ParentPay rip-off: no refund when child leaves school

[Bwix]

I have nearly £100 in a parentpay account for dd who has just left primary school. The parentpay website has a section for what to do if your child leaves school and it gives you some options (if your child is moving to another parentpay school) or says you don't need to do anything if they're not.

But I don't want to do nothing as I have £100 on the account! The company seem to make it impossible to find out how to get money back, as it probably suits them not signposting this.

Does anyone have any pointers about how I can get my money refunded? The reason there's that much left is that dd used after-school club a lot so we had to have it topped up.

You contact the school parentpay address/the school and request a refund.

This may not happen immediately as not all staff are in throughout the summer, but it's pretty simple; contact the school.

The primary school just refund it.
We had no problems with this when we moved schools mid year.

There is no rip off. The school will put it back in your account.

No advice unfortunately but I had the same situation - DS left primary in 2020, typically I had topped up his parent pay just before lockdown school closure in March, and although he went back for a month, it was packed lunch only.

There wasn’t even any way I could transfer the money to his new school, which also uses parent pay, as parent pay said the money had gone to his primary (despite not having school dinners!), primary said they never actually had anything to do with the money as it goes straight to school meals service, whose response was that he hadn’t had dinners so obviously they didn’t have it!

Unfortunately I ended up writing about £40 off, as I was just stuck in an endless loop of denial, and had enough other stress going on.

His new school uses parent pay, but I’m now wary about how much I top his account up by each time, just in case!

Fingers crossed you have a better outcome than I did.

Both dc left parentpay schools this summer. Both schools have refunded.
Contact this school - I expect it'll be on their list of things to do this summer.

Hi this is the method I have successfully used on the Parent Pay App.
From the Home Screen click on the money icon (looks like bank notes), then select 'Withdraw Parent Account Credit'
From this screen you will see a message explaining you are limited to 3 withdrawals in a 3 month period, just type in the full amount you want refunded back to you.
Good luck

I got a refund on a trip with the above method, getting money back from school meals seems much harder. I've chased the school as it has to come from them, they needed the date I last made a payment. School finished last week, I've not heard that they've done a refund and the account is still showing the credit, so need to remember to chase again in Sept.

I’ve had a couple of refunds back (school
trips) and that was easy enough - the school organised and I followed fairly simple instructions.

Getting a school meals refund was a whole other matter and seemed to take about a year (!) and I think I ended up getting a cheque in the end! I couldn’t transfer it to pay for trips or to a sibling either. I have a feeling the credit is still showing on the account as well.

As PP have said if it's been 'claimed' by the school they need to put it back in the general
Pot and then according to parent pay you can claim it back.

I have two children who have now left secondary and I emailed the school who refunded to the section where you can withdraw and I withdrew it

@imsofancy is correct. I've done this too - withdraw parent account credit- and it's gone back into my bank account with no trouble.