Anyone pay for school meals or trips online?

[AllisonEllerby]

Does your school offer this, or plans to? What are your experiences in paying for school meals or trips online?

DDs school uses Parentpay for trips, tickets, events etc. and school uniform but not school dinners. You can also leave emergency money on there which they can ask the office for from petty cash if they have lost their dinner money.

Very convenient. Just check the boxes of the things you want- use a stored credit/ debit card to pay and it's done.

Much better than cheques in envelopes that get forgotten at the bottom of a school bag or lost.

We use one. Most of the time it works well, or it did until I tried merging my dc's accounts in September. Since then I've at least twice had to contact them to say the account is only letting me view one child and not get into the other accounts. I tend to get a rather snooty email back giving me the password (again) and saying it should work. But they have always sorted it, but I wish they'd admit it rather than pretending it is just I'd forgotten the password. But it is easier when it works.

DDs school use parentpay.

I like this system, as DD doesn't have to carry money on her to school.

I find it easy to use ( when i remember - but you can pay for a text alert!)

I haven't stored my card number, just enter it when needed IYSWIM. I pay asap for trips and every 3 weeks for school lunches.

Just to say

I mean i pay in advance, every 3 weeks.
I also always leave at least £10 on, incase i forget to pay on time for the next 3 weeks!

The school Sec. sorts payments every Friday.

Parentpay here as well.

I always pay for a half-term for dinner and milk so I don't forget it on the weekend.

our school uses parent pay for everything they dont encourage cheques or cash. School is minmum of £15.00 paying by card. It is much easier as you can just go online and pay but if the computer crashes you are in trouble as you dont know how much balance etc and they dont allow cash for school dinners to discourage theft but overall it is much easier than sending back slips and cheques.

We use parentpay for school trips. School dinners are paid by direct debit on a monthly basis. Fantastic not to have to look around for school dinner money change anymore. Kids can decide on the day what they want to have and I get an email at the end of the month with a breakdown of what they've eaten and the direct debit amount.

DSs old school uses Parent Pay and I thought it was great. You could even check what they ate for lunch / ban them from a particular food item. Sadly his new (lovely) school doesn't - just means I have had to find my cheque book again. The office lady told me that they didn't have any plans to use it as it has a cost.