Paying the CM

[Loulou2kent]

I was just wondering as I'm still awaiting payment from parents 4 weeks later, how many of you feel childcare is a big bill & it's like paying mortgage,rent, phone bill, gas & electric etc??

Do a lot of parents if a month is tight knock the childminder & then play catch up? Or do you always make sure you have it aside?

Just feeling very under appreciated & now I'm waiting to purchase sons new school uniform whilst the parents are enjoying their holiday.

I've chased 4 times now & it's so frustrating. I can't imagine them being too pleased if they hadn't been paid from work.

This thread is a bit of a rant, I'm sorry. I just need to know in all honestly if this is going to happen a lot & then see what I can do to fix it. I hate being the nagging woman leaving messages & texting constantly. It puts me in a really crap position & I just wished they would pay on time

Well round here when I started, a lot of cm I spoke with always just got paid in arrears, so I did the same. But I'm reading more & more about people not getting paid & think it's become the norm to pay in advance to prevent it. I guess I just wanted to hear how important people thought the bill is. I didn't know if I'd get a few people saying sometimes when things come up they don't pay cm etc. But you all seem really sure that most families include this bill as a priority.

Nurseries always charge in advance, so there's no reasons you can't. I've never paid any childcarer late.

I run a Rainbows group and we've also started asking for fees in advance as I'm so sick of chasing people for subs.

Absolutely switch to payment in advance.

I have seen my CM worry about other parents not paying (she's a friend as well as my CM so I hear bits of her worry, never names).
I always tell her that she should just refuse to look after a child until the payment is received - that would focus the mind, if she refused to provide child care until payment was made, especially if she did a day or 2 warning and then no more childcare.

To me it is an essential bill after mortgage because if I didn't work and earn money I couldn't pay the mortgage and I couldn't do that without paying for childcare.

I would get rid of them, without a doubt! Cheeky fckers!

Don't worry, most CMs tighten up their policies after an incident like this.

Payment in advance. Late payment fees as a daily charge.

I pay 4 weeks in advance.

Always take a months fees deposit

Stiff late charges of 10% every 24hrs and tbh if they Havnt paid you and no deposit /in advance then I would refuse to have their child next time they knock on the door

My co-childminder and I insist on payment in advance (paid on 28th of previous month) by standing order.

Occasionally parents don't set up that standing order, despite reminders - so we have a £2 a day late payment charge. If payment hasn't been made by close of business on the 28th, we email a polite reminder, including a reminder of the late payment fee

Do you use Pacey contracts? There is a clause in the payment section that says the childminder can suspend the contract and refuse to care for a child until all unpaid fees have been paid. We highlight that sentence with asterisks.

The contracts also includes, as a reason for a childminder to terminate a contract without notice (wording from memory: 'non-payment of fees for [you select the period of time] or repeated non-payment of fees'.

Hey lucky, thank you for pointing that out in the Pacey contracts! I will go have a look now. I have a new starter next week & they are happy to pay in advance! Yay! I imagine parents already paying in arrears would struggle if I switched mid-contract as they'd be paying two lots in one go for the first month. But I will defo do in advance only now. How do you find the charging extra per day it's late? Do you ever get people complaining about it?

I'd let your current teacher parents know that from September they need to pay in advance, and if you haven't received the two months they owe you, plus September in advance, by the 31st August, you won't be providing care until it's all paid. And if there is a late fee in your contract starting charging that too.

Childcare is top priority for me. I would never pay it late. It just wouldn't be fair.

I manage a nursery so can commiserate
We never let parents pay in arrears
I had a coule look round for spaces for 2 children as their nursery is closing down

She later rang and said the current nursery let her pay in arrears and would we allow that?
I said sorry, no. It's fees in advance
I haven't heard back from her but no wonder the nursery is closing down if they allow parents to pay in arrears

We charge a late fee and some do complain about it but I point out that I could exclude their child in our terms and conditions
I have excluded a child, I didn't enjoy it. The child was drops off by her grandad who happened to be a famous example footballer and I had to tell him he couldn't leave her.
It was embarrassing for both of us
But fees were paid and she did return

Childcare is an essential bill. If money is extremely tight I'm more likely to negotiate late rent with the landlords than fall behind on the cm's fee.

Think what others have posted here are good ideas. I think you may need to be a little lenient and define late payment as being more than 7 days late as us mums and dads get pretty busy. Currently I am lucky if I get to the computer for 5 minutes and I hate doing banking and admin on my phone. Personally I am pretty anal about paying on time but my career was always finance related. However I take a dim view of people who start chasing payment perhaps a little too early like less than 12 hours after their shift. They know I am beyond busy and me hiring them is to help me out. Like places where I work, hiring a person in a very poor financial position to come into your home can be a potential reason for undesirable conduct.

Childcare should be paid upfront. Stops any messing around on either side!

I define late payment as a day late. I invoice 2 weeks before the end of the month, so plenty of time for parents to sort out payment at their leisure. I had a parent apologise to me this month, because they only paid me a day early and paid in two separate payments. I had to ask them what they were apologising for .

Can you give them a call? They might genuinely be very forgetful?
If the hours and bills differ each month, could you work out their fees for the term split into monthly bills and ask them to set up standing order? Our nursery did that and it was a huge help as then I only had to remember payments once a term rather than every month (and they were in advance, extra sessions paid cash when dropping child off).

Drop zone - one of my parents pays by standing order, because she just doesn't want to think about it. I give her an amount each year and she pays it. In fact ... She over pays and then asks for a refund at Christmas .

Paying the CM comes second only to paying the rent here. My CM is extremely and unusually flexible which we need - if relationships with her broke down we couldn't work. It's also about the same price as our rent so definitely consider it a main bill.

We pay in advance and the money gets transferred within minutes of receiving the email invoice, my cm knows well and always makes sure I get the invoice for the following month before the end of the previous one as she knows I like everything paid on the 1st. I do know that she's struggled with some late or non payers in the past and it baffles me that anyone would want to piss off the person caring for their child.

I would write them a formal letter, sending it special delivery, informing them that failure to pay within 14 days will lead to immediate termination of contract. After 14 days with no payment I would terminate contract and send letter before action, then after 14 days put in a claim with small claims/county court. It's important you follow the formal process in order to get your money back.

venys'she shouldn't have to chase at all let alone be lenient. I'm also beyond busy but never pay late. I'd be mightily pissed off if my wages were late because someone at payroll was too busy to sort it, these are the cm's wages.

I pay my CM in advance on the 1st of each month. Never late & never thought anything else was ok.

Contact your insurers for advice. Standardly its to write a letter saying that payment is now over due and giving a time to pay before putting it into hands of legal team.

This really is so common Im supporting one lady who is now facing eviction with a parent owing over £1000 and another £800. Obviously she will then be out of work too.

Payment in advance no exceptions of at least one notice period and no pay no care. You can not trust a profession or career to be more reliable than another its also really common to be good payers term time only until the summer then disappear including ones who negotiate a pro-rata bill even with advance payments so you've still done work and not got paid.

Thank you everyone for your helpful comments. I did actually phone today but had to leave a message. It's the weekend & so I'm giving them till Monday, then I might just pop round there & ask face to face. Might catch them off guard. Trust me as CM we know how busy parents can be, especially when I finish I still need to do paperwork & clear up from the day & then get everything out for the next morning & then get my own pickles to bed etc. I really wouldn't chase a normally very good payer after a day. Things come up, people forget, but I think it was fair to chase after two weeks & more. Although I don't go on & on & make sure I'm professional. Tbh it's the only time I've had this problem. Will be the last!! I dug my contracts out already and am going through them.

Can't believe that poor cm who's now facing eviction & job loss due to parents not paying. Bet they still got paid from their job! I would also like to say I'm not heartless, if I knew there were struggles I would try & work with family etc, but to just avoid contact is a bit naughty.

Again thanks for everyone taking time to comment & give advice. You all sound like lovely cm & parents!

They are almost 8 weeks behind? ? That is disgraceful.

I pay my CM in arrears, but they are paid weekly (reminder in phone to do it every Thursday so the money gets to them by Friday )

I personally wouldn't be happy paying a month up front, but there has to be a compromise.