Do you use ParentMail for paying dinner money?

Bloomin_Freezing2

Our school has been using parent mail for a while now to send letters out but recently introduced the option to pay money to school via their website.

For people who are already paying for school dinners this way i'd like to know, do you pay a set amount or can you pay anything you like? For example, my DD has school dinners twice a week, can I go online and pay 3.60 for 2 dinners or do I have to pay 10.00 and then the school takes credit from my account until it needs topping up again?

Thanks

peachyprice

I use Parent Pay (is that what you meant?) it's a minimum top up of £10 which is a PITA when my son only has school dinners occasionally. I get an email from them when the balance is low, under £2.

chunkychocky

It looks like ParentMail and ParentPay are two different things. Do you find they are OK? School are constantly asking for money and it is a major pain having to find the right change and send it in in an envelope (which invariably gets lost either by the children or the teacher). Might suggest they look into something like this.

minimoneyme

Our school has been using it for a term now. The minimum payment is £10.00. Mine only have dinners twice a week so I topped up at the start of term, then set my email alerts for when it goes under £3. Then top up by a tenner again. You can see exactly what they have eaten, when.
We can also pay for school trips, equipment etc.
It's working fine so far, the school ran cash and Parentpay side by side for a while to ease us in gently, now it's totally cashless. Only two issues -
friends who's parents don't top them up see my daughter as a soft touch, she then has to bug them for cash.
The school use thumbprint recognition as ID which is always breaking down, which means the dinner ladies have to write down everyone's names and form which makes dinner queues really long.
Other than that it's working well and saves scrabbling round for change on Monday morning, lost money issues, and helps bullying issues.

Shelldean

Also use Parentpay, and as previously said the minimum to put on is £10. I dont get email when the balance goes low, which is a problem as once or twice son has gone w/o lunch as it's run out and I'd not realised.
I can set it up to receive texts but these cost.
We can also pay for trips etc via it.

minimoneyme

Shelldean, if it's Parentpay LTD if you go to the ALERTS tab you set the alert threshold then there is a tick box for email and/or text alerts. (at least mine is like that!)