Night Rating ACTUAL cost!

[mattycourt]

Dear All,

I hope you are well.
I have just recently passed my PPL and I am now looking to undertake my Night Rating. My question is;

How much did you Night Rating actually cost?

The reason I ask;

I undertook my PPL with a school at Biggin Hill (very good outfit) however, landing fees are approx. £23 for a PA28. With the required 5 hours and 5 full stop landings, I am looking at 10 sets of landing fees on top of the advertised price of £892. There is also a fuel surcharge of approx. £10 per hour. The £892 price includes instructor, fuel, aircraft and the necessary ground tuition required but do not include membership or Joining Fee (unless current Member) and fuel surcharges. So, with this in mind, I am looking at a price of approx. £1172 and thats if I complete in minimum time.
I also have another concern, the school uses a system of adding .3 to the time from take off to landing for billing and logging purposes. Over 5 hours this is an extra 1.5 hours and the rate for a PA28 is £230 an hour night! This could mean an extra charge of £345 on top of the £1172 which totals at £1517!!
I have spoken to the ops team in regards to the .3 and the response I got was that some instructors will make the lesson a .7 and then add the .3 to make 1 hour which if this is the case, the rating will be around £1172.
Please could you voice your opinions on the above. I may have gotten the complete wrong end of the stick and if I have, I apologise!
Thank you very much in anticipation.