The three times i mailed the payment, the three times i was charged with a late fee. I call their office to complaint and i confirmed that there is no physical human being processing the incoming mail. According to smart tuition it is automatically process by some type of equipment. I mentioned that i also mailed a registered letter and have not received their signature back. That is when she mentioned that there is no physical human being processing their mail and the machine will not recognize the registered mail signature card. Everyone should have a choice on how to make their payment but Smart tuition is forcing you to use the on line payment system. Their p.o. box is 4 minutes from my mailing address (Downtown LA to Chinatown area) and it takes 10 days or more to receive. That is a lie. I HOPE SOMEONE DECIDES TO START A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST SMART TUITION. They also charge late fee on late fee.

I mail checks from Ontario to their LA address (this would take me 40 minutes to DRIVE the payment there). Every month, without fail, it SOMEHOW takes them 9-15 calendar days to PROCESS my check. They have dinged me several times for late fees. In the beginning, they would mail out bills at the end of the month. My payment is due on the 10th. As soon as I would receive their bill, I would turn around and cut a check and STILL get dinged for late charges.
In my opinion, Smart Tuition needs to accept the payment when it arrives at their location. Not 10-12 days later, when their understaffed department finally gets around to posting the payment against my account.

Smart Tuition implements a follow up program to help get parents back on track. We deeply regret any situation that you may feel unfairly associated a fee and our weekly phone calls and emails with your account. Smart provides families a courtesy waiver to every family – and unlimited waivers if the lateness was due to a mail delay, online banking transfer (which converts to a paper check and is mailed to us – not transferred to us immediately as some may expect), medical emergency, or an error on our part. I can immediately authorize any fees waived immediately if you contact us today, to let us know.

We process checks and money orders delivered by mail Monday-Friday (excluding federal holidays). Mail is collected at our lock box five times a day to ensure payments are processed the day we receive them and are then posted to your Smart Tuition account the next business day. With over 10,000 payments processed each day, I can assure you there is a streamlined process in place. Smart Tuition would never sit on payments to cause someone to be late. In fact, the opposite is true, which is why we offer three immediate payment options (web, phone & Auto-debit). We recently launched a pay-in-person feature that instantly updates your account when you pay at 7-11 or Ace Cash locations (more than 15,000 across the country). Unfortunately, payments sent through U.S.P.S. are subject to possible delivery delays, whether it’s due to weather conditions, federal holidays, or their own internal process.

Smart Tuition waives a significant percentage of its follow-up fees – but charges them in conjunction with your schools set late fee to make sure that your school's delinquencies are kept to a minimum. As you may know, many non-public schools have been closed in the last few years – and non-payment of tuition is one of the largest contributing factors. Our intentions are good, and clearly if you had every intention of paying on time – we will always refund you that fee.



Melissa Severino
Parent Advocate
(866) 873-9772 ext 1
Email: [email protected]

We love Smart Tuition! After yesrs of mailing tuition checks, we are thrilled that payments are now deducted automatically. Thanks!

The convenience of paying online helps to ease the burdens of busy working parents and helps to simplify the process for the school.

Making a single payment for my children's tuition made June 15th the most hated date in my household, even worse than April 15th. Needless to say my wife and children remained well clear...With Smart Tuition, We are all much happier and my family has removed the RED X from that day on our calender. Thank you Smart Tuition, Satisfied Parent!

ITS TRUE, YOU REALLY DO HAVE TO WATCH THIS COMPANY LIKE A HAWK. THEY WILL BILL A $25 LATE CHARGE TO YOUR ACCOUNT EVEN IF THEY PROCESS YOUR CHECK ON THE 10TH OF THE MONTH. THAT JUST HAPPENED ON 12/10/12 PAYMENT. THIS COMPANY SENDS OUT THE STATEMENTS (BULK MAIL NO DATE) RIGHT AT THE END OF EACH MONTH AND PAYMENT IS DUE ON THE 10TH. ONCE YOU RECEIVE IT YOU WILL HAVE TO SEND THAT CHECK RIGHT OUT SO THEY HAVE THE TIME TO PROCESS THE CHECK. CUSTOMER SERVICE REP SAID IT TAKES 5-10 BUSINESS DAYS TO DO SO. I LIVE IN PHILA PA AND THE CHECKS GO TO NEWARK NJ. 1 OR 2 DAYS AT THE MOST TO GET THERE RIGHT. NOT SO. ON 1/2/13 I RECEIVED THE STATEMENT, CUT THE CHECK, RAN TO THE POST OFFICE AND IT WAS PROCESSED ON 1/9/13. LAST YEAR I WENT BACK IN MY FILES AND FOUND 7 LATE CHARGES, $175 WORTH, THAT WENT UNDER MY RADAR. I PRINTED ALL THE CHECKS, PROVED MY CASE TO THE PARISH, AND THEY CREDITED THE ACCOUNT. IM A BUSINESS OWNER AND IF I DID THIS TO MY CUSTOMERS I WOULD BE OUT OF BUSINESS. UNETHICAL SEEMS TO NICE THEY ARE FREAKIN CROOKS

My son's private school just started using Smart Tuition. We have been making our payments to the school on time, the school has responded to Smart Tuition, notifying them of our payments. However, by the time the school notified that we had already paid, (and checks were processed) Smart Tuition has been added the late charge...which is exactly 50% of my son's tuition. We will be pulling our son out of the school, because we can no longer deal with the hounding phone calls.

Smart tuition helps a lot because we can go into our accounts anytime and review our records without having to bother the school for information. Also it is much easier to make the payments.

I have been using Smart Tuition for several years. It has always been a very easy process. My payments come out automatically each month and I also receive an email to notify me that my payment was made. Customer Service has always been easy and effective as well!! Thank you for making my tuition payments worry-free.

If the reviews on this site that are complimenting Smart Tuition are real I will eat my computer. Their billing practices are unethical at best and illegal at worst. They deliberately delay posting payments so that customers incur late fees. They will acknowledge receiving payments before the due date but continue to post late fees under the response "even if we receive payment before the due date and out staff delays in posting the payment we will still charge a late fee". Read the BBB complaints.

Company does not process receipt of payment on day it arrives but holds so they can charge late fee. They are unethical.

I use Bank of America for all of my bill payments and in over 5 years have never had an issue with payments being late because of the bank. In the 1st 2 months of making payments to Smart Tuition, the payment has taken 7 and 8 days from mailing to be processed. They claim the mailing time that has been given to them by the post office is 7-10 day, but when I check the USPS website, they say it takes 3 days from California to NJ. My payment is going out from Arizona so it should not taken this long to be received. I shouldn't have to send my payment 2 weeks early so they can process it when they decide to. Unfortunately I will begin using their website in the future and pay directly, which makes me loose the payment history in my on-line banking. When I've spoken to their customer service, they push paying through their website. It seems they don't want to process checks and are using the late fees to get people to use the site.

Smart Tuition has been amazing! Excellent customer service provided 24/7 and access to my account anytime. Makes my life easier!

School office closes at 4:30, Smart Tuition is always open.. There's no need to rush, you won't be locked out.

Without a doubt, Smart Tuition has to be the easiest part of having your child in school. You just pay online the day it's due. That's it!

It will be so much easier to pay for class trips and after school activities using smart tuition. No more worrying if my children are going to remember to hand in the envelope I send in to school with them.

I have used Smart Tuition for my child's private tuition payment beginning July 2011 and have always used bill pay through my bank to make the payment. In July 2012 our new school year began. The payment for July 2012 was processed with no problems. However, on 8/12/12 I received a notice that I was charged a late fee. I first contacted my bank to be sure the check was mailed on time. It was. I then tried the "24 hour customer service" at Smart Tuition 4 separate times, being placed on hold for over 20 minutes, as long as 30 minutes in one case. Their on-line chat was not available either. I finally sent an email and when they finally responded, I was told they had received the check on time but there was a delay in processing because the family ID had changed from last year to this year and last year's ID number was on the check. Let me point out that they issue a 13-digit family ID number, and it was changed by 1 digit, which was the 7th digit in the number, so it was not evident that the number had changed, nor did they notify anyone that the family id had changed. I pointed this out to them in a reply, but they still refused to reverse the late fee. I had to finally get the school involved in order to have the late fee waived. Since then, smart tuition has contacted me both by phone and email to let me know I have an unpaid balance due (I do not). Each time I contact them, there is an excuse and always try to reference bill pay and infer that I do not understand how it works (I do).
My recommendation for anyone looking to use this service is a big DON'T. Rude, unorganized, unethical!

I have been using Smart Tuition for several years. It has always been a very easy process. My payments come out automatically each month and I also recieve an email to notify me that my payment was made. Customer Service has always been easy and effective as well!! Thank you for making my tution payments worry-free.