ParentPay - Anyone else adversely affected by the payment changes?

[pete]

Parentpay have changed the "add funds" routine recently.

 

It's gone from:

 

1) add item to basket

2) card transaction

3) done

 

to:

 

1) add funds to top up pot

2) card transaction

3) allocate those funds to items

4) done.

 

Since most of our parents are used to the previous way of doing things, they're missing the "allocate those funds to items" step and a fair amount of kids don't have any cash for lunch.

 

Judging by how long our finance dept are on hold when trying to get hold of them, we're not the only school thinking this is a backwards step.

 

If you could schedule "ensure Bob's meal account has £20 in it every Monday if there's money in the top-level pot", I could see it might be useful - but there's no way to do that.

[Dos_Box]

I've just noticed that. What a PITA!

Mind you, I have two kids but one has a packed lunch often so makes it handy for allocating funds from a pot, but it's far from intuative!

[elsiegee40]

That sounds like a right PITA. What was wrong with the old way?! I found it really easy to use.

[bossman]

We just going down that route after me badgering them to 5 years ago, everything should be up and running by the end of today

 

All linked to our Biometrics and MIS so looking forward to the change as it all works automatically and I will have very little input (For once less work rather than more!!) Yipee!!

[pete]

That sounds like a right PITA. What was wrong with the old way?! I found it really easy to use.

 

The cynic in me says "the old way meant they couldn't earn interest on funds stashed with them".

[rad]

How often do Parentpay give the schools the money that Parents pay into Parentpay?

[Lonix]

We are effected and didn't even get told about it. No letters and no emails.

 

It wasn't until we had a Parent phone us up and ask about what's going on.....

 

Never make it more complicated...

[TechieWils]

The cynic in me says "the old way meant they couldn't earn interest on funds stashed with them".

 

What he said, but also we've had parents request refunds but the card they used has either been cancelled or expired so refunding them was a manual operation involving a cheque. At least now the money is refunded to their Parent Pay so solves this issue. But it wasn't a huge issue and as has already been pointed out its caused no end of hassle here.

[gaz350b]

The cynic in me says "the old way meant they couldn't earn interest on funds stashed with them".

 

Same thoughts here, apparently they are holding less money in the new system.... My suspicion lies with they wanted to share code between their 2 payment platforms parent pay has taken on the same functionality as their sister site nimbl, which deals with pocket money on a bank card and mum and dad top up the 'my account' and transfer funds to the child accounts.

[gaz350b]

We are effected and didn't even get told about it. No letters and no emails.

 

It wasn't until we had a Parent phone us up and ask about what's going on.....

 

Never make it more complicated...

 

Really? You don't use parent pay on your own personal account, they've had an annoying auto play video every time you login!

[Spl1t]

I think it's a reasonable idea to put to the table but I do think they should have given school's notice so they could email out the parents notifying them of the changes.

 

On a side note I think the reason why it's been such a problem is because if a school only has one account say 'Catering' the parents still need to allocate it to that account; surely it should just be set to default to the only active 'purse'. When schools have multiple accounts then I generally think it's a good move to pay into a account and then just move the funds into the different accounts when it's required.

[Quatermass]

Yup, PITA, first thing our PP contact knew was phonecalls.

 

Parentpay have changed the "add funds" routine recently.

 

It's gone from:

 

1) add item to basket

2) card transaction

3) done

 

to:

 

1) add funds to top up pot

2) card transaction

3) allocate those funds to items

4) done.

 

Since most of our parents are used to the previous way of doing things, they're missing the "allocate those funds to items" step and a fair amount of kids don't have any cash for lunch.

 

Judging by how long our finance dept are on hold when trying to get hold of them, we're not the only school thinking this is a backwards step.

 

If you could schedule "ensure Bob's meal account has £20 in it every Monday if there's money in the top-level pot", I could see it might be useful - but there's no way to do that.

[Edu-IT]

I've no idea how ParentPay works, but, was it possible prior to add purchases for two different children to the same basket?

[AngryITGuy]

I've no idea how ParentPay works, but, was it possible prior to add purchases for two different children to the same basket?

 

Prior to the recent changes it was indeed possible to add items for multiple children to one basket and then pay it as one amount.

 

We don't use ParentPay as a school but I do as a parent and I can't for the life of me think why they would want to mess with a system that worked from an end user point of view.

 

But I did get email notification about the impending changes to be fair.

[Ruth4]

It's been absolutely a nightmare, and still going on. Parents don't notice that the money just goes into 'my account' so there have been loads of students with no funds on their school meals account so we've had to feed them for 'free' first, then admin have had to call the parent and explain the next step they need to take. Parents who have called in cant see why there is a change.

 

Parent pay say the parents requested it? But all I see is Parent Pay collecting a lot of money in their bank account before its allocated to the schools.

 

Also the schools can't see the parent/students 'my account ' balance so no idea if the parents forgotten to move the money or the not.

[pete]

^Yup, the amount of pupils who haven't had money on their account has risen from one or two to sufficient that SLT are noticing.

 

Should the parents have RTFCN*? Yes. Do end-users typically RTFCN? Nope.

 

*Change Notification.

[sonofsanta]

Got caught by this at my daughter's school earlier this week. Topped up for her lunch money, only to get an automatic email 18 hours later asking "did you finish your transaction...?"

 

I can't fathom why they've made the change. I already have an account where I hold my money before I send it down as lunch money. It's called my bank account.

[pete]

^ Not to mention "you don't get to act as a bank where my money is concerned unless you're bound by banking regulations". See also: Paypal.

[pcstru]

ISTR a couple of years ago Parentpay promising they would communicate better with their customers and users. So much for that! My first thoughts were that it was a cynical move to hold money in their accounts. Funnily enough, that was my middle and end thoughts too.

[woody]

We have had the same problems with Parents not understanding the change. I too use it as a parent - I am really ticked off with the change. I think they should rename 'My Account' to 'Their Account'!

 

All I have ever wanted from Parent pay is the ability to set up automatic payments and a responsive site that works on my phone. The first they are still promising to do but haven't delivered yet. The latter, twice they have promised to make the site responsive! The first time, it was just the log in page that sizes correctly, then it went to the old site which didn't resize. Then with the new My Account, all of that is responsive until you get to the card payment page, where it again goes to the old site and all of a sudden everything is tiny on my phone!

 

And why oh why do they still not have an IOS / Android App? GRRRrrrrrrr.

[SovietRussia]

So glad that we are only starting to go over it very soon and parents won't know the "old way" but what a pain - I got caught by it too trying to do a demo powerpoint, put £20 on my account to be told 'it hasn't been applied, you need to go XYZ' what a waste of time.

[Edu-IT]

I see on Twitter they offered to explain away from social media what the reasoning is. Anyone going to find out?

 

[rad]

I see on Twitter they offered to explain away from social media what the reasoning is. Anyone going to find out?

 

 

Here you go...

I have been passed your details and must apologise that the introduction of the new payment process has caused confusion and additional tasks in school. We do thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback, all feedback is important to us, and we review all ideas and suggestions.

 

Any new way of working, or any new service is always difficult to predict how it will be accepted, and we have tried to give as much advanced notice as possible, with information going out to schools since September 2015, and informing parents since January 2016. Regular announcements were posted on the payer’s login, and for the 12 weeks prior to the new release a video tutorial was available explaining how to top-up and how to pay. This video also auto played when parent’s first logged into ParentPay following the release. Additional links to FAQs were also posted for parents. Since the release we have added additional reminder banners to the parent’s home page, and we are emailing every parent who tops up but does not pay for any items. We are also introducing additional flags and reminders at the top up stage to guide parents. We are currently processing £’000s in school payments, and are confident that many parents are navigating this change successfully. I’ve attached an information sheet which may help your staff and parents.

 

Here are some of the messages sent to schools

my account ;

username

loginguidance

https://www.parentpay.com/sites/default/files/Change%20Notice%20-%20Transaction%20Fees%20150116.pdf

MyAccountschools1

MyAccountlas2

 

We do appreciate that My Account has caused some parents’ issues, and I’ve outlined below some background as to why these changes are being introduced. We commissioned extensive independent research with parents, to discover what else they wanted from ParentPay and how it met their needs and expectations. A majority of respondents indicated they wanted the ability to maintain one balance in their account, giving more control and flexibility for them to allocate money for different school items at different times. We also found that parents liked to pay a set amount at the start of each week or month, to help them budget. Some parents found the minimum payment amounts set by schools and caterers prohibitive, especially for school meals, this was typically £10-£15 but would be per child and households on tighter budgets could find this a struggle.

 

Schools asked us to make it easier and more cost effective for them to collect small amounts from parents. Parent’s also wanted an improved mobile experience. So in response to the research findings, ParentPay launched My Account. Parents continue to be able to pay the exact amount for individual items, without any need to maintain a balance with ParentPay. Should they wish, parents can also now load their account and pay for items from this balance as and when they wish, providing flexibility for those that want it. Parents with more than one child can now maintain a single fund, to allocate to one child or another, without asking the school to move funds from one child to another. This is especially useful for parents with children in different schools.

 

Any refund from school, for instance a cancelled trip, is returned immediately to the parent’s account, without needing for it to appear in their bank account. Parents can then use those funds immediately to pay for a different item, or they can withdraw the funds should they wish.

 

The minimum top-up into My Account is now just £2, helping to ensure all parents can use ParentPay without the need to add larger sums. Many schools have, or are in the process of removing their minimum payment amount for individual items; something which is set by schools or caterers not by ParentPay. Parents can reclaim the funds in their account, ParentPay does not have access to those funds, the funds are held in dedicated client trust accounts, protected in case anything happens to ParentPay. We've been operating the same way for 10 years, looking after money for schools. We comply with the relevant policies in the payment services directive. We're also approved and audited by the card schemes and our service is audited by our banking partners (as well as a number of other security related standards). As part of these changes, we now settle money to schools quicker than we did previously, which has reduced the overall amounts held by ParentPay. Importantly, parents can continue to pay for individual items should they wish, there is absolutely no requirement to maintain a balance on ParentPay.

 

These changes will also enable us to allow faster payments, and standing orders for parents to setup auto top-ups from bank accounts which should enable us to reduce transaction service fees to schools. It’s a long process which is being released in stages. Some parents may prefer to use PayPoint, the transaction service fees are the same for online payments enabling schools to remove all cash from school.

 

I hope this gives you a bit more information around the reasons for this change, and we hope that parents and schools will adapt to the changes soon. I am feeding back to senior management all concerns and we will review and adapt ParentPay in the light of the feedback we received.

 

Regards (name removed)

 

[kathabell]

We were notified of the changes by ParentPay - about the same time as they announced their new system would no longer work with XP. Parents were emailed (by us) about the forthcoming changes and also via our Twitter feed. There are 2 useful PDFs on the login page of the ParentPay site, one of which I downloaded and "sent" as an attachment to parents. So far only one or two parents haven't ready any of this!

[Julian]

I think ParentPay are getting lots of "feedback" on the recent change, I tried to phone them today, and was told I was 28 in the queue, I gave up on phoning them.