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US consumer watchdog finds that school lunch fees are taking a toll on parents

apnews.com US consumer watchdog finds that school lunch fees are taking a toll on parents

The U.S. consumer watchdog has found that low-income families typically pay as much as 60 cents per dollar in fees when paying for school lunches electronically.

US consumer watchdog finds that school lunch fees are taking a toll on parents

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.”

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