Agency calls out junk fees parents pay for online school lunch accounts [Video]

NEW YORK — The fees parents pay to make online deposits into their children’s school lunch accounts are under scrutiny at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which found that some parents may pay up to 60 cents in fees for every dollar they deposit. And those fees can add up to tens of millions of dollars for the payment processors.

A new report from the CFPB looked at data from the top five online payment processors schools use and found that flat fees ranged from $1 to $3.25 per transaction, while percentage fees ranged from 3.5% to 4.58% per deposit, which can range in frequency from a few times a year to at least two times a month.

“Transaction fees and other types of junk fees can take an economic toll on American families just trying to pay for basic school expenses, including school lunch for kids,” said CFPB director …