Education

The 5 Payment Mistakes Schools Don’t Realise They’re Making

November 18, 2025

Independent schools are under more pressure than ever to make payments easier, faster and more secure for parents. With financial pressures increasing, including recent VAT changes, parents are shifting how they pay for school fees, trips, meals and extras. Many now expect the same convenience they experience everywhere else, and this includes using card payments for school fees and everyday school costs.

Yet many schools are still unintentionally making payment mistakes that slow down cashflow, add admin for finance teams, and create frustration for families. Here are the five most common payment mistakes schools don’t realise they’re making, and how to fix them.

1. Not offering card payments when families increasingly need them

Parents are feeling the impact of rising fees and VAT changes. According to Pepper Money, 23% of parents now plan to use credit cards to help cover school costs; a clear indication that families need flexibility.

When schools don’t offer card payments, they inadvertently:

  • Make it harder for parents to manage cashflow
  • Increase the likelihood of missed or late payments
  • Push parents toward long-term loans they don’t really need
  • Create friction compared with other payment experiences

Card payments aren’t about encouraging debt, they’re about giving parents choice. In many cases, it’s better for a school to absorb a small transaction fee than lose an entire payment or spend hours chasing overdue invoices.

‍2. Relying on multiple disconnected school payment systems

Many schools use one system for fees, another for trips, another for donations, and another for meals. While it may have evolved naturally over time, it creates hidden consequences:

  • Duplicate admin
  • Increased reconciliation errors
  • Higher costs across multiple providers
  • A confusing experience for parents
  • Data risks when information is passed between systems

When everything is centralised, schools benefit from:

  • Faster settlement
  • Clearer reporting
  • Unified parent experience
  • Reduced workload for admissions and finance teams

A single school payment system that handles all payments (fees, trips, books, donations, FX, instalments, suppliers) significantly improves operational efficiency.

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3. Leaving payments too reliant on manual processes

Manual reconciliation, manual reminders, and manual approval workflows are still common in many schools. But they come at a cost:

  • Human error
  • Delays
  • Difficulty tracking partial payments
  • Time lost switching between systems and spreadsheets
  • Risk of payments going unnoticed or unallocated

Automation doesn’t replace your finance team; it frees them up to focus on higher-value work.

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4. Not considering international families and cross-border payments

For international parents, especially those paying from different countries, traditional bank transfers can be slow, expensive and unreliable.

Schools that don’t offer accessible options including card payments, FX payments, and familiar digital channels create unnecessary friction.

By expanding payment options, schools can:

  • Remove barriers for global families
  • Reduce abandoned or delayed payments
  • Improve enrolment processes for international admissions
  • Make cross-border fees and ad-hoc costs simpler

5. Creating inconsistency between fee payments and trip or extras payments

Parents are used to paying for everything, from groceries to uniforms, quickly and securely online. When schools offer one method for fees but a completely different method for trips, meals or shop purchases, it becomes frustrating.

Consistency matters.

When parents can pay for everything with the same method, including card payments for independent schools it:

  • Reduces friction
  • Improves trust
  • Cuts down on queries
  • Helps families manage budgeting more easily
  • Ensures the school gets paid on time

So, what’s the solution? More flexibility, fewer systems, and smarter tools.

The schools doing this well have three things in common:

  1. Multiple payment options (especially card payments)
  2. A single unified system for all school payments
  3. Tools that give finance teams full visibility and control

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And importantly, the ability to offer card payments only to the families who genuinely need them, without changing the experience for everyone else.

How esenda helps

We support independent schools with a fully integrated school payment system that includes:

  • Card payments for fees, trips, donations and extras
  • FX payments
  • Direct debits
  • Instalments
  • Automated reminders
  • Full reconciliation tools
  • Complete visibility of all parent payment activity
  • Outbound payments such as payroll and suppliers

Schools can offer card payments selectively to families who need additional flexibility, without changing their wider payment strategy.

With esenda, payments become simpler, faster and far more secure.

Book a demo today.

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