Holding fee for childminder

[carsil]

Hi,

I would like to know whether it is normal to pay 100% of a monthly fee just to hold a vacancy with a childminder.

Thank you.

Yes it is, I have had people in the past booking spaces for 6 months time, I then turn others down only to be then let down by the first parents.

I too ask for first month's fee to hold a place for the same reasons - I do say if the parent doesn't want to/can't pay too far in advance that's fine & I'd always try & offer first refusal if someone else comes along & wants the space but it's not a guarantee of a place until you pay the fee.

Each childminder differs but ones that I know charge a months deposit as well as one months fee upfront. I charge 2 weeks fee as a deposit plus one months fee in advance or retainer of half monthly fee until the space is taken up. As previous poster said about turning down parents due to promises of the first parent taking up the space them they change their minds and you end up with no children and losing out on income.
Nursery policy is usually the same too.

then not them!

I charge a month deposit too.

We had to pay 2 weeks deposit which was then taken off the first invoice.

Hi,

thank you so much for all your answers. That is great.
I think I did not explain properly what I have been asked.
So, I need a place for January 2015 and I found a childminder who will have a vacancy from September 2014 onwards. So, she asked me to pay from September onwards, 100% even without my child being there. So, I would be paying 4 months, around 4000 pounds which would be non refundable.
Is that reasonable?

Thank you so much for your help.

With me ,if a parent wanted a place and it was not available until their date of start I would charge a deposit of 1 weeks fee.

However if the place is available before they are due to start and the family really do want to hold the place, the only way I could guarentee the place for them would be to charge a retainer fee of 50% of their fees to be paid weekly until they started. The place then is available for them to use when ever they wanted to and then the difference of what the fee should be would paid for the time used. Also 1 weeks deposit would be requested at time of signing contracts.

I started charging deposits several years ago at time of booking because sadly I had some families come and visit, sign up for childcare, have quite a few visits then do not turn up for their start dates. I offer quite a few free ''getting to know you'' visits and the deposit covers my time and stops me being messed around if a family then chooses to not come.

So in your case I would charge you 1 full weeks deposit (to be returned or taken off your last weeks care as long as notice is given and no fees are outstanding as per contract) and 50% of your weekly fee each week from the September until the January and then if you did send you little one between those dates , you would be charged the difference for each time you used your place. If you pay a retainer fee, that place is yours to use whenever you want to.

It does sound hard charging before you want your date but we could have a gap of 4 months were very rarely we can fill that space for a short period of time because we are holding it for someone, where we could have someone else using it straight away.

HTH :)

It maybe a case of pay or the space is given to someone else. The CM may not be able to go 4 months with no income.

It's tricky when you aren't looking for a place in September as September tends to be the time when bigger kids go off to school or move on from childminders and spaces become available.

If you could find a nursery with a space then you could maybe take that and move to childminder the following September? But I do remember that finding childcare for my daughter was easy, as I wanted her to start in September, sorting it for my son (February start) was considerably harder and I ended up starting him two months earlier than I needed to just to hold a place.

I would normally say 50% of fee from September plus deposit but thinking about it from a personal POV, I will have a space available for September & the only way I would take someone who couldn't start until jan would in fact be full fee - I simply couldn't afford half fee (& if I could I wouldn't be available full time!!). The only other options are start work sooner, use a nursery or leave it & hope the space isn't filled.

It's normal. The reason this is done is because they could fill the spot immediately in September with a full-timer. To guarantee you a spot they would have to let anyone who could start in September know that their child would have to leave in January. Most parents would continue looking for someone who could take them for a longer term or they might send their child for a short time but would move them as soon as other care became available. So the carer might lose a couple of months income if she can find someone willing to take the short-term spot or the whole four months if she can't.

From her perspective, why should she accept 50% for the spot if she can fill it with a full-fee child as soon as the place becomes available? The general rule with CC these days is you take the place as soon as you can get it. Maybe you should just start your LO in September.