Last year, the Ann Arbor Public Schools started using an online lunch money system. I could pay some money into my kids’ accounts and when they went through the lunch line, whatever they chose (lunch, milk, muffins, etc.) would be deducted. I got a reminder email when the balance fell below $5 (an amount set by me) and I made payments in chunks of $20 (their minimum). I could even get reports of what they purchased (which is how I found out about the Muffin Boy Jack). There were no charges for the service - it was just really nice and easy to use.

I’m guessing you can see where this post is going.

This year they switched to some crappy outfit called MealPayPlus. To say I’m underwhelmed would be kind. First off: if I just want to make a payment into the account, there is a $2 ‘convenience fee.’ Why do they even bother with that word? It is such a bald-faced lie. So I have to pay extra so that I don’t have to send cash with my kid to school. Charming. Color me thrilled.

A little digging determined that if you set up auto-pay, then there is no convenience fee. [UPDATE 9/25: I was wrong about this - the fee gets charged whether you auto-pay or not.] Pain in the ass, but at least I can get around the extortion the school district is trying to force me to pay. So I set up my account with my checking account information. No dice. I can’t do auto-pay from my checking account.

Now I’m getting mad.

Ok. So now that they extracted that personal information from me without telling me I couldn’t use it, I entered my card information. Fine. That made it happy. But what’s this? I can’t set the minimum balance alert any lower than $10. And the minimum payment is $25, not $20. This is outrageous.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, what’s the big deal, it’s just a couple of bucks here and there, and in a way, you’d be right. This is not going to break my bank. However - think about this: there are thousands of students in the AAPS. This company gets to hold $10 for each student, all year, without paying parents interest on that money. Why? Why should they get to hold all that money? Why is the minimum balance $10 and not $5? Elementary lunches are $2.50 each - why am I forced to have a 4 lunch cushion in there, when they so happily trumpet that my child will have access to deposits mere hours after I make them? If it took a week to process deposits, I could see a larger cushion; this is just greed.

I hope some bureaucrat is happy knowing they’re nickel-and-diming parents in an already tight economy. I’m looking around at the company now to see whether it’s public or private and whether they make any campaign contributions. If I find anything, I’ll post it.