Some London Nurseries are charging up to £125 registration fees.

[Bubble99]

'Registration' at our nursery involves entering the details from a form into a database. 10 minutes max.

We ask for a months fees upfront as a returnable deposit, essential to make sure that we don't hold a place for a child that doesn't come. We knew about deposit fees before we opened our nurseries but knew that we couldn't look someone in the face and ask for money for registration.

I defy anyone to defend this practice.

?125 For ten minutes work at most.

i agree bubble.
i used to ask for £25 refundable registration fee to guarantee a place.
then i changed it to non refundable to include a tshirt and bag
now i dont ask for a reg fee at all.

Deposit to secure a place I understand, but a fee just for completing a form I don't.

What do the parents get in exchange from filling in a registration form? Is it the same as a deposit to hold a place?

As someone who does a lot of marketing, I know the benefit of getting the details from people who enquire. However, the process of collecting those details should be as simple as possible and have no cost to the person concerned. Once the nursery has their contact details and an idea of when they may want a place, then that information can be used for follow-up calls, e-mails and letters... even special promotions.

But why charge someone to fill in a form? Seems odd to me.

[shock} Not in London, glad if that is standard practise! Never had to pay anything for registering DD at nursery - paid a refundable deposit to hold her place - which wnet of the first month's fees - but nothing more.

Can't charge for this anymore - PLA have just told our Playgroup