Printable View
I suspect it is, but they should have been dealing with this before getting large LAs like ours signed up. All this is doing for us is convincing me that we should be moving to ParentMail's +Pay system instead which is actually better value for money and as we already use ParentMail were near enough ready to go.Quote:
Originally Posted by glennda
Yup i think i would transfer all depends on if parentmails system would intergrate with our cashless catering system (cunninghams)Quote:
Originally Posted by john
but its all down to cost at the end of the day!
Hello Glennda - you might find the following link helpful to establish which systems are compatible - https://www.parentmail.co.uk/partners.htmlQuote:
Originally Posted by glennda
Best,
Paul
Thanks Paul - i did mention to the SLT i/c of ict about it but he didn't seem that keen! considering porting 1500 parents and 200 staff across!Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulHughes
sQuid | Corporate | Education is another to consider which works with Cunninghams / CRB.
Just need to get you to partner up with Serco and use ePortal API to take data from Serco now Paul to speed things up :) If not for ePortal could be well worth you talking to them for Progresso :)Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulHughes
We looked into ParentPay a while ago and decided that there rates were extortionate for what we were looking at. But from a systems perspective, we went to look at a school that was using WisePay and that looked amazing, they hadn't had any problems with their system at all.
But in the end, were going down the road of in-house development to keep costs down and we can have full integration with all of our systems.
Hi Mike - I'm really interested in your comment on the charges for using ParentPay (which are very similar to ours in actual fact).Quote:
Originally Posted by mikegrant
I had an interesting meeting two weeks ago with more than 40 schools where charges for electronic payments were discussed at length. I made the point that every payment made by card (debit or credit) carries a charge and 'most' retailers will include that charge in the retail price of their goods. Some levy an additional charge of 2.5% or more for payments made by credit card whereas our rates (and ParentPay's) are considerably cheaper at around 1.5%. (We've both achieved this by persuading the banks that school payments are low risk and of course we bring huge volume to the situation - which helps us negotiate :)
Why do you think the charges are high?
I would also be interested in how you propose setting up your own payment facility (your own merchant account?) and how you will avoid the charges that come with every card payment?
It might be that I've mistaken your point and that you were making a more general point about subscription costs rather than credit card costs, but I'd be interested to know.
Best wishes,
Paul.
@PaulHuges I'm assuming you work for ParentPay. What is your role there?
I'm in the position of having to decide which provider I sign our school (in fact, our brand new complete build non-BSF school) up to. Currently this had always been anticipated to be ParentPay - but after reading this thread I'm quite concerned.
For us, the kind of issues reported here would be disastrous and not just give a negative perception of your product, but actually on the school / IT in general also.
I'm actually in exactly the same position (brand new complete new build non-BSF school with no managed IT provider), and we had also always anticipated going ParentPay. Reading this thread is making me reconsider however. I'm not overly keen on Parentmail (we're already signed up for an alternative messaging system), but how does everyone find the alternatives?Quote:
Originally Posted by mb2k01
@mb2k01 @Soulfish - I am the Managing Director of 'ParentMail +Pay' and have nothing to do with ParentPay who are a competitor of ours. Clearly it would be very unprofessional of me to comment on them.
@Soulfish - I'm sorry to hear you are not keen on us :-( (By all means PM me and tell me why if you would like to).
Best,
Paul.
Ah, I see. More careful reading would have spotted that!Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulHughes
The above comment is noted/appreciated, but.... you are joining a discussion about them on a thread with their name in it ;)
Not that I have a problem with it personally. Competition is a good thing, and I'll still be looking at them (and you, now!) neutrally!
Cheers
The charges are just higher than what we were being quoted by sorting things out by ourselves. We still pay for every card payment, but extended our merchant account with our bank and reduced rates for our card terminal as well as what we paid for taking transactions online.Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulHughes
That combined with being able to create software that more suited our needs and allowed for easier integration into our sims/Active Directory/smartcard system. Combined with a need for an internal POS system. Just meant the development cost (my time) was worth it when combined with the rates that we were quoted.
Hmmm this thread is interesting because we are just starting to use ParentPay. Keep the feedback coming!
How have you found them so far? What process did you go through in terms of setting up with them?Quote:
Originally Posted by rh91uk