Did your nursery close over Xmas and still charge you???

[laundrylover]

Mine did so am just conducting a straw poll to (hopefully) back up my argument that this is not fair.

Thanks.
LL

No mine didnt charge and yours has no right to charge you for them closing over xmas. I would argue the charges

My sister (a Nursery Manager) finished 6.30pm on christmas Eve and went back on the 7th at 8am.

CM closed as she always does, but she didn't charge me for that week, its specified in our contract that its a free closure (I pay half for 2 weeks annual holiday a year- again agreed, I also get 2 weeks at ha;f rate for mine).

Thanks for replies.

I don't have a problem with them closing as they are due a break but I think that charging for a service which isn't available is not on.

This is not the only issue I have with them - DD2 started in Sept and they won't set up a direct debit for fees until April. So instead we have to pay every four weeks by cheque but they never remind us and then say 'you're two weeks behind now' in a accusing tone!IMO it is their perogative to invoice us for the money - I can't remember to pay if i don't have an invoice FGS. Grrrrr....it's a business basic!!!

My DD's old nursery used to close for the week over Christmas, but still charged us for the full 52 weeks. I think it is standard policy amongst the big national nursery chains.

I don't know

To justify not knowing.... it is one morning a week, he only started in Sept and we are charged 4 weeks in advance - it didn't occur to me until 17th to wonder what happened at Christmas, and only occurred to me 2 mins ago to wonder if I had been charged.

Let me know if you find out Flame!

FGT - it's not a big chain but that's interesting. DD2s nursery didn't charge but they were lovely all round. Sadly couldn't squeeze DD2 in tho.

I'll try and find the invoice

Mine charges half fees IIRC. Although they didn't charge me for the Christmas week for some reason.

Hmm, I thought that the nursery would still have to pay its staff for the Bank Hols ie Xmas Day and Boxing Day, New Y Day also, so they are just passing on the cost to us, the consumer, if that makes sense?

To put it another way, when I worked fulltime (now PT) we were obviously closed Xmas/Boxing Day etc (I work for a bank) but the bank still paid us, the staff, for those days.

I know what I'm trying to say but sorry if it doesn't come across! Been a loooong day.

Mine doesn't charge

mine did. and put charges up in the new year.

I was more savvy this time round and BabyDragon goes on Weds & Thurs, thus avoiding bank holiday Mondays and Good Friday

The one dd has just left did charge for the christmas break ie 24th until today they were shut but the new one she is starting next week is termly linked to a school and only charges when the school is open and then offers extra for the school holidays on a different rate

I had been assuming that they would charge for bank holidays, but not the full closure period (so I would have been charged for Boxing Day but Thursday people etc wouldn't)

Surely the nursey still has to pay staff even when they are on holidays just like other jobs? I pay the same amount every month regardless of the number of weeks in that month or days off . I would imagine that nurseries that don't charge for holidays have actually included the wages costs in their monthly fees so you're not actually getting a free month iykwim. I think its different if you are a SE child minder - you're not charging for work you haven't done but don't have other staff on the payroll

My childminder did

Ours does not charge for bank hols or closures. They pay their staff wages from the revenue they take all year round so I suppose if they were to charge me for bank hols and closures it would be a lower daily rate the rest of the year iyswim.
My children go mon tue wed so we have cheaper months in August, May and whenever easter is
Laundry lover - just put it on the calendar 'nursery fees paid to here' its not that hard to remember! Ours fines us if fees are late so thats excellent incentive for me to be up to date at all times!

My nursery charges annually.
So they calculate how many days your child attends and then pro-rata it down to a Direct Debit every month.
They list all the dates open, all the dates closed.
I pay the DD every month, whether ds is there, not there, on holiday, nursery open / closed.
I pay the same amount of DD whether it is a 4 week month or a 5 week month.
It is always the same.
Most nurserys in Surrey, do it this way.
I didn't know that there was any other way of doing it, to be honest !

My nursery charges the same every month, regardless of bank holidays, our holidays, days off sick, etc. Can't say I am particularly happy about it but their argument is that they have to pay their staff holiday pay and most nurseries around here seem to do the same thing. The big chains charge £150 registration fee which infuriates me even more - thankfully I'm not with one of those - the US chains seem to have a range of admin fees, fines, etc.

It varies in different areas I think. When we lived in Plymouth and had ds at nursery you didn't pay for bank hols or other closures (Christmas). We then moved to Lancashire and in our town all nurseries charge for Bhs and Christmas hols (half fees for 1 week at Christmas). The galling thing was that the daily fees are no less up here.

I have used 3 nurseries now. 2 shut over CHristmas and didn't charge and third only closed Christmas & boxing day and 1st & 2nd Jan (was in Scotland) so we were charged if we didn't use it unles we took it as holiday (which wasn't charged for or was half the fees I can't remember which!)