paying for nurseries

[dennya]

i am about to start visiting nurseries for my dd. How do payments for nurseries usually work? Do you need a deposit? Dou you pay in advance? Any tips would be gratefully received?

from memory we paid a deposit - may have been non refundable - wasn't a lot and then we paid monthly but dd1 was in full time - the nurseries have a few different day times - like a 9 to 2 and then the full day which was opening til close - we paid that in case I got caught up in staff meetings or dh had a meeting.

hope that helps.

we paid a deposit and that pays for the childs last week in nursery or whatever the amount covers/equals.

we paid a month in advance which will be ds last months payment when he leaves. The daily weekly amount was then totted up and the total divided by 12 to work out equal monthly payments, extra days are then added onto the monthly bill. Good luck with your search.

We paid a registration fee. We have flexible care so were given a bill for what the first month would be. We pay on the first of each month. The nursery we use is also eligible for local authority funding. That way, they afternoons DS is there, as long as it's in the school term, we get the 2.5hrs at local authority rate paid back to us. We've had that since DS was 3. It doesn't work out a huge amount but it certainly helps.

You can also get Childcare Vouchers from some employers - basically you are allowed to pay around £50 per week out of your pre-tax salary which saves you paying tax on that amount - both you and your partner can claim if both employers offer the scheme which can make quite a saving - basically the fees are paid direct to the nursery. Do a google search to find out the exact details and ask your employer if they offer it (and if not why not!!!)

Dennya

At our nursery we take a deposit and admin fee or £45 (the deposit, £25, is refundable when the child leaves). Fees are then paid by Direct debit on the 1st of the month. Fees are averaged for the year and then divided by 12 to get an even monthly amount (rather than worked out on an actual days per month basis) and most nurseries do the same.

As Jellybellie says, if your work offer a childcare voucher scheme you can get up to £55 pw or £243 per month tax free by taking the scheme up, and these then offset the monthly nursery bill. You can actually have your company pay vouchers for the total bill (if they are happy to do this), but only the £243 will be tax and ni free. But note that you can get Child Tax credits to help pay for the childcare fees, but if you do participate in a voucher scheme you have to deduct the amount received as vouchers before stating your fees value so it may not pay you to actually take up a voucher scheme even if offered.