My childminder has been overcharging me since Sept/Oct...

[harassedinherpants]

This was when dd started school, I've never queried the amount, she tells me and I pay it. I was just grateful how much it had gone down!!!

Anyway, I was slightly peeved that she'd decided to charge me full price for the whole bank hols when dd would have been in school, plus she had her for an extra afternoon and I had to work it out myself. Then I realised!! So she' s been charging for 6.5 hours instead of 4 hours.

How do I approach this?? And what should I expect to be done to resolve it?

Hello..

I'm a childminder and would hope if i'd made a mistake (payment wise or with anything else) that my parents would query it.

Maybe its an honest mistake made on her part.

Was your child present on the bank holiday?

If it were me as a minder I would work out again what the costs should be and either offer you time free until payments were right or reimburse monies to you.

All minders are different though .. I think the best way to go about is to just simply query it.

I hope this helps.

Pippa. :)

what are your contracted hours and what does your contract say about BHs?

My contract is from when dd started at 5mths old.....so contracted hours are now very different!!! I can't remember what it says about bank hols, but have never had any reason to query it before, plus they're generally during school hols anyway so I expect to pay the whole day.

The bank hol thing slightly peeved me because for Friday/Monday dd would have been in school if it wasn't a bank hol. So was slightly irritated that she charged me full price 8.15-3.15 (when I drop dd off until end of school). Was even more puzzled as for the Easter she charged half price..... but dd would have been there if it wasn't a bank hol as that would be Easter hols. Confusing isn't it??

Dd's hours are:
Monday - 8.15-8.45 (when school starts)
Tuesday - 8.30-8.45 and 3.15-5.45
Thursday - 8.30-8.45
Friday - 8.15-8.45

Which works out to 4 hours and she's been charging me for 6.5. So.... would she have been rounding up do you think?? Or the other thing I'm wondering, is that she used to have dd on Thursday pm but this stoppped ages ago. Before school started, as my parents like to have her one day a week. So that would have been 2.5 hours.

Arrrghh!!

i would charge you mayself 4.5hrs for this
i would not and do not do 1/4 hrs just childcare in half hour slots

you need to (and cm needs to) redo enrolment forms as hours and days have changed (i redo all my parents each April as things change all the time ie phone numbers/work places)

my school children pay me per hour (or half hour)
if they come in the school holidays they pay me a set fee per day
if a bh occurs at the beginning or end of a school week they pay full for this (ie if they attend 3 hrs on a monday then they pay me 3hrs for the bh)
they do not pay at all when i am closed due to illness or my hoildays or if they decide not to use me at all in the school holidays but i do require 2 wks notice to book in for the hols

I'd charge you for 4 hours for the morning and 3 hours for the afternoon slot as I charge for full hours, not part hours.

But I make this clear to my parents when sorting out contracts.

Thanks dmo, it's interesting to see what others do!

I'm not bothered about the bank hols, it's in the past and it was minor..... Not so keen on being over-charged though tbh. She's never been very good at the whole contract thing, we've just changed hours as and when and she's been great about that.

Sorry flisspaps x posted.

She's never charged for full hours though, alway part.

I'm going to have to talk to her about it aren't I?!

Our Cm has a 1-hour mininum slot. So would charge 6.5 hours.
I think this is fair.

Would you really expect to pay her about a pound to take your daughter to school?

Surely the most important thing is that she is doing a good job. I overpay my childminder by ten pounds per week, but I honestly don't mind as she only charges 3.50 per hour, is fab, and regularly feeds my daughter out of her own pocket. Are you just being mean? When you think how much nurseries charge maybe she is being underpaid?

No I'm not being mean!! How great that you can afford to overpay your cm....... not everyone has that luxury. Of course she does a fab job, dd has been there since was 5mths old and is now nearly 5. But she'd soon pull me up for underpaying.

SarkyLady - no I don't expect to pay her a £1, I expect to pay her what she's owed...... If I'm overpaying, then I'd like to know. Exactly the same as if my boss was overpaying me (as if!) he'd like to know!

Hello
Maybe she has a minimum amount of hrs she charges for so thats why its 6.5hrs she is charging for - A new contract needs to be signed.

You will be lucky if a childminder only charges you for the hrs used for such short hrs as many local to here charge for a min of 2hrs before school and a min of 2hrs after school.

Good luck with your chat - maybe say I cant understand my invoice when I tried to work it out can you explain it to me?

I don't think you're being mean :)

But I do think your CM is being fair to charge you for 6.5 hours.
I don't know what her hourly rate is, but say for simplicity you pay £4 per hour then some of your morning drop offs would cost you £1 by your calculations and that really is a bit daft.

I would just ask for an updated contract based on your current hours so that you can clarify how much you will be charged during term and holidays,

The thing is Reality I don't expect anything tbh.

In the past I've always paid for the hours that dd has been there, and when she was at playschool I paid for those hours too (the norm apparently). I've never used a cm before, and as I said earlier dd has only ever been to her so have nothing to compare to, so this bit is quite new to me.

She's never said anything about a minimum contract, and I've always just paid her what she said it was tbh! If it wasn't for the blasted bank hols I wouldn't have noticed........

Obviously you just need to get her to clarify.

if you explain the BH thing a bit more clearly we can let you know if what she has done seems reasonable or not.

(FWIW I would expect to pay my CM the equivalent of a normal school day for BH that fall within term, and the equivalent of a full day if the BH fell within the school holidays, but this is not clearly stated in our contract tbh.)

The bank hols def weren't a mistake, because when I worked out this weeks money as she hadn't, I used the bit of paper she'd given me which had all the bank hols (except Monday) at half price. So I told her how much it was on my calculations and she said that was wrong and that she was charging full price for that day and not half price as she had with the others..... Very confusing!

And this was how I picked up that's she's poss been overcharging, as the week with dd there 8.15-3.15 on the Monday (albeit at half price) came to about £4 more than I normally pay her for a term time week. Which I realised didn't seem a lot more so that's why I sat down and worked it out.

I won't see her today now, but will speak to her on Monday. I don't mind a min charge, would just like to know!

The 8.15 - 8.45 where I live would cost you £10 and the afterschool a minimum of £15. Most people I know charge £35 a day for before and afterschool minding.

I and pretty much every minder I know charge a minimum of 1 hour in the morning and 2 hours after school.

You need a new contract to reflect your change of hours. But personally, I don't think you are being overcharged.

Sounds like you just need a price list. Things have changed since your DD was a baby, yet the contract is the same? It needs sorting out - maybe by adding a sheet to the contract setting out the revised costings and revised hours, plus arrangements for holidays and bank holidays.

I would charge you an hour per morning and 3 for your evening slot. She is only charging you 2.5. So she is quite right in what she is charging. She may only charge 15 mins extra on a fulltime contract but a school drop off for 15 mins is an entirely different scenario. If she has her fulltime in the holidays and charges for bank holidays then she also is right in charging full pay this time to. But I apologise if iv read that bit wrong

Charging by the part hour when doing longer days is very different to doing it for such short times before and after school. It really does sound like you have a bargain, even if she is rounding up.

She should have communicated any minimums to you as you might want to have used the full hours if you are paying for them but otherwise it looks like she is being more than fair, many childminders would either decline those kinds of bitty hours or charged more.