Sitters.co.uk and payment. Who is right?

[Rightorwrong555]

We use sitters a lot. I always pay the sitter - regardless of the recommended price sent to me over email - £10 per hour. Because that is how much I value someone looking after my child.

DH gets angry with me when I pay over the odds because he feels that we are "throwing money down the toilet" and he wants me to pay the recommended price which is sometimes as low as £6.74 an hour.

Those who sit for sitters and those who use sitters- do you normally get paid more/pay more than the recommended price?

Would you say that the good sitters are less likely to sit for us again (especially the really popular ones) if we do not pay more than in written in the email?

I only worked for sitters for a short time as I begrudge working for their low rates. Most people used to round up to make the payment easier. I never got £10 ph from anyone and would have been really pleased if I'd worked for you

Tbh people usually use sitters as cheaper then average babysitting nanny

Sitters pay basically nmw / which is why I won't ever work for them

If you are happy to pay £10 then why not use any local nannies and stop paying sitters fees

Think nick once worked it out paying sitters fee (think per booking) plus yearly fee and if not using bs a lot worked out quite expensive compared to a usual nanny agency booking who don't charge per bs

From what I gather from friends who do bs via sitters goes into 2 camps 1) those who pay excatly the right amount - down to using coppers 2) those who roundup to nearest £

Never heard of anyone paying £10 using sitters

I pay £8 per hour to Sitters people and have been thinking for a little while that I ought to put it up. Blondes, I use them because we can be sure of getting a babysitter when we need one - we have two or three who DD likes and come to us regularly, whereas we only know one local babysitter (and tbh DD is outgrowing her - she was her key worker at nursery and was fantastic with her when she was younger, but isn't as good with older children).

I pay the sitters recommended fee usually rounding up

I worked out that paying that plus the booking fee plus the membership worked out at around 10 quid an hour over our yearly use

Here the nannies want 10 quid an hour plus a cab home

I think the babysitter /nanny should make their own way home /pay for bus/cab etc

No one pays my petrol to a job

I think YaNBU to pay more than the lists rate but YABU to add such a big mark-up: £10 is a high rate, especially for evening babysitting, and your DH is right that it's unnecessary expenditure since the sitters are willing to work for less and would take just as good care of your DC.

The hourly fee where I am is 8.60 or something (South East) and I round up to £9.

I never pay the £6 something as it wouldn't feel right

But also its never been suggested by sitters, it's always £7.30+ so I'm not quite sure why? For daytime it's more, £8+ but even for nighttime I've not had 6 pounds suggested.

Anyway, I round up the hourly fee and usually do a few different calculations so I make sure I'm paying a reasonable amount. I've had some amazing people through sitters so I'm surprised to hear there's such a push back on here - but not if sitters are asking people to work for 6 pounds an hr!

I worked for sitters for a few months whilst In between jobs and going travelling this year. I probably only accepted a few babysitting I personally didn't want to be wasting a whole evening plus travel for £25. The babysitting had to literally be somewhere within a couple of miles of my home. I'd rather find a few local families who pay me £10 ph and cab home if very late. Why don't you do that try and find a couple of local nannies who you can build up that trust with and pay out the £10 ph and cut sitters out.

Areas must vary

rates here

My area says - so a while 50p extra for Saturday night - £2 more for the average babysit

Weekdays 6.75
Saturday 7.25
Daycare 8-6 8.65

i pay the fee they quote me, £6.75. I have no problem getting the same sitters again

actually now i think about it, i never have change on me so i do round up

I use the emailed pay to calculate, then when it comes to eg £32.40 (or similar) round it up to £35.

We use sitters for UK holidays (as I dislike the hotel taking a massive cut for finding us a sitter) and for the few occasions when our au pair is either on holiday or we've used up babysitting quota or we need a sitter both Friday and Saturday evenings (we never ask her to do both).

We also used sitters pre-au pair so for the last 8 years or so and they have been great.

OP - I pay £8/hour to all our sitters babysitters and round up to the nearest £10. WE've never had a problem getting the sane sitter again and the only time I've ever sent DP ahead ( screaming baby with temp and I was bridesmaid at the wedding) - he paid exactly what the sitter asked and she's sat for us since in Cornwall.

Personally I think £10/hr is too much for someone looking after 3+ children in the evening or any children who are in bed asleep.

I sit for sitters quite a lot. To make it worthwhile for me I do not take bookings that are less than £35 for the evening and within 5 miles from home. Most families round up to the nearest £5 but I have had those counting coppers too. I do not like to babysit on the evenings that sitters suggest only £6.50/h except if it's a family I like sitting for.
I think £10/h is a bit excessive but if you can afford it and like the babysitter then why not?

The thing about using Sitters is you fork out a fair amount just to access their network of pre-vetted babysitters, so maybe people are less minded to pay more money to the actual sitter?

We usually round up to the nearest £5, but we also often return home earlier than arranged and pay for the rest of the evening anyway.

I like to think of Sitters as ready to leap in Batman-style to solve my childcare needs, but last time I needed them, at 48hr notice on a school night, they were 'sadly unable to fulfil my booking'.

Having just been to their web page, I see they claim 99% success in London but less in 'particularly affluent provincial towns in the South East of England' which I guess includes me...! This may also be connected to the difficulty I've had finding a CM for Sept.

I use Sitters for random full days of childcare and pay £10ph at awkward times such as the start of term when DS goes back later than DH and I.

I think childcarers are chronically underpaid and am happy to pay a decent rate to my known 'sitters'.

I looked into a Nanny agency and was quoted £150 a day for single day bookings, still with no guarantee of it being the same person each time.