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Smart Tuition

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1.2 out of 5, based on 69 ratings and
70 reviews & complaints.
Hello my name is Jim Lozano and I am the Director of Parent Experience for Smart Tuition. Smart Tuition serves as a financial connection between non-public K-12 schools and families. We value your feedback as a learning experience and I encourage you to reach out to me if you have any comments or concerns directly at parentadvocate@smarttuition.com. I promise to listen with an open mind and would appreciate the chance to connect with you personally.
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Smart Tuition
10 Woodbridge Center, Suite 200
Woodbridge NJ 07095
888-868-8828 (ph)
www.smarttuition.com
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Fees Above All Else
StarStarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 2/51

NARRAGANSETT, RHODE ISLAND -- I mailed a check to them 14 days before the due date. Luckily, I check the account the day before the payment was due and they had not received the check, so I double paid, and talked to a customer service representative and gave them my checking account information. The day after the payment due date, the original check was processed. I mail about 10 checks a month to pay all kinds of businesses. Every other business I mail checks to take 3-4 days to process checks not 14 days. Strike one.

Then I made a payment by check again but made the mistake of using the payment by phone system and did not talk to a person. After the due date I got a notification that my bill had not been paid and was charged a $40 late fee. I called and was told they had no payment. I checked my bank account and got a bank verification that the money had been paid to Smart Tuition.

I called back and was told, “You applied the money to the wrong account.” Account numbers don't change year to year there is only one account number. After several questions the customer service representative acknowledged it was their system that automatically applied the money to the wrong account. He said the phone system applied the money to the 2016-2017 account not the 2017-2018. I find that explanation dubious. According to his explanation the phone system automatically misapplies payments if you have been with Smart Tuition over one year. Strike two.

Here is a quote from the email Smart Tuition sent after they corrected the situation, "Resolution: In this instance, the failed payment fee has been absorbed on your behalf." They are doing me a favor by not charging me the $40 fee for their mistake. The reason they are assigning blame to me, is that if there is a problem in the future the will say, "We forgave the $40 fee once already and we can't do it again." Strike three.

What I would have liked is an email saying, "We apologize for not applying your payment correctly and that we did not fix the problem the first time you called. We are in the process of updating our phone payment system so this error doesn't happen again. Of course we have reversed the $40 late payment charge as it was our error that caused the payment to be misapplied."

Moving forward, I would like Smart Tuition to process payments by mail within days not weeks and to have their phone system correctly apply payments, if this really was the problem. Errors and slowness on their part result in them making more money. Many parents are super busy and I am sure Smart Tuition's deception results in significant late fee revenue for the company. If your school forces you to use Smart Tuition you have to watch them very closely.

Company Response 02/20/2018:

I apologize for any inconvenience that you had with Smart Tuition. I would like to speak with you about your Smart Tuition account. I wasn't able to locate your account from any of the information that you provided. Please email me at parentadvocate@smarttuition.com so that I can look into your situation. I would need your Smart Tuition Family ID and a phone number to contact you.

Kind regards,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Replies
Unhonest business, too bad my kids school uses it for payment
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY -- Today I tried to find the payment of $200 for registration fee of my 2 kids to RSM last semester, because there is no record of exact amount to track on smart Tuition parent account( only show $200 paid on total tuion page) I was not able to check my payment method. ( ST provides bank card or criedit card) .

So I searched all my cards for the $200 payment, and didn't get it, I researched again for title, and finally found a $205.30 to Smart Tuition. I realized that I was charged fee for using credit card. But on their credit card payment page, there is NO sign on first page to show the convenient fee at all. If there were, I would not have paid that silly convenient fee since I have bank account saved.

And also I paid registration fee between March and April, on ST shows my payment at JUNE! That is also why it took me more than one hour to search the listing .

SmartTuion is not an honest business, if I have choice, I will not use this company again!

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Ineffective Customer Service
StarStarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 2/51

WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY -- I simply wanted a year end statement for the tuition I paid in calendar year 2017. I received one for the tuition paid in calendar year 2016. The statement had the school tax ID and ONLY the amount paid in 2016. I wanted it for tax purposes. Well, it's February 2018 and time for taxes for 2017. I was looking for a statement exactly like the one I used the year prior. The only answer I was given as to why I couldn't get one was that another statement would not be generated.

The only explanation was that there was only one statement per account per school year. That is somewhat understandable (not really, but okay). However, the school year didn't end in 2016, it ended in 2017 and I paid tuition in 2017 and I simply would like a statement with the amount I paid in 2017. Instead, the answer I got was combine the documents and it will have all the information you need.

I don't understand how such a simple request is met with that type of resistance. Why skip 2017 as if it didn't happen? If, for whatever reason, someone thought that a parent or guardian should have a year end statement, which covers a calendar year, at the end of one calendar year, then why not give them one for the following calendar year if that person used Smart Tuition to pay. It just doesn't make sense... at all. Again, there was no explanation for the policy. It's too easy to generate a document like that, not just for me, but for anyone who needs it. I wasn't asking anyone to move mountains.

Company Response 02/12/2018:

I apologize for the confusion. The tax information would normally be available on our website for the next year however the student withdrew and the account was deactivated in Smart Tuition. In these types of situations, parents should be able to go to the school to get this information if their account was deactivated.

I have emailed you and called you to send you the document you requested. Please contact me at your earliest convenience.

Kind regards,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Replies
Unwarranted Late Fees
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY -- Similar to many of the reviews on this site over the years, it seems Smart Tuition has done nothing to address their on-going payment posting issue and aggressive application of late fees. I received an invoice for my son's tuition which was due on Saturday, Aug 15. I programmed through Bank of America's bill payment system that I have used without issue for over 10 years, for the total amount to be paid on Friday, August 14. By 8 am on Monday, AM Aug 17th Smart Tuition sent an email telling me that payment was not received and a late fee of $40 had been charged.

I called to inquire about the late fee and was notified that there is no grace period - the payment must be received by the due date. I asked to talk to a manager who explained that it typically takes 5 to 7 days to post payment and payments must be posted by the due date. As they do not receive payments electronically from any banks at this time, customers must pay their bills 5-7 days ahead of the due date for them to be applied before the due date. I expressed surprise that Smart Tuition expects customers to pay tuition a week ahead of the due date to offset the manual posting process -- he said this is their policy.

I asked if they had opened the mail from Friday and Saturday and were sure that they did not have my check - he said they most definitely had not checked all the mail yet. I suggested they hold off imposing fees and sending missed payment notices until they had opened the mail and posted all the payments from the due date. He said he would take that suggestion to his management. After reading this site it is clear this suggestion has been made and ignored for years now.

This only amplifies my negative impression of Smart Tuition from last year when they imposed late fees prior to issuing me a bill for my son's tuition. I called several times, requesting where to send the payment and was told to wait until an invoice was issued. The school had to intervene in order to get the late fee reversed. I think this is a great service for the private schools, but very poorly and unethically administered for the families.

Company Response 08/18/2015:

I apologize for any frustration you are experiencing with online bill pay. At this time, online bill pay checks are mailed to us and not sent electronically. The USPS advises Smart Tuition to advise our parents to allow 7-10 days for delivery. We have many other options to pay on time with Smart Tuition that do not depend on transit times for the mail. You can pay through our website at parent.smarttuition.com or over the phone at 1-888-868-8828 24 hours a day. There is no fee to make a payment unless you use a credit card. We also offer ACH auto debits, Pay Near Me, and some schools even accept payments in house. If you would like to discuss this with me please email me your contact information and I will contact you directly. I can also review the delivery times to make sure they were between the 7-10 days that the post office suggests. In the future, we hope to offer an electronic payment feature for online bill payments. Thank you for your feedback and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

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Bogus Late Fees
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

Smart Tuition is either inept or has shady Business Practices. Since they work so hard on their internet reputation and pay for positive reviews I can only assume the latter. Here's the deal. I use Bill Pay to pay all of my bills. I have for over 10 years. I know how to use Bill Pay. I know that my payment to Smart Tuition is Due on the 5th of the month.

I set my Bill Payment to have the check delivered to Smart Tuition on the 2nd of the month. But for whatever reason they post my payment late and charge me a fee. For example, my Bank delivered my check to Smart Tuition on July 2nd, they didn't post my payment until July 9th. I had my bank personally follow-up with Smart Tuition and have the late fee removed.

Smart Tuition advised that if I just used their website and gave them my Bank info than they could automatically debit my account. Well, I'm not giving my Bank info, especially to a company that I don't trust. I also don't understand why my bill payments are posting late with them. Not once in my years and years of using Bill Pay have I ever had a payment post late. Not once! And trust me, I have set the payment to be received on the due date for plenty of my bills.

So for October, I decided I would send in two payments for my child's tuition. One Payment was sent directly to the school. It was a small amount, not enough to cover the amount due. The second Payment was sent to Smart Tuition. The delivery date was set for October 2nd. Guess what happened... Well my School received the payment on 10/2 and reported the payment to Smart Tuition on 10/3.

The payment was immediately credited to my account. However, the other payment, well it wasn't received until 10/8. WHY?? There is really no explanation for that except for Smart Tuition holds payments and doesn't credit them to the account timely so that they can continue to exist by profiting on late fees.

They will blame USPS. They will blame you for not setting your delivery date sooner. They will tell you to set-up an auto debit on their website. If you complain on the internet they will track you down to try to quiet you by offering to reverse the late fee.

Read all the reviews on the internet. They all have the same complaints over years. They have a dedicated internet reputation scrubber (Parent advocate..yeah right) but no true and honest desire to conduct business correctly and fairly. By now they should have changed their ways. I promise my school that made me conduct business with this parasite that if they continue this "service" next year I will thank them with my annual donation.

Company Response 12/15/2014:

I am so sorry to hear about your frustration with online bill payments that were sent to Smart Tuition. My name is Jim Lozano and I am the Director of Parent Experience with Smart Tuition. I would really like the opportunity to speak to you so that we can review your account and research what happened in October. I can be reached at parentadvocate@smarttuition.com. Please provide your Smart Tuition family ID, your name, and your phone number and I will contact you directly. Once again, I apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. I look forward to speaking with you.

Thank you,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Replies
Sketchy Late Fees
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY -- Our very first interaction with Smart Tuition was to be mysteriously slapped with two late/bank fees (totaling $70), even though as near as I could tell, our bank account information was all correctly entered and we received advance confirmation that our payment would be automatically debited on time. Even if our account information were incorrectly entered -- and as far as I can tell, it WAS correctly entered -- it is extremely sketchy and unprofessional start off by charging fees, without any advance warning. Of course, ethics aside, this company has every incentive to charge as many late fees as possible.

These fees will theoretically be refunded, after having complained to our school, but I worry -- especially given the raft of unfavorable reviews on this page and at the BBB -- that this company's business model / modus operandi is to charge bogus late fees at the drop of a hat, without any advance warning, and without any rational explanation of why they are being charged.

It's worth mentioning that our school's previous tuition processing vendor does not have anywhere near this level of complaint and suspicion on the web. Thus, I don't think this is simply a matter of a line of business that naturally attracts complaint -- rather, it looks (to me, at least) like this is an operation with genuinely questionable practices.

Unfortunately, I'm not really their customer (the school is), so all I can do is complain to my school and to impress upon them that having a scummy parasite insinuated into their value chain reflects poorly on them. I would also encourage other schools doing due diligence on Smart Tuition to tread carefully. My kid's school didn't bother to do a simple Google or BBB search (which, again, reflects poorly on them), but if you are a school and reading this, you are already miles ahead for taking the 5 minutes to look for signs of trouble with the company on the web.

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Horrible Customer Service
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY -- I would like to complain about the horrible customer service Smart Tuition has. I been using Smart Tuition since 2013 or as long as I can remember, maybe even longer. My daughter's school has over 400 students, therefore I am pretty sure Smart Tuition has very good business with the school. It's crazy that every year after year they are increasing the amount of the late fee. Before it was $30 or $35 now it went up to $40.00. I guess it's not enough for them to make money from the school but they are trying to make money off the parents.

Today, I initiate a chat first with Brittany, because I wanted to get my late fee waived one time as courtesy. She said no, I asked her why and she kept repeating the same thing over and over again. She couldn't even type something different. She kept copying and pasting the same thing. I left my computer for a minute to get my coffee and she had closed the chat already without even letting me finish. I have chatted with T-Mobile and AT&T BIGGER companies before and they close the chat after 5 MINUTES. I decided to call Smart Tuition and I was on hold waiting to speak to someone for over 10 minutes. I called back again and had to wait 10 more minutes.

Since I wasn't able to speak to someone over the phone I decide to initiate another chat to complain about the poor service on lazy Brittany and got someone called Rich. Well Rich stated that Brittany was OK to do that because there was no response in a minute. He was giving me the same attitude as Brittany. So I guess they could only wait for 1 minute for us the customer to response but they can about 5 minutes to response to us. We are the customers, without our kids going to private schools we wouldn't need your services. So please do your job better or get some customer service classes.

Company Response 09/22/2017:

Good morning and thank you for your feedback. Parent feedback is important to all companies in order to improve their processes going forward. I did receive an email from this parent yesterday and was able to work with them in resolving their issue.

In reviewing their account over the years, we had a late fee amount of $35 in 2013-14 and for 2017-18 the amount is $40 for this school. Smart Tuition does not raise the price of late fees each year, however after a period of years we do revisit these amounts for each school.

We have reviewed the live chat in question and the agent did apologize for not being able to waive the late fees. The agent used a similar response to the initial question, with the exception of the dates being changed. We will review this live chat with them to make sure we address live chats in the best possible way we can. We have advised all live chat representatives that if there is no response after a minute, they can disconnect the live chat in order to service our next family. This particular live chat was disconnected after a minute and a half.

As I stated yesterday, I apologize for any issues that you had with Smart Tuition. We have many people invested in the success of our call center and thank you for being a Smart parent for 5 years.

Kind regards,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Replies
Overcharging. Losing Checks.
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY -- I'm not trying to be difficult but I'll was a little upset by a conversation with the people at Smart today. On 8-28-17 I mailed out a check to Smart Tuition. The bill was for books and school fees. I had a credit on my account and only owed $87.25. On 9-11-17 I got a late payment email from Smart. The email indicated my payment was never received and I now owed 127.25. I checked my bank account online. I mailed out other checks on the 8-28-17 that had cleared. The check to Smart had not cleared.

I called Smart and talked to a customer service representative. I did not get her name. I advised her that the check had not cleared and asked her to check and see if there was a mistake. She checked and said there was no mistake, Smart had not received the check. She told me Smart does not advise customers to mail in checks. I asked her to waive the $40 fee. She said she would have to ask for a waiver. I asked if I could pay the bill with a card over the phone. She said I could pay it but my credit card company charged me a fee of 2.85% to use my card.

I advised her that my card did not charge me to use it. I advised her the credit card company charged Smart and they were simply passing the fee along to me. She said this was not the case. I asked for a supervisor. I was transferred to a woman supervisor. The supervisor said her number was **. I advised ** of the issue I was having. I asked her to waive the late fee. ** told me she would have to ask for the late fee to be waived. I told her I wanted to pay with a card over the phone. She told me the credit card company charged me a 2.85% convenience fee. I told ** the credit card charged Smart the fee, not me, and they were just passing the fee along to me.

I told ** that if I use my card at the grocery store, there is no 2.85% added to my bill. ** told me that grocery stores raise their prices to account for the fee and went on to say that gas stations charge more per gallon for credit card purchases to account for the fee. I told ** that Smart already charged me for their services. I paid over the phone, in the end, my $87.25 bill cost me $130.88. I told ** I was making the institution aware of the entire conversation. She told me the institution could waive the late fee. Frankly, I think FACTS does a better job. It seems obvious to me that Smart wants automatic deposits and will do what is necessary to get them.

Company Response 09/12/2017:

Yesterday I did have multiple conversations with the parent via email. I apologized for any delays he was experiencing and asked him for more information about his payment but received no other information about the payment. When I checked the account this morning the payment was received and the account was credited.

We also spoke briefly about the credit card convenience fee and suggested different payment methods to avoid the fee for using a debit or credit card.

I will attempt to reach out to the parent to discuss further.

Sincerely,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

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Bogus Fees
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

KENTUCKY -- My school started using Smart Tuition 2 years ago and at first I hoped that it would be a convenient and cost saving system for our school. When we set up our account, we opted to do the bank draft payments online. Several months into doing the payments, we noticed a discrepancy in the amounts that were being deducted from our account. They were taking an additional 20 to 30 dollars a month out of our account each time we paid our tuition online.

There was no mention of a convenience fee or surcharge in their terms and conditions and they have yet to respond to my email about how they came up with that fee or where it says they have the right to charge such a fee. Anyway, from then on we paid by check.

The next issue came when we were assessed an outstanding late fee of 40.00 on a bill when we had paid the previous balance in full on time because supposedly the school forgot to report something to them. We contacted them and provided a statement and the check that matched the amount on the bill, and they still tried to argue with us. We eventually were able to get the late fee waived, but it took lots of time on the phone and a rather heated discussion to do it.

Most recently, I mailed a check to them for the full balance of my son's monthly tuition 7 days before the due date. They conveniently waited until the day after the check was due to cash it and tried yet again to charge me a 40.00 late fee and then they tried to say I owed an additional past due balance of 17 dollars when I paid the exact amount that was on my bill. The school was able to intercede this time and get the fee waived, but I still expect there to be a problem next month because it's always something.

I was told by our administrators that several parents who pay by check are having the same issue with Smart Tuition conveniently waiting to cash their checks and then trying to assess outrageous late fees. She also suggested that we try the online system, but then I told her about the extra money that was being drafted out of my account.

I contacted the school's accountant and she is not aware of any such fee that they are supposed to be collecting for online payments. She stated she's going to check into that. I have attempted to contact Smart Tuition to ask them to explain this fee to me, but they have not responded. Based on my previous experiences, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were illegally or unethically stealing money from people's accounts. My husband has been so frustrated he's actually threatened to remove my son from the school altogether. I really hope our school drops this company like a hot potato.

Company Response 03/13/2017:

I apologize for any frustration you are having with Smart Tuition. We appreciate the fact that this is now your 3rd year with Smart Tuition. In reviewing your account over the years, all of the late fees were previously waived.

We offer many different payment options for parents. Sending payments by mail is one of the options to make a payment however it is one of the slower forms of payment. The best way to make a payment is on our website or by phone using your checking or savings account. There is no fee to make a payment that way. Payments using credit cards have convenience fees. I'm sorry you might not have initially seen that credit cards have convenience fees in May of 2014. I'm showing that you stopped making credit card payments on 5/15/2015. That was the last credit card payment you made with Smart. Going forward we will work with our schools in communicating these fees and improve our website in displaying these types of fees. We are in the process now of working on a new and improved parent website.

Last month, a charge of $17 extended day charge for 1/9-1/13/17 was added onto your Smart account by the school after the invoice was generated. I have advised our account manager to speak with the school and advise them that adding fees after the invoice is generated is not one of our best practices. We did not charge your Smart Tuition account an additional fee.

If you have any other questions about your account, please contact me and I would be happy to assist.

Kind regards,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Replies
Unethical Billing Practice
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

Unfortunately, my daughter's school use Smart Tuition for all payment. I signed her up for one school program which costs only $108 on Oct 1. I was about to write a check when I did the sign-up, but the school receptionist told me that they don't accept payment at school anymore and I had to make the payment through Smart Tuition. I asked when I will receive a bill from Smart Tuition. She told me Smart Tuition will not send out a bill, but will post the amount on my account in about a week.

Guess what? In exactly one week, I received an email from Smart Tuition on Oct 8 as followed: "Your payment due on 10/1/2015 has not been received in full. As a result, a $35.00 late fee has been assessed to your account. The past due balance on your account as of 10/8/2015 is $143.00, which includes all amounts outstanding from prior months." If they are so good at sending out a late fee notice on time, why don't they send out a bill notice timely? My only explanation is that they did that on purpose just to earn the late fee. How blatant!

Company Response 10/12/2015:

I received an email from you about this on 10/8/15. The school added a fee to your account on 10/1/15 which was your due date. We have waived the late fee as a courtesy and spoken to the school about doing this in the future. I apologize for this happening to you. We do not believe fees should be added to accounts without proper notification. The school is aware of your situation and that fees should not be added to accounts without notifying families before they do so. We recommend at least 20 days notice but if that is not possible, we recommend sending out modified invoices if it is less than 20 days. The late fees are automatically added to the account if the balance is not paid.

I responded to you the same day you emailed us. If you have any further questions about your account please feel free to call me anytime.

Sincerely,

Jim Lozano
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

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