Single mother Rebecca Wood, 45, was already dealing with high medical bills in 2020 when she noticed she was being charged a $2.49 “program fee” each time she loaded money onto her daughter’s school lunch account.
As more schools turn to cashless payment systems, more districts have contracted with processing companies that charge as much as $3.25 or 4% to 5% per transaction, according to a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The report found that though legally schools must offer a fee-free option to pay by cash or check, there’s rarely transparency around it.
“It wouldn’t have been a big deal if I had hundreds of dollars to dump into her account at the beginning of the year,” Wood said. “I didn’t. I was paying as I went, which meant I was paying a fee every time. The $2.50 transaction fee was the price of a lunch. So I’d pay for six lunches, but only get five.”
My school district in Florida uses a payment service called “My School Bucks”. I use it to reload the cafeteria account, but also to pay for other things like before and after school. So far they haven’t charged a use fee. Lunch is about 3.25 (my kid doesn’t buy it often), but breakfast is free.
That sounds pretty reasonable. I like seeing “Go Florida!” moments now and then.
Their site says they service about 30,000 schools. It’s good it can be used for multiple things as well and the kids don’t need to worry when they forget to bring money. I always hated when I forgot to bring it.