Private College - strange cheque payment situation

Bicycle

Your observations on this scenario would be appreciated please.

One of my teenagers is doing a course at a private college, somewhere in Ireland. She did a course with the same college last year and we wrote a cheque made payable to "The Name of the College".

This year, we booked her in again, and when I went in to pay was once more told to make the cheque payable to "The Name of the College".

Life went on. The teen attended class. We noted that the cheque had not been cashed.

However, this week, when the teen came home from class, she presented us with the cheque we had written (in the region of €1,500 or so) and explained that the college director had asked her (and others in the class) to make their cheques payable to the course tutor. One student was doing more than one course and was asked to make the cheque payable to the college director.

I am concerned, very concerned. The college does not appear to have any indemnification fund. What happens if the tutor to whom the cheque is made payable decides that the South of Spain might be a more pleasant location than in a room teaching teenagers. With whom does my contract exist?

I spoke with the college director. I attempted to raise the issue and was told that if I wasn't happy with the situation to resubmit the cheque I had written again. The conversation lasted less than 30 seconds and I was not allowed present a case. The course director kept repeating the mantra "if you are not happy with the situation, resubmit the existing cheque".

The don't take credit cards so I can't protect my cash that way.

What would you do? What would you recommend?

Thanks.

January

I'd resubmit the existing cheque like the college director told you to do???

p15574

I'd say the Revenue might be interested in hearing the name of the college...

dilallio

I would be more concerned that the college is in financial trouble, and as a result, you could lose your money regardless of how who you pay.
Can you pay by Credit Card - at least that way you may have some protection.

darc

If payment is made directly with the tutor, then the contract moves to the tutor.

Ask the college to provide you a letter requesting you to pay the tutor and then it should be safe enough as the tutor is then liable for the teaching rather than the college,. So if the college closed, the lessons should continue.

BnA

adrieanne__x wrote: »

I'd resubmit the existing cheque like the college director told you to do???

To be honest with you, that wouldn't be good enough for me. I would want an explaination as to why he asked you to do it in the first place. My main worry is that the college is in financial trouble, and if so, is there a danger of them closing down mid term.

Bicycle

Thanks everyone for your observations.

I'm concerned on two fronts -

1. The first is that the college may be in financial trouble and that we may lose a sizeable sum of money, that quite frankly, we cannot afford to lose. My daughter has said that full-time student numbers appear to be down significantly.

2. I'm also concerned that my daughter may suddenly be landed losing her course mid way through the academic year. This will add a huge amount of stress in a year that will already be very stressful for her.

The college don't take credit cards. If they did, I would be delighted to pay by credit card.

I tried to get an explanation from the college director but just got the same mantra repeated each time I tried to open my mouth. I'm old enough to know when I'm not getting anywhere.

Because my daughter has written the name of the tutor on the front of the cheque, I think it may be invalid, and therefore I may submit it once more, just to give me breathing space. I need to check with my bank beforehand.

Otherwise I ensure that a "silly" mistake is made when re-writing a new cheque so that it can be returned to me and more time allowed for things to emerge.....

We live in difficult times :rolleyes:

Zoobie

Bicycle wrote: »

Otherwise I ensure that a "silly" mistake is made when re-writing a new cheque so that it can be returned to me and more time allowed for things to emerge.....

Just to warn you, I've heard from a number of people who used to work in banks that most cheques go through automatically (provided the coding information is intact) and very few are manually checked anymore so the bank might not notice your mistake and process it anyway.

Maybe it's just my suspicious nature but I find it strange that a place requiring such large payments doesn't accept credit cards.

Is the college in any way accredited or a member of a larger educational institution? If so, I would suggest letting them know what the college are doing as something sounds very dodgy about the whole arrangement.

Hope it's more innocent then it seems!