Anyone's school use Allpay Cashless system for school dinners?

[feetheart]

DC's school is about to introduce this using finger-print technology i.e. you put money into an account and children have their finger scanned when they have a school dinner.
We haven't been given much info although there are workshops next week which I will be going to as DH is away. He is a IT professional and has a LOT of reservations about how such a system will work.

Do you have it in your school and, if so, what feedback can you give me about it?

Thanks

We have one at DD2's school. At DD1's school, it's cashless, but they have a card, not a fingerprint reader.

It's very convenient, and DD2 will come home and say "Mummy, can you put some money on my finger?"

Yes and we don't like it. It had a lot of teething problems which caused long delays at the tills. Which then encouraged lazy pupils to ask others to get their meals for them....which they don't pay back for as they don't have money on them! Card top ups don't always go through that day...it left my DD turned away at the till one lunchtime. My main objections are though that we had no choice, it was just brought into the system and that the vital life skill of budgeting/totalling/saving is now missing. Good luck, you may need it ;)

Forgot to say, I can look up online and see what she's been eating, which is good, because if it's too many cakes or biscuits, I can talk to her about making healthy choices.

My boys school uses this system , the fingerprint one It's a min £10.00 though which is a bugger if it's towards the end of the month and there's 2 of them at the same school :-/
A few teething problems at the beginning where it wasn't working and THEY STILL refused to take cash but it seems a good idea

We've never had problems with either of the companies at the two schools, which are Parentpay (the finger one) and Squid (the card one). Topping up is pretty much instant.

Also, if you put a regular amount on it, they can learn to budget that, in the same way you have to budget your money if you use a debit card.

It's not allpay but my ds has had fingerprint payment for lunch for a couple of years now and we've had no trouble.

The fingerprint swirls are used to create a number which is what is stored on the system but the number cannot be used to recreate the finger print as it doesn't use every little detail of the finger, just enough for it to distinguish between children in a group as small as a school.

Maybe I sound thick but what happens if the finger is injured?

Thank you everyone.

ProudAS - DH asked that one too, especially knowing DS

DD uses parentpay rather than Allpay, but they scanned one finger from each hand.
The system has been great. I top up weekly so she has to budget for the week. No money for her to loose and you can set a daily spend limit if you wish. I can see exactly what she has eaten and program in anything she is not allowed to eat/allergies.
I just wish my other dcs's schools would switch to it.

DS1's school use it and I've never had any problems. He usually has packed lunch though, so I don't use it that often. I like seeing what he's eaten (pizza or pasta and angel delight) and I like being able to pay for school trips on it rather than having to send cash or find ye old cheque book.

I think the 6th form at his school are trialling registration by finger print, but don't know whether the whole school are going to do it any time soon.

DCs school has it : it works fine
and is great for hiding who is on FSM
fingerprint better than card as cannot be lost or stolen
and no cash kicking around
(big secondary)