Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i take the check or cash to school, its a major rip off

Agreed. Its ridiculous MCPS has this service from a provider and makes the parents pay the fees. For the year of fees for 160k students they could have purchase outright some SW and hired an IT person to maintain it.

Huh?????

Hmm, I just tried to add money to MSB and it was $2.49 flat no matter what the payment was. Here is an email I got from them in July.

We’re updating the program fee you pay at checkout in MySchoolBucks when funding your student’s meal account to $2.49 for each credit/debit card payment beginning on July 11th. Please note that if your district accepts e-checks, the program fee when paying by electronic check will be $2.49 per meal payment on the same date.

I just sent a check to the school. It takes time for me to write a check then to log into my school box. The money shows up quickly and it’s never an issue. I Hate paying extra fees.

Anonymous wrote:Any tips or tricks to avoid fees? Added 30$ for each of 2 kids for lunch money (couldn't figure how to consolidate into one transaction) and got charged 10% (3$ per kid) in credit card fees which seems excessive since most transactions charge the vendor 3%.

Go in person to school and pay directly to business office.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i take the check or cash to school, its a major rip off

Agreed. Its ridiculous MCPS has this service from a provider and makes the parents pay the fees. For the year of fees for 160k students they could have purchase outright some SW and hired an IT person to maintain it.

Maybe you should FOIA/MPR Request the amount of money that goes to these fees.

Load the max amount each time ($120) to avoid frequent fees. The fee is the same no matter how much you load. Also any unused funds can either be refunded at the end of the year if you request it or carry over to the following year. I have it on autopay.

It used to be a $250 maximum, and I would do that for my kids to avoid the transaction fees. Now the maximum is $120, so they get more transaction fees. Frustrating.

Write on check per quarter and drop at school. Orientation, Parent Teacher Conference in November, Start new Year, Before:After Spring Break.

Anonymous wrote:Pay in cash. Let the school deal with the headache

OP here. Thanks. One of my kid takes the bus to school so I don't go there as often, and my time is worth more than 3$. But just the same, I think MySchoolBucks is a rip-off.

Pay in cash. Let the school deal with the headache

Anonymous wrote:i take the check or cash to school, its a major rip off

Agreed. Its ridiculous MCPS has this service from a provider and makes the parents pay the fees. For the year of fees for 160k students they could have purchase outright some SW and hired an IT person to maintain it.

i take the check or cash to school, its a major rip off

You can move money in between kids' accounts. I don't think (?) there is a fee for this. So you could add to one kid's account and them move money in between accounts.

I put in $120 at a time to have fewer fees.

Any tips or tricks to avoid fees? Added 30$ for each of 2 kids for lunch money (couldn't figure how to consolidate into one transaction) and got charged 10% (3$ per kid) in credit card fees which seems excessive since most transactions charge the vendor 3%.