Care.com - worth it or a bit of a scam?

[SquishySquirmy]

Hi.

I've got myself in a bit of a mess regarding childcare for my dd who will be starting school in August.
I need wraparound childcare, but the waiting list for the out of school club is horrendous, and the childminders I know are full.

To look for other childminders I put my details on care.com, and have received a message from someone but I can't read it without paying £35.00!
I wouldn't mind doing this if it resulted in finding someone, but I am a bit worried the message will just say "sorry I can't help" or similar.

Has anyone had any positive experiences of this site? Or is it a waste of money?

Utter waste of money. I'm a childminder and it's rubbish for us too, we can't actually look at ads, we just get a generic "we need a lovely childminder for 2 kids", nothing about hours or parents actual budget (it often says "£50pw" but is that for five days or five hours?!)
Childcare.co.uk is more populated, you do have to pay but its a hell of a lot more transparent and

I am a cleaner on that site!! If you are a free member you can message other free members. If you feel its appropriate you can put your phone number on your ad and people can then contact you direct. I have had lots of jobs from there for free!
Beware the website do send you tempting messages suggesting people are trying to contact you when there aren't any!!

As a nanny I have found my latest two jobs from Childcare.co.uk
I have a Care account but I didn't find anything good on there. I think it was created in the USA and ported over to the UK and it does not really work here as it's not popular enough.
Profiles are much more detailed on Childcare - well they can be a lot more detailed if people bothered to fill them out. It's so annoying how some parents tick that they want an au-pair, babysitter, nanny, childminder, nursery... would be lovely if they made up their mind!
So... I would use Childcare and I would write a detailed profile, then pay for subscription (via Website gives the most options for billing periods... it does auto-rebill but can be easily cancelled, just remember to cancel before next billing cycle.

Your local authority holds a list of registered childminders, so you can contact them for a list... some will have details online. Google: Family Information Service [your area]