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MSE News: School dinners chaos after parents caught out by revamp of ParentPay system

Legacy_user
Legacy_user Posts: 0 Newbie
edited 16 June 2016 at 4:56PM in Marriage, relationships & families
A major overhaul of a system called ParentPay that allows parents to pay for school dinners and other pupil expenses has caused confusion among some of its two million users, with MoneySavingExpert.com aware of claims children have even gone hungry at lunchtime as a result....
Read the full story:
'School dinners chaos after parents caught out by revamp of ParentPay system'
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Comments

  • sparky93
    sparky93 Posts: 393 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    just showed this to the other half. she found it had changed last week, but was ok to work it out what to do. she isnt a computer person either. but she read the site and faq and managed fine. bit of a stupid website change and stupid users she said lol. and it was better before the change.
  • Peter333
    Peter333 Posts: 2,035 Forumite
    MSE News: School dinners chaos after parents caught out by revamp of ParentPay cashle

    Sorry to sound ignorant, but I don't have young kids.

    What is a cashle? :huh:
    You didn't, did you? :rotfl::rotfl:
  • GwylimT
    GwylimT Posts: 6,530 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Peter333 wrote: »
    Sorry to sound ignorant, but I don't have young kids.

    What is a cashle? :huh:

    Cashless has been cut short.
  • Peter333
    Peter333 Posts: 2,035 Forumite
    edited 16 June 2016 at 5:02PM
    GwylimT wrote: »
    Cashless has been cut short.

    :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Thanks Gwylim.

    What am I like?
    You didn't, did you? :rotfl::rotfl:
  • Jojo_the_Tightfisted
    Jojo_the_Tightfisted Posts: 27,228 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    ParentPay?

    ParentPain, more like. I hate using it at work. HATE it.
    I could dream to wide extremes, I could do or die: I could yawn and be withdrawn and watch the world go by.
    colinw wrote: »
    Yup you are officially Rock n Roll :D
  • peachyprice
    peachyprice Posts: 22,346 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It's not rocket science, instead of adding meals to your basket then paying for it you now have to top up your balance, (using the exact same payment method as before) add meals to your basket then use your balance to pay. Took me all of 30 seconds to work out what to do.

    As for the site being slow or not working, it's always been like that.

    Another MSE storm in a tea cup.
    Accept your past without regret, handle your present with confidence and face your future without fear
  • Pincher
    Pincher Posts: 6,552 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 16 June 2016 at 10:07PM
    So there's no app for it then?

    It's just another stored value card to waste your money on.

    Still have about £70 worth on an Octopus (like Oyster) card from Hong Kong. When I turned up at the airport, the desk says they can't refund cards with more than £50 on it. Something like people could launder money by topping it up with Chinese RMB, then refund using hard currency. I need to spend it, but nothing in the airport takes Octopus!

    Set up an app that can take money through ApplePay, or Android Pay. When a school trip needs paying, the app beeps. You approve it, and ApplePay takes money from your credit card. Same kind of thing with school lunch, lunch money low, beep, top up? You set it up to alert you to top up weekly or monthly, or per term.

    You and Yours did an item on new builds, houses that is, yesterday. They just don't have the craftsmen to build properly these days. Same with software. These young whipper snappers think they can program if they can make 1 + 1 = 2.
  • Former_MSE_Andrea
    Former_MSE_Andrea Posts: 9,611 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker I've helped Parliament Rampant Recycler
    Is anyone else having Parentpay problems?

    Do you find it easier to use now or was it better before?
    Could you do with a Money Makeover?


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  • girlsmum
    girlsmum Posts: 472 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    I used it last week to top up my childs lunch account, whilst i did figure out what to do, I find it totally pointless!!! why should i top up with an excess amount to be held there to be dished out as and when, I have a bank account to hold my cash thanks... it was much easier to click pay for items then pay for what was in your basket. Now if i have a few items to pay for i would have to total it up top up by that amount then allocate it out.... this is not an improvement
  • thriftyemma
    thriftyemma Posts: 335 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I use ParentPay for eldest child. I've had absolutely no problems using at all. When I add an amount to child's dinner money , a notice pops up saying school dinners costs (eg) £10 per week, or £64 for the full term. So I add £64 to the balance, and hey presto, my kid has hot meals. Any unused balance gets carried forward.

    I did, once, let the account go into negative credit. I just totally forgot! Child was still allowed to have school meals, and did not go hungry. I paid off the negative balance, and topped it up for enough meals for the rest of term. I assume if I went into a large negative balance, meals would be stopped. But if that were the case, I imagine there is a deeper problem than not being able to use the website.

    There were multiple notices and guides on the ParentPay website before and after the change. I agree with the poster above, it does seem to be a storm in a teacup.
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