If you have children at private schools and are worried about meeting school fees during the recession, rest assured – your child’s school is worrying too. As a result, private schools across the country are coming up with ways of maintaining their income by making sure you can still afford to send your child there.
One option is to pay fees upfront using your savings. Interest rates on savings accounts have dived – the average fixed-rate account pays 2.77%, says Elizabeth Colman in The Sunday Times. But as schools can tuck away fees and earn tax-free interest due to their charitable status, they usually offer big discounts for parents who pay upfront. Typically, if you pay five years in advance you will receive around a 5% discount.
Another is to move your child to a day school rather than a boarding school. The average day school fees are £2,963 a term, compared to £4,038 for a day pupil at a boarding school.
• You could save more than £100 a year by switching broadband provider, says Lisa Bachelor in The Observer. The cost of the cheapest broadband package has fallen below £6 a month as companies fall over themselves to attract business. Plusnet, TalkTalk and O2 are all offering “remarkably cheap-sounding deals”, says Bachelor. Plusnet has the cheapest deal at £5.99 a month. “If you just want cheap broadband, you can’t beat this deal at the moment,” says James Parker of Moneysupermarket.com. Plusnet Value customers will get broadband speeds of up to eight megabytes and a monthly usage allowance of ten gigabytes. You do have to commit to an 18-month contract.
• Keep an eye on the M&S website‘s new Deal of the Day feature for bargains on all sorts of things, says Jasmine Birtles in the Daily Express. The promotion only started on 19 February, but there have already been two-for-one offers on cases of wine, and 20% off fashion accessories.