I have been paying my School Fees through Smart Tuition. I had one late payment which i requested for a waiver for the late fee. It was NOT waived and the late fees are $55. Even when I made the payment on the due date, there is a late fee charged. I did a payment before the due date, there is a late fee charged. When I asked the Customer Service, I was told that those fees are for not paying the Late Fees from October which was not waived. Currently my late fee total is $ 220. So Smart Tuition charges $ 55 every month for not paying the original late fees. That's awesome, I will take this action seriously if My fees are not waived. I have told on the call as well but no one has offered Support. I have filed my case with BBB. If I don't get a waiver, I will start working on an affidavit of declaration from more parents signed to file a case or class action suit for such malpractices in late fees.

I apologize for any frustration you are experiencing with mailing your checks. Smart Tuition has been in business for almost 30 years and does not depend on late fees to generate income. I would gladly review this with you over the phone. If you have any questions about you individual account, please email me at [email protected] and I will contact you.

Kind regards,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Over the past 3 years there have been at least 4 instances of my checks or the checks my bank send out on my behalf arriving late or being "lost". Each time they charge a $40 late fee. This is clearly a scam to enhance their late fee revenues. I will be complaining to my children's school about this and sending a letter to the consumer protection agency in NY.

When I spoke to a representative to today to get my latest late fee waived, she told me that dropping the check in the mail was a risky and they could not be responsible for lost checks. I let her know that in my 35 years of paying bills, I had maybe 2 or 3 payments not get to the vendor. The problem is clearly on their end and they need to fix it. Who knows how many people just pay the late fee.

Smart Tuition offers parents many different payment options. We offer parents the option of setting up Automatic Payments, Telephone Payments, Online Payments, and Mobile Payments via Smart’s App to pay on time. We also accept Cash Payments at 7-Eleven, Family Dollar or Ace Cash Express. Most schools also accept in school payments. We are always looking for ways to improve our services and that does include receiving Online Bill Payments electronically. We hope to have this option available in the future however we have not ETA on when we will start to receive online bill payments electronically. Until that time, you can make one time payments on our website or over the phone to avoid any transit times with the mail.

If you have any additional questions, please email me at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Just spoke to them this morning. They tell me they're not set up to take electronic payments.
Why is that? Because they're hoping the check gets lost in the mail?
I love how their customer service guy says, please call me.
Why would I call you if you're not set up to take electronic payments?
I concur with [email protected]. They want your banking info but won't give up theirs.
I can pay Visa, MC credit card without my bank sending out a check....why does Smart Tuition want to "debit" my account but won't let me ACH/EFT into their account? I don't trust them with my banking info.

Funny how they want YOUR bank information. I refused to give it to them.
I don't trust anyone to take money out of my account.
I electronically send money out to pay all my bills, but Smart Tuition is not set up to accept electronic bill payments if you want to initiate it. They want to auto debit your account.
When I asked them for THEIR banking information so I can ACH/EFT payment for the kids' school, they are not part of the electronic network like all the other companies. My bank has to MAIL them a check. How is that safer? God forbid if the check gets lost in the mail.

Just shows you how incompetent they are. They want access to your account but they won't give up their account info (all the other companies like PGE, ConEdison, Wells Fargo) lets me electronically pay my bills.

Can't wait for a competitor to show up to eat their lunch.

I would like to assist you in resolving your issue about an error on your account. If you provide me with your Smart Tuition family ID and your phone number I will contact you. Please email me at [email protected] and I will contact you.

Sincerely,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

I 've worked several years in Accounting and golden rule 101 when you make an error charging someones bank account twice You take care of that ASAP- I understand you have to go through a process. But you have just made a big mistake and it should be your top priority to correct that error. You have charged my account twice and put me in a financial hole and I have to wait 48 business hours for you to help me???? Not only am I in hot waters with MY bank but also I have a 5 month old and weekly expenses to worry about.Its not like you are going to give me a discount for my troubles now. I simply dont understand how is it possible that you think it is moral for you to have a customer waiting 2 days to process an error that effects the customer to that gravity. I trusted in your system to take money out of my account and trusted that you would be able to help me with my situation. Thanks for not helping me. and for causing me such trouble.

VERY ANGRY CUSTOMER>

Smart Tuition typically only has a 1 time Smart Admin fee. The only other fees that are charged can be avoided. Late fees are only assessed when payments are late. Failed fees are only charged when payments fail. Convenience fees are 2.65% for credit card transactions. You can avoid the credit card convenience fee by paying with a checking or savings account. You would need to provide us with a routing number and bank account number. Most schools allow payments to be mailed. We also offer cash payments by using Pay Near Me with 7 eleven, Ace Cash Express, and Family Dollar for a small fee.

Online Bill Payments from your bank are mailed via regular mail. We are looking into accepting electronic payments from online bill payers in the future. Until that time, you can make payments the same day over the phone or on our parent website at parent.smarttuition.com.

Smart Tuition is also looking into offering a link for family’s that have students in 2 different private schools. We plan on introducing this when we release our new parent website early next year.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me directly going forward.

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition
10 Woodbridge Center Drive
Woodbridge, NJ 07095
Phone: 866-873-9772
Email: [email protected]

We have kids in 2 schools using Smart Tuition & have been in this situation in the past with another school. Paying bills online is extremely difficult! Almost every time we pay a bill via bank transfer we're billed a $40 late fee because it get routed to the wrong school. We have 2 family id's (we're one family- shouldn't there be 2 schools listed under ONE family ID to label our ONE family!?!). On top of that, in calling customer support, it turns out family IDs change each year! In order to access each school we need to log out of one & relog onto another. Why on Earth can't we have 2 schools listed under 1 family account?!? Every school I know of who charges tuition uses this company- surely they have to be successful enough to give customers an easy, reliable way to pay bills. Another complaint is about passwords- stong passwords should be able to contain characters other than numbers & letters! We have bank account information stored through is shabby company. Passwords forced to be set here are a security risk. This company needs to grow up & start acting like a company parents want schools to use!

Unfortunately my children's school has also decided to partner with this terrible company. Smart tuition has set up a system designed to maximizes late charges and fees. Smart tuition fails to participate in the electronic national bill payments programs that so many people are now using. By forcing parents, or the bill pay systems, to mail in paper checks they can then be creative on how long it takes to post the payments, maximizing late fees, while blaming the postal system. It really is quite brilliant.

I came onto complaint board because I was searching for a way to pay my smart tuition bill at a 7-eleven. I am surprised at the amount of complaints. I have paid using smart tuition at two different schools over the last 7 years. I put in my bank info. The send me an email a week before my bill is due. I make sure I have enough money in the account. They ding my account for the money. Voilà. No problem. No late fees. Ever!!!!
Use the service they offer. Don't mail checks by snail mail or by online banking!

This is the first time my kids's school using their service.
This service is horrible, I prefer the previous method that the school used.
They charge bank fee for this first payment. I wasn't able to login to change my bank information because the system told us to wait. We wait until the we are not realized that bank fee kicked in.

First customer service said I can change my username online. I can not do it only and chat with online customer service that told me that I can only do it over the phone.
I called back and the third customer service told me that the username is NOT changeable.

Untrained customer service + HORRIBLE system overall.

I hope Stratford School use the previous method than this Smart Tuition method.

We never have issue with the previous system. We never been late what so ever.

Smart Tuition is in the business of scamming unsuspecting parents when they are paying for their kids' school fees.
Got charged $100 when paying fees using credit card.

No warning was given that I will be charged.

$60 fee just to utilize them.
Extra charge if you use a debit card.
Extra fees that have to be investigated with the company if you want to know why (even though you pay on time).
I wonder if the Better Business Bureau should know about them?
Find a better way to finance schooling for peace of mind and suggest to your school not to use them.

Yes this company is a scam. Our child's school decided to use their service this year unfortunately. I pay these crooks through my bank's e-bill. The first several months appeared to be fine when I sent them automatic checks scheduled to arrive around 3 days before the due date until one month when I noticed they charged me a late fee. I called these crooks and they waived the late fee but I insisted that it is their system that is at fault here since I never had any issues about late fees in over 10 years that I started using e-bill service from my bank. I even schedule some payments exactly on the due date with other merchants since my bank does show the exact date where they guarantee receipt. Anyways, I accepted their one time waiver for the late fee and adjusted back my e-bill date to 15 freaking days before the due date since I thought their system is just too antiquated and I didn't want to risk it. However when I complained to my bank about this and asked them to investigate, my bank sent me documents showing that the payment that Smart Tuition said was late was actually received 3 days before the due date (just as my bank guaranteed) but get this ... Smart Tuition processed it on their system only on the due date (as the stamp on the check proves) but still charged me a late fee! All of the previous reviewers are right! Smart Tuition is owned by a crook and steals millions of dollars from parents through it's "Late Fees" scam. I mentioned this to my school already but I think more of us should do the same and really convince our schools to bring their business elsewhere.

Smart Tuition offers a variety of payment options for parents. We offer automatic debit, phone payments, web payments, wires, and payments by check. We also accept cash payments at 7-eleven and Ace Cash Express. Families that choose to mail in checks or use online bill pay with their banks are subject to transit times in the mail. Online bill payments are generally sent form banks in the form of a check regular mail to Smart Tuition. The transit times may take anywhere between 7-10 days for Smart Tuition to receive the payment.

We have two lockboxes that process payments by mail. One in Los Angeles, CA and the other is in Newark, NJ. We respect the parents right to mail in payments however it is not the most efficient way to make a payment on your account. Some schools require that your account be set up as an automatic debit on your account. That is a decision that is made at the school level.

Smart Tuition issues late fees when payments are late. If there is an outstanding issue that we need to know about, you can call our 24 hour parent help center at 1-888-868-8828. We will review the request with the school and notify you with a resolution.

We accept Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, and Discover cards. If you use a credit card with Smart Tuition the convenience fee is 2.65% at this time. If you wish to avoid this fee, we have other payment options available.

Jim Lozano
Smart Tuition
Director of Parent Experience
10 Woodbridge Center Drive
Woodbridge, NJ 07095
Phone: 866-873-9772 x1
Email: [email protected]

Smart Tuition lives on late fees..

Ex: 50,000 parents are accrued a late fee of $40.00 for being late 1 month...
That comes to $2,000,000.00 in 1 month now add 11 more months to that figure and what do you get yearly...Exactly 24 million yearly
and they say WE ARE NOT A COLLECTION AGENCY...well with late fees you are my friend you are...


Former Smart tuition employee

I have always payed on time every month for 4 years... that being said my bill came up for september we had no internet and i was lucky i barely got my payment in. for some reason my checking info was gone.. They have no explanation for that. I quick used my debit card because I was affraid I was going to loose service. so i go and check my checking account a couple of days later, bamm a lovely 26.64 fee. which they are famous for. I would have called to make my payment over the phone and of course theres a fee for that too. They do not try and help anyone out!!!!!!! they are a bunch of crooks only looking out for them selves and MAKING MORE MONEY!!!! every thing has a fee. WAY TO GO SMART TUITION!!!

This company is in the business of stealing your money. They change fees if your payment does not go through on your CC. They do not notify you of that either, but keep sending you friendly reminders that your next payment will be automatically changed like everything is fine and then you get the email at the 3rd month that you are not getting charged a late fee. No notice whatsoever that there was anything wrong three months earlier! I can't imagine why schools use this stupid service!

It's true, this company assesses random erroneous late fees as a practice. They will claim a payment was received late, when in fact it was on time. I have had that happen multiple times in my three years of having to use them. They run a complete scam on the backs of our children's education. Despicable!

So far I have been trying to sort things out with this company for the past 2 months. My daughter attends a private school in which I have never had any problems with my payments. That is, until they requested that the parents sign up for Smart Tuition. Within the first month, they have overcharged me by $262, not including the bogus $45 late fee. I checked with my bank and records show that my last bill of the school year (June) has been cleared and deposited way before the due date. I spoke with 2 representatives and sent 2 E-mails already getting absolutely nowhere. As a matter of fact, one representative told me that I was being billed for the month of July because that's when the new billing cycle starts. What kind of idiot is this? The school year ends in June, and the billing cycle also ends in June. Why the heck would I have to pay tuition for a whole extra month that my daughter isn't even enrolled in class? The worst part of it all is that nobody gets back to me on my inquiries. I am the one who has to call and E-mail them. This just goes to show you how unprofessional and unorganized this company is. If nothing is done and these complaints keep piling up, I am willing to take legal action against them. It's not all about the money, it's about the freaking principle. Robbing honest citizens with late fees and other stuff because they can't keep their crap together.

Here we go...another company who will not eat the f*cking Credit card fee, even after I paid them $50 to use their service. Cannot wait for them to start charging me late fees as well, this should be fun. Better yet, they send a bill 10 days before it is due. They do this because there is no way your check will arrive and clear by the due date, so they add on another $40. What a scam.

I got a email today from this Smart Tution stating I got a late fee of $120. means I had a late fee of $60 from last month and $60 from this month. My bank statment says that the payment for May was made on April 30th itself. So I called the custome service and the lady states the late fee of $60 is because I didn't pay the late fee of last month. So the math is as I got delayed in paying $60 late fee of last month I got charged another $60 dollars again. !!! what kind of math is that????

LISTEN TO THIS... I HAD A $395.00 BALANCE ON MY SON'S TUITION AND RATHER THAN SEND A PAYMENT ONLINE, HAVE SMART TUITION DELAY PROCESSING AND ASSESS ME ANOTHER LATE FEE I DECIDED TO MAIL IN A CHECK IN THE FULL AMOUNT. A WEEK LATER THE CHECK IS PROCESSED FOR $390.00 NOT THE $395.00 I MAILED IN. NOW THESE THIEVES ARE SAYING I HAVE A $5.00 BALANCE. THEY CROSSED OUT THE AMOUNT AND WROTE IN THE LESSER AMOUNT, HOW IS THIS LEGAL? I'M SURE THE NEXT STEP IS TO TRY CHARGE ME ANOTHER LATEFEE.