it is - if you do what they told you to do - but I have anxiety about linking my tax payments system with a 3rd party abb that has 2.1 review on google play. I shouldn't be forced by a company into a payments system I am not ok with.

Been with Busy Bees for almost 7 years and the last year I've been raging with them
-stopped term time only place with less than half a terms notice
-was put down for funded place and then then withdrew it at the last minute
-this week the billing went wrong so some parents at my nursery's bills have almost doubled
-graduation last year was at first cancelled to every other year due to yhe additional needs of some of the children... but none of the parents were asked to support, which they would have. Then we all got a Head Office survey and we all said how upsetting it was that it had been canceled, so rather than a play and ceremony it was just a ceremony, which took place during the first week of the summer holiday. Given less than two week's notice. So many had to miss it due to holidays.
-head office never answer a question straight, always around the houses or not at all

My son leaves in July- anyone else here whose child is leaving, make sure you give notice! It is in the terms abd conditions of your contract

Oh and the new contracts going out now say the 30hours funding goes across the year... so if you leave before the year is up you lose that funding! Read the fine print, it has changed a lot!

Direct debit is the sensible way to pay, payment via an app is something no accountant would describe as best practice. I'd be most annoyed if they charged extra for that method. Sorry this doesn't address your query op

Check this out too - it will boil your blood

"Busy Bees is being named and shamed by the government for underpaying 9,056 of their own staff by £485,374 across 2023-2024. They topped the list for number of workers affected and were fourth overall for total amount owed. They called them "inadvertent errors."

a company owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, pulling in £86M EBITDA, underpaid nine thousand of its own nursery workers, and is now charging parents £4 a pop for the crime of using a government payment system correctly. While their head of "Order to Cash" works evenings defending revenue policies and dodging GDPR questions."

and yeah, let's get more money from parents - someone's gotta pay for all the top tier bonuses!

I've never used them but they sound awful.

It is much easier if everyone pays for something using your preferred method (I work in finance/accounting) and managing payments outside that can be inconvenient and have additional costs. This kind of fee is one way to encourage people to use your preferred method of payment (I remember when you often used to get charged a fee to pay with a credit card) but most companies would prefer to suck it up so as not to lose customers

If you give four weeks notice, you can opt out of those weeks!

I only know because everyone was moaning about the April invoice - didn't understand why it was so much more - and then our new manager said, as you were told last year, you can opt out. Cue everyone asking to remove their children for that week despite being less than 4 weeks because we weren't told! Currently waiting to see an amended invoice...

The funding allocation is wrong, that can be challenged.