Anyone else have a nursery that charges you to use busybees vouchers?

[beagle101]

Our nursery has just decided that they need to charge us £2 per voucher to use childcare vouchers (busybees as it happens). This is because of "increased" admin costs I was told. When I asked in writing what "increase" there had been (as basically the nursery receives an email from busybees to say the voucher has been paid and then the money goes into their account 4-5 days later so less hassle than a cheque!)I got some mealymouthed reply about it having been agreed at a management meeting.

I can't seem to let this go as it costs £48 for DH and I a year to use the vouchers and it just smacks of a total scam to me . DH advised me to post to see if anyone else gets charged to use electronic vouchers as I think he fears I am becoming irrational about this - do other nurseries charge, am I just being hideously mean?

Not usual to charge in my experience. However as a nursery manager i can tell you that busybees are the worst voucher company we use, out of 8. We considered not accepting them at all. We wouldn't charge but can see why out of frustration they might. Actually for what its worth the paper vouchers were easier to administer than the electronic ones, that didn't always get a bacs letter, the electronic system was so slow and you can't easily see who paid what (as all payments are listed and you have to click on each to see how many parents made that figure).

As long as they are recieving the voucher in good time to process before fees are due cannot see logic to them charging you.

I have never been charged for childcare vouchers - that's outrageous! £2 a voucher?! Never used busybees though so don't know if they're particularly difficult. Are they charging everyone who uses vouchers or is it just the busybees?

I take vouchers (Sodexo and Accor) as a CM, I prefer them as they go straight into my bank! I do nothing but save the email notification, How the hell can they charge for that!

Shoshe - i agree that sodexho and accor are great. Trouble with a large nursery is that with 8 different voucher companies, and several payments (in our case 50+) companies with less effective systems (like busybees) can create a lot of admin work.

I agree that they should not be charging but trying to show other side. Introducion of vouchers increased my payments to track from about 50 to 130 (approx), and this does create extra work.

My nursery charge £1.50 - have been meaning to get annoyed about it but haven't had the chance - but now that you mention it will have to make time!

My nursery already hate me as I seem to be the mum who raises all the issues the other mums just moan about!

Before getting 'annoyed', try looking at it from the nursery's point of view.

An average-sized nursery takes about 50 kids at any one time. They're all doing a combination of sessions, so there might be 150 kids on the roll. Every one of the parents might use nursery vouchers (and I mean mother and father separately, so two lots of nursery vouchers per one child in some cases). The nursery vouchers won't cover all the monthly fees in most cases, so the nursery has to work out what the difference is and ensure that it's been paid, either by cheque or direct debit or whatever. Believe me, this bit is an absolute nightmare as some parents will conveniently knock a few quid off the difference wherever they can.

But the worst bit by far is trying to work out which parent has made which voucher payment, as half the time they don't come with reference numbers or names or anything. You then have to go through the payments one by one and phone the company in question to find out who has paid the voucher in. Imagine doing that 150 + times every month and then working out the shortfall on top and making sure it's been paid (and that you haven't been done). The phone calls alone are enough to justify the extra cost, never mind that you need a full-time extra staff member just to deal with it.

My nursery charges, it was £20 or £25 (one off charge)
Not happy about it as I fail to see how much more work it takes as we pay termly

DH and I use Busy bee vouchers. DD has attented 2 different nurseries and neither charged.

Thanks everyone - I do know how grim busybees can be - my Mum works at a school and it her full time job just to deal with all the vouchers! She too hates busybees out of all of them.

loler - ha! - me too! I am that Mum, the one that raises the questions - I think that as the majority of the kids at our nursery are part-time people just can't be hassled!

Busy bees take up the most time.
We receive paper vouchers from parent and have to ring them through, 1 at a time
eg press 1 if you are redeeming
press 1 if this is your correct code
type in the serial number
press 1 if this is correct
press 1 if you wish to continiue
type in the amount using the star as the decimal point
press 1 if this is correct
press 1 if you wish to redeem another voucher

so each voucher some are for £10 or £20 takes a few minutes to redeem when you have 10 to do it takes ages
then a few days later you receive a paper remitance saying its in your bank so you have to check it,
theres a few different customers on the one sheet,
also as mentioned you have to check what parents still have to pay
so yes they are an absolute pain for busy managers to administrate.

(But we dont charge) yet.....

Nurseryvoice - glad its not just me that finds them so frustrating!

Have just had a result with the busybees situation! The nursery I use is attached to my workplace (but not owned by them). I went to my Personnel Dept armed with my MNer info and explained about the voucher charge at the nursery and the fact that there is a general sense of Busybees being the worst offenders for admin and asked them to consider using another company. Personnel was also fairly unimpressed by the nursery charging (they didn't know!) and are now going to change vouchers in consultation with the nursery so that we don't get charged! Wheeeee .

So HUGE thanks to you all! My Personnel Director has asked if I would ask MNers if there is any particular company that anyone could recommend? Anyone out there accepting lots of different vouchers - which are the easiest for you?

Wow good result. i have found Care4, accor and sodexhopass the best.

well done

my nursery doesn't charge

for those having trouble working out which voucher is from who tell the parents they can just ring and ask busybees/whoever to put childs name/code on the voucher, only need to do it once, it's just for busybees you need to ask them to do it

accor has always been hassle free for me and cm

Accor never put a reference on the payment no matter how many times you ask them to - they're the worst of the lot. And its all very well to say that the system works for a childminder who only has to deal with three payments. What about a nursery dealing with 150 payments?