E.g note you've called it a 7% discount that you "offered" in one post that was taken up within a couple of years by everyone - that suggests different people were paying 2 rates, one of which they thought was a discount, no? The next post suggests it's wasn't a discount at all, because it's what you would normally charge and suggests you'd add 10%.
The next says you don't use the word discount at all - but yeah, your posts aren't your policy - my point is, if you're going to have a policy be wary of the fact that what you say in that does matter - at least in most places - even if it looks mathematically like you're "stating it another way" - from the pov of the usual consumer legislation, how you state it does matter.
I guess my posts have contradicted each other--sorry. My system has evolved a bit through the years, and in trying to keep my post short, I didn't detail my system in depth (so it ended up sounding contradictory).
Now, having "fine-tuned" my payment policy, in any given year there is about a 7-10% difference between paying the lump sum or paying smaller installments (I round totals up or down to keep them nice round figures). I was using the words "discount" and "penalty" here in my posts thinking it was a quick way to make my point. I'll reiterate that I have never used those words in my written policy.
I think of this as being like the way my insurance company charges me. They send me a bill that says, for example, I can pay $500 for 6 months premiums, or I can pay $100 each month for each of those 6 months. It's clear to me that they will charge more for the extra administrative costs of dealing with numerous payments from me. Discount? Penalty? It's just two choices. I give my piano students those same two choices.
When you talk about consumer legislation, or you thinking of things like stores that sell something for "50% off," but in actuality there is never a time that the product sells for full price? I see that as a whole different thing. annie
PS Jeremy, getting back to your original question, if it's just one mom asking for a discount, then that would be actual money you would lose. There's not much advantage to you in this case. But if you ever decide you want to save yourself some bookkeeping time, make lump payments the standard (however much you need to earn), and set your monthly payments to total a little more than the lump sum. Then you don't lose any money, and you can spend more time teaching and less time messing with checks.
Topic: Lump sum Discount...