Smart Tuition

I apologize that we made an error with our representative over the phone.  The representative that gave you the incorrect information no longer works for Smart Tuition.  Your account is set up for automatic debits from your checking account.  I see in your payment history...

that you have been making web payments.  That is fine, however if the whole balance is not paid in full by the due date the remaining payment will pull automatically.  If you want to change the way the account is set up, please give us a call.  At this time, the automatic debit is set to pull $370.00 on 9/15/16.  The transaction goes into process the business day before so it cannot be stopped at that point.  We would need at least 2 business days before the due date to stop the automatic debit. 
The statement from your bank did not show any fees from your bank.  The last conversation Smart Tuition had on your account was from [redacted] saying he would be sending in the documents that we need showing the fees on 8/29/16.  I will issue you a $50 courtesy credit to your Smart Tuition account to cover any mistakes we have made on your account.   If you have any other questions, please call me.  I attempted to reach you yesterday twice and went to voicemail.  I left my direct phone number if you want to call me.
 
Kind regards,
 
[redacted]
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Dear Mrs. [redacted],
I read and understand your concerns about paying automatically via Smart vs. [redacted]. I would like to first stress the fact that we do not have or push a preference of payment for parents; however, we have control over auto-debit, phone, web and mobile payments....

Those payments are considered paid in good faith the day they are made. You never have to worry about delivery delays. Unfortunately, when paying via [redacted] your payment is now handled by a company that they use to cut your check and then it is handed off to U.S.P.S. for delivery - they recommend people allow 5-7 business days for regular mail delivery. We do not have control over U.S.P.S. or the other third party used to cut the check. What we do control is what happens when we receive your payments and that is we will process it the same day (M-F, except federal holiday's) and then post it to your account the next business day.
Banks like [redacted] will recommend setting your "delivery by date" to be approximately 5 business days before your due date. So, for July [redacted] would recommend July 8th as your "deliver by date". If you continue to elect to pay using [redacted], then I would highly recommend you try what [redacted] recommends. 
I do apologize for any frustration you have experienced over this. Your late fee for July was removed and if you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Parent Advocate
Smart Tuition

I apologize for any frustration you had with Smart Tuition.  We called the school and they confirmed that you left the school.  We have closed out the account so you will not get any more phone calls.  The school never informed us you were not returning, so our automated system...

called you once per week.  The account has been closed and there is a zero balance.  I apologize for the delay in getting an answer to your inquiry.     
Sincerely,
 
[redacted]
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

I apologize for any frustration that you are having applying for financial aid.  We were just notified about your school not using Smart Aid this year.  I have issued a request for you to be refunded the processing fee of $35 by check....

  
Sincerely,
 
[redacted]
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

I apologize for any frustration you experienced with Smart Tuition.  Online bill payments madethrough your bank are sent by regular mail to Smart Tuition.  We do not receive online bill payment checkselectronically.  At the time of your initial call, we didn’t receive your...

payment yet.  As of today, we have received your payment and we are issuing a refund check.  We are looking to receiving paymentselectronically in the future.  If you have any further questions, please call our 24 hour call center for assistance. Sincerely, Smart Tuition

I apologize for any frustration you are having with Smart Tuition.  The school has already waived the late fee.  We can turn on emailed invoices to speed up invoicing for you.  This will reduce transit time for the mailed invoice.  You can also pay free of charge with your...

checking or savings account by doing a one-time payment with your routing number and bank account number.  You also have the option of setting up automatic debits to your account.  This is not a processing issue.  Payments sent to Smart Tuition by all banks online bill payment system comes to us by regular mail.  We cannot control delivery times and banks cannot guarantee delivery of mail delivery.  They give you estimated times of delivery.     We are in the process of setting up electronic online bill pay by the 2nd Quarter of next year. Until that time comes, I recommend making payments on our website or by our telephone service. If you want to continue to use your banks method of payment, please send us the payment a few days sooner.
If you have any further questions about this, please let me know.   Sincerely,   [redacted] Director of Parent Experience Smart Tuition

Dear Mrs. [redacted],
Please accept my sincere apologies for the frustration you have experienced when making your tuition payments through your banks online bill pay. After reading your complaint, I would like to take a moment to clarify the online bill pay process. Smart Tuition currently...

does not have an electronic relationship with your bank, as a result, your bank will mail out a paper check approximately 4 business days before the date you selected the payment to be paid. Banks have no way to guarantee payments will be received by this date, because they are sent via USPS, so unfortunately your Bank's representative gave you misinformation. Please check with your bank regarding best practices for setting up online bill payments in cases when a check must be mailed. Bank of America suggests their customers set the "Deliver By Date" to be 5 business days before the actual due date. Once payments are delivered to our lock box we will process them the same day (Monday-Friday - excluding Federal Holidays). 
I have waived the late fees on your account, please note we offer several other immediate payment options via automatic debit, phone, web, and our mobile app. If you have any questions about these other payment methods or have more concerns you would like to discuss further, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.
Best regards,

I apologize for any confusion.  There is a balance on your account of $210.74 which consists of (2) $90 Athletic Fees for $180 total and a Prior Year Balance of $30.74.  Both totals add up to $210.74.  In speaking with your school’s account manager, the school adds these...

fees directly into your Smart Tuition account.  We have no say in the matter.  If you are disputing the charges, you should speak to the school directly.  We did receive your message that you were going to sue Smart Tuition on Sunday 10/16/16.  Unfortunately we did not have any time to contact the school because they were closed on Sunday.  We did waive the late fee and are in the process of contacting the school to let them know how upset you are about the fees.  As far as your claims we are harassing you, our follow up service is just one phone call and one email each week to remind you of the balance on the account.  I have requested our account manager speak to the school admin and have them contact you directly.  Once again, I apologize for any confusion and we will make sure the school is aware of your situation.Kind regards,
 
Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
This is exactly what I was hoping for - payments are considered paid the day they are received.  Obvously this would need to account for weekend days too.
Regards,

I reached out to Mrs. [redacted] to review her account.  There seemed to be some confusion about the auto debit that was set up on her account.  The original credit card we had on file was switched around November of last year.  When the new credit card was set up, the parent did not...

realize that the November payment would not be pulled with the December payment.  She was unaware that she had to make a payment manually for November to make up for the missing November payment.  I waived the 3 late fees and took a payment from Mrs. [redacted] to resolve the past due balance.  I apologized to Mrs. [redacted] about the confusion and I'm happy that the issue with the auto debit has been resolved.Sincerely,
 
[redacted]
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Good afternoon,I apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced.  We have turned off the follow up service for the remaining 14-15 school year and waived all of your late fees.  We would rather do this, than have you have a negative experience at Smart Tuition.  If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact me directly.  Sincerely,[redacted]
Director of Parent ExperienceSmart Tuition [redacted]

Dear Mrs. [redacted],
I would like to clarify the steps/timeline of how and when Smart Tuition processes payments received in the mail. Every Monday-Friday (excluding Federal Holiday's) we collect payments from our lock box five times per day. Payments are processed the day they are received and post to the account the next business day. I can confirm your July payment was received on July 16th and posted July 17th. The question of time between July 7th and the 15th is one that should be addressed with U.S.P.S. Typically, there is a backlog of mail to process following a holiday, so this could simply be a US mail delivery delay.
I would like to point out that your August payment was received on 8/10/14 and your September payment was received on 9/9/14. Unfortunately, US mail is not as reliable as it was in years past. With cutbacks and facility closures/consolidations there are simply too many variables that can delay mail from being received in a timely fashion. 
Again, the late fee on your account has been waived. If ever in a pinch you can always make an immediate payment online or by phone 24/7 without the fear of delivery delays. I hope my follow up response is to your satisfaction. Please don't hesitate to contact me directly at [redacted] ext * with any further questions or concerns.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Parent Advocate
Smart Tuition

My name is Jim [redacted] and I am the Director of ParentExperience.  We have reviewed yourrequest with the school to waive all your late fees and failed paymentfees.  They have advised Smart Tuitionthat they would like the opportunity to speak to you about this on...

Friday2/27/15 before any fees are waived. After they make a decision we will revisit the situation.Sincerely,Jim [redacted]Director of Parent ExperienceSmart Tuition

Review: Smart Tuition is a site for paying tuition for private schools. Under the payment options, they offer to pay via credit card. I was not planning to use a credit card until I saw that option, which I then chose (due to the convenience, as compared to sending in a check). What I did not notice until I went to the [redacted] web site was that there was a nearly 3% charge (totaling ~$800, given the high cost of tuition). I called them immediately to reverse the charge, so I can send in a check as well. This clearly is part of their business model. The notice is in fine print and I'm sure many people who are unsuspecting end up paying much more than they should.Desired Settlement: The company should modify its payment screen to make it much more clear that there is an added charge for using a credit card. I would suggest a box, like the ones they provide for "terms and conditions" so that people affirmatively decide to pay.

Business

Response:

I apologize for any frustration that you have experienced with our parent website. Smart Tuitiondoes offer payment options for credit cards however there is a 2.65% convenience fee per transaction. We also offerother options to pay without a convenience fee. You can make a payment free of charge by using your checking/savingsrouting number and bank account number. We have reversed the payment that you made so there was no conveniencefee accessed. When making a payment on our website the convenience fee is listed before you finalize the paymentamount. The amount of the convenience fee is noted and the percentage that is charge is noted right above the arrowto go to the next screen. I’m sorry you did not see this when confirming your payment amount. We will make this more prevalent as we aredeveloping our new parent website. I do not have an ETA on when we will release this to our Smart parents. Please call me directly if you have anyadditional questions. Best regards, [redacted]Director of Parent ExperienceSmart Tuition

Review: my august payment was not paid and I was charged late fee. The emails for september and october was sent that a certain amount of money was going to be taken out and the due dates. On the due dates the payments were taken out as was supposed but was charged a late fee. This was never told me previously and I never signed saying I agreed to this also.Desired Settlement: waive all late fees including the august as i'm allowed 1 late fee waived per calendar year

Business

Response:

Dear[redacted],I would like to apologize for any frustration that you experienced. I would like to assure you that all the follow up fees have been waived on your account. Your account is currently set up for auto debits going forward, so there should be no further issues as long as the auto debits are successful. We send prior to debit emails 10 days before the auto debits are withdrawn from your bank account. If you notice any discrepancies with the amount, please call our parent help center 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at ###-###-####.Please do not hesitate to contact [redacted](Director of Parent Experience) or I directly with any further questions or concerns.Best regards,[redacted]Parent Advocate Smart Tuition

Review: I received invoice [redacted] from the company. In it, it stated that I owe 85.55. This is about the tuition payment to [redacted]. I decided to pay the tuition of 20,253 in full. That comes with 2% discount, which is 405.06. In the invoice, the company claims that the school discount is 364.55 instead.

With the appropriate discount (405.06), the tuition is 19,847.94.

I owe the school 350.00 late fee, which means the tuition total comes up to 20,197.94.

The company also charged me for their "service" (although I use none - I pay in full, not in installments) another 45.00. That comes up to 20,242.94.

I already paid 20,197.90 by check. So the difference is 45.04, not 85.55 as they claim in this invoice. Basically, the difference is what the company decided I should pay for their so-called service.Desired Settlement: Correction of the bill. In addition, given the fact that the only experience with this company has been a negative one, I don't understand what is it I am supposed to pay them $45 for. What did they provide me with? They may have legal grounds to charge such inappropriate fee but I see no ethical grounds to do so.

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted],Smart Tuition simply provides resources and tools necessary for The[redacted] to bill and collect tuition and ancillary fees throughout the year. All tuition, fees and discounts, are provided to us by the school. We spoke to the school regarding your complaint. They confirmed the paid in full discount of $364.55, is in fact correct. This discount amount was calculated on tuition only, less the 10% tuition deposit. So, the total tuition for the year is $20,253.00. The tuition deposit of 10% equals $2025.30. They subtracted $2025.30 from $20,253.00, which brings the remaining billable amount to $18,227.70. The 2% paid in full discount amount was calculated from the $18,227.70, which is why the paid in full discount was $364.55. I hope this helps clarify everything. We certainly do apologize for any confusion or frustration this has caused.The school told us they sent you an email giving an explanation of your billing details. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.Sincerely,[redacted]###-###-####[redacted]

Review: This is my second, returned check fee of $30.00, which has been charged to my account. I believe this company is purposely holding on to checks in an effort to collect late and/or returned check fees. I mail my payment through my bank's, online payment system, 3 weeks before a payment is due because it always takes this company about 2 weeks to receive/process my payment. On October 16th, I received an email from Smart Tuition stating that they had not receive my October 15th payment. I, immediately called my bank and was informed that the check they processed on Oct. 1st wasn't cashed yet. Afterwards, I called smart tuition to inform them that the payment was sent and my bank advised me to put through a stop payment. I did so, shortly afterwards and informed Smart Tuition that I did. However, to my surprise, Smart Tuition processed the supposed "lost" check, the same day the stop payment was processed. Additionally, they charged me a $30, returned check fee. (The orig., late fee of $40 was reversed) Now, I had to call and make a phone payment of $220. This payment of $220 was processed, but it wasn't deducted from my balance. Therefore, I had to call them to correct, another error. After my bank's, thorough investigation, it was found out that one number in the Smart Tuituion account number on the check was incorrect. I acknowledge my error; however, I don't understand why every other check, since July 2015 was processed without incident, including a subsequent payment in November of $682.25. They all had this incorrect account number. Finally, I was so frustrated with Smart Tuition that I decided to pay off my balance of $3,263.25, so I had my bank send out a check for the balance. 3 weeks past and again, Smart Tuition claimed they had not received it. This payoff check was sent with the wrong a/c[redacted] (Before I knew). Placed a stop on 11/30 and same day they now process check. (2nd fee)Desired Settlement: I would like both returned, check fees reversed. Always pay early and more than the amount. It's too much of a coincidence that payments miraculously found the same day that a stop payment was put through. It seems like there's unscrupulous, business practices going on here. I'm feeling forced to set-up, automatic payment and furnish them with my checking and/or credit card information. Shame on them.

Business

Response:

I apologize for any frustration you are having with Smart

Tuition. I see that you have been with

us for 2 years now. In reading the notes

from last year I see that you had a similar dispute about online bill pay with

your bank. Online bill pay is a

convenient way to make a payment through your bank, however it is not the

fastest way to make a payment. It should

not take 2-3 weeks for your payment to get to us. There are a variety of factors with online

bill pay that are out of our control. We

depend on the banks to mail the payment to us and the USPS to deliver the

payment to us. We have seen that sometimes

big banks generate checks from different locations from across the country even

though you are sending us the check from New York. It depends on where their distribution

centers are located in the country. Additionally,

banks also send checks to us and other companies in batches. I have personally seen this happen when I

visited our lockbox site in New Jersey. Batching is simply holding a number of checks and then sending them

altogether at once regardless of the dates of the checks. The batch I saw on my visit had checks from

the 2nd to the 14th in the example that they showed

me. These are just some of the factors

that we have to deal with regarding online bill pay. In order to combat these issues that our out of our control,

we are looking into receiving online bill payments electronically. There is no ETA yet however I am hoping we

have this in place sometime next year. In

the meantime, we have a number of other options to make payments quickly. You can set up an auto debit, you can make a

one-time payment on our website or phone, we accept cash payments at 7 Eleven,

Family Dollar, and Ace Cash Express. Some schools even accept in school payments, however I would check with

them before you attempt to make a payment at the school.I have absorbed your failed bank fee of $30 and we already

waived the $40 late fee. If your payment

in process fails, I will absorb that $30 failed fee also. When you called on 12/1/15 our call center

representative was going to open a ticket to absorb this fee however the call

was disconnected. I understand your

frustration and I am doing everything in my power to improve this process going

forward. Please call me directly if you

have any more questions regarding online bill pay or failed bank fees. I will speak to our call center

representative and account manager for the school to review your situation.Sincerely,[redacted]Director of Parent ExperienceSmart Tuition

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

While I am still not happy with the way checks are processed by your organization, I do appreciate the reversal of returned check fees, $60.00 and the follow-up call by [redacted]I have used on-line bill pay for years where paper checks have been sent to other companies and I have never had this type of problem. Additionally, I do still believe that the timing of when my check was processed (same day as the stop payment was put through) is questionable. Hopefully in the near future, I do hope electronic transfers of money will be possible. However, in the short term, I would hope that the processing of a paper check could be quicker than 3 weeks. Tomorrow, I will attempt to payoff the full balance again, this time via phone with a customer service rep.Thank you in advance for your expeditious response and assistance in this urgent matter.

Regards,

Review: I have been making payments to Smart Tuition for my Son's School Fees.

Once there was a late payment and [redacted] fee was charged. I was calling to see if they can waive it off and it never happened despite escalations. Now they are charging $ 55 every month even when the payment is made on time or before time. When I called them, I was told that there is [redacted] charged because I never paid $ 55 and this is not acceptable. Even the Government does not penalize this heavily. This practice of Smart Tuition must be stopped. There has been no grace period also offered for making payments. If this continues, I will be filing my next complaint against the school as well since it was never notified to me regarding grace period or such penalty charges. I would like to have all charges removed and I can only make the payment of $ 55 towards one late payment if required.Desired Settlement: I would like to have all those Exorbitant Charges removed and keep only the $ 55 original late fees and not charge $ 55 for every month simply because they were not ready to work out a resolution.

Business

Response:

I apologize for any frustration you experienced with Smart

Tuition. We have waived 4 late fees on

your account and you are currently paid up to date for December. Going forward if the payment is not received

by your due date of the 1st a

$55 late fee will be assessed. The

school determines these settings and depends on timely payments for operating

the school. The school does not offer

a grace period however we have many different payment options to avoid

receiving a late fee. The best options

are setting up an auto debit or making a one-time payment on the phone or the

web.We have had previous conversations about your late fee

requests with the school and they were denied. If you have any other questions about this please feel free to reach out

to me.Sincerely,[redacted]Director of Parent ExperienceSmart Tuition

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

I will review the late fees policy directly with the School as well to ensure they don't overcharge late fees with no grace periods prior to any case being filed on them or losing students.Thanks for the immediate response. I see that the Director [redacted] at Smart Tuition has been active in resolving cases quickly. Maybe cases should be escalated directly to you before it gets to the Public like this. Thanks a lot Jim. Appreciate your help and intervention to get this resolved.

Regards,

Review: We submitted a payment of $992 (school tuition) on Smart Tuition web site. While submitting a payment we selected a credit card as a payment method. We further were looking for any notification of credit card transaction fee, but was not able to locate anything, so we proceeded with the payment. We further received a payment confirmation (by email) with the very same amount of $992. Our 'Payment History' and all other pages on Smart Tuition website again shows the same amount of $992. However, when we checked our credit card transactions - we were surprised with the amount of $1,018.29. After talking with Smart Tuition representative it turned to be clear that they added credit card transaction fee. We carefully reviewed again all payment-related web pages, all our invoices, receipts and payment history - and we could not able to find either any note of credit card transaction fee, and the fact that this fee was collected at all. In other words:

A. We can't understand how a consumer can avoid paying credit card transaction fee and selecting any other method of payment (as even if there is such a notification during the payment process, it is carefully hidden; and again, we still can't find it anywhere)

B. We think it is corrupted practice that the only place where a consumer can see the real amount of payment is credit card transaction (again, all invoices, receipts, email confirmations and payment history on Smart Tuition website shows the amount of $992, even though the actual charge was $1,018.29.

We made screenshots of all web pages to illustrate how Smart Tuition misleads (to be polite) a customer.Desired Settlement: We request Smart Tuition to refund us credit card transaction fee, or make a full refund and allow us to pay by other (fee-less) option.

Business

Response:

Good morning Mr. [redacted],I apologize for any problems that you may have encountered over the holiday break. Smart Tuition does have many different options to pay without having to pay a credit card convenience fee. You can make a payment from your checking or savings account with your routing number and your bank account number. When I checked your payment history, you previously paid this way on 7/21/14 on our website. On 4/1/14, you sent us a check. Neither of these payments received a fee. We will refund your $26.29 for this payment however if you do use a credit card going forward you will be charged a credit card convenience fee of 2.65% of the transaction amount. Additionally, Smart Tuition does have a confirmation paid before you submit your payment online that clearly displays the convenience fee and the total payment before you continue and confirm your payment. If you have any additional questions or comments, please contact me at ###-###-####.Best regards,[redacted]Director of Parent Experience

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

Regards,

Review: My child school switch to Smart Tuition. In July I received a statement from ST stating the monthly cost + a service fee. I immediately called and questioned fee. I was informed it was their fee and I can go online. I informed ST I was given an unclear copy of a form and was told by school they are switching and fill the paper out for monthly billing statement for upcoming school year. No where did I see a few nor do I recall signing for this fee. Therefore all parties are not in agreement. The minds didn't meet. I stated I would like to see where I sign for the fee and I will pay. 3 wks later from the initial call, I received a call from ST stating I was charged a late charged for not paying a fee that was in dispute. I explained to rep. I had conversation about 3 wks ago w/one of their reps. I was then informed a manager would get back to me within 2 wks. I received another bill for a late charged on fee in August along w/ a note stating stating a fee is owed and late fee will not be waived. This was disclosed on enrollment form that still has not been produced to me by school nor ST.Desired Settlement: I want to see where I sign to the fee and I will pay the fee if my signature is on the paper. However the late charged that was charged for the fee, that was not paid because there was no meeting of the minds to be waived.

Business

Response:

Dear Ms. [redacted],