Do you pay an Au Pair her pocket money at the start or end of her first week?

[Hotpants]

We are gettng a new au pair next week, her flight gets in late on Tuesday night. I am so nervous! Now here is a silly one but should I give her her 'pocket money' once she arrives or should I give it to her at the end of her first week? Would love to know what others do
Thanks

At the end of the first week. If she should happen to arrive without a bean (which she shouldn't) then I'd give an advance of say £10 on the first week's pocket money so that she has money for bus trips, some chocolate or whatever. Also, I have a receipt book which I think I bought from WHSmith which I use to record money paid, what week it relates to and the ap signs each receipt to say that she has received that week's money. If you've had aps before then you've probably done that or something similar but it doesn't harm to mention it I guess! Good luck with your new ap.

I know I"ll be the odd one out but I pay my au pair at the start of the week. My reasoning is that when it comes to the last week she will otherwise end up with a load of pounds to turn into euros otherwise..and it's not as if she can get away without working or that I would refuse to pay her for any reason (illness etc) - so I just told her that I would pay her in advance.. I don't do receipts either.

We've persuaded our last 3 APs to open bank accounts after they've been with us for a couple of weeks.
We've then set up automatic payments straight into their account each Friday so they're paid in arrears but have their money in time for the weekend. There's also then a record of exactly how much has been paid and when (although this has never been an issue).

Agree that if AP should turn up with no money then give them an advance for their first week.

Our last ap was able to open a bank account but this one isn't here for long enough for the bank to consider her having an account. We used to do a bank transfer most of the time but sometimes she wanted the cash straight away so we didn't set it up to go out automatically. We've had to write a letter saying how much we pay our current ap for (her) family reasons so the receipts are a form of proof should they ask for more details. Also, I think I didn't get paid for one week I worked as a teenager. It's a long time ago but it would have been about 40 to 40 hours work for nothing so I think receipts with the week commencing date on them are an easy record for us both. I agree with Millarkie though that come the last week the ap has to change sterling into euros but I paid our last (also our first) ap early that week to give her sufficient time to make the switch.

My ap ended up having no pay on the last week as we settled up her massive phone bills then so that wasn't an issue! She'd been ringing France 30 times a day on a job hunt, which I had OK'd, but we only paid the first £10 of any months phone bill, so she had to pay the rest. We get free calls to landlines, so our bill is usually only £2ish per month.

I paid each Friday, so in arrears, but checked she had money for the first week. She'd brought a few £100 with her, which I'd imagine a lot of girls would?

Weekly in arrear, by direst debit to UK bank account. Most employees are paid in arrear - I know I am. Will advancefor first week but both aupairs so far brought cash with them.

Give it to her at the end of the week.

Thanks everybody, that has really helped. I think I shall pay in arrears but give her an advance if she hasn't got enough for that first week. I'll encourage her to open a bank acct too, (that hadn't occured to me) but arrange some kind of informal receipt system until we can set up direct debits.
Thanks so much!