Before you and your child begin your journey with SmileTutor, you might wonder how our payment system works.
Here is a breakdown of our unique payment system, covering short- and long-term assignments, cancellation fees and more!
Long- and Short-Term Assignments
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First of all, what are long- and short-term assignments?
Short-term assignments (a.k.a crash courses) are defined by students who only require a fixed number of lessons until a certain exam date (usually less than 8 weeks of lessons).
For short-term assignments, we generally collect 25% of the TOTAL tuition fee but the exact percentages may differ, and we will let tutors know beforehand.
E.g if the total fees for 4 lessons is $200, we will receive $50 (25% of $200) and the tutor will receive $150 (75% of $200). Simple, isn’t it!
Long-term assignments are defined by students who are looking for more than 8 weeks of tuition to prepare for their upcoming years.
For long-term assignments, tutors will not be paid for the first 2 weeks of lessons as these are the commission fees charged by SmileTutor agency on the tutors.
The fees for the first 2 weeks of lessons (or 50% of the Total Monthly Fees) will be made directly to SmileTutor, instead to the tutors.
E.g if there are 4 lessons in a month, 1 lesson per week, and each lesson is $50, we will receive $100 after the 2nd lesson.
For subsequent lessons (after the agency commission has been paid), you may make payment directly to the tutor.
Since the commission fees have already been collected by SmileTutor, tutors will be paid the full tuition fees from here on.
Payment Dates
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Payday!
Payments for the first 2 weeks of lessons for long term assignments should be made by 3 days after the second lesson.
It is our policy that payments for the invoice are to be made within three days of the due date.
It is also important to ensure that the bank receipt is kept as proof of transaction made through cash deposit transfer.
For short-term assignments, payments are made once the relevant lessons have been conducted.
An example would be if the total fees for 4 lessons ($50/lesson) is $200 and we are to receive $50 (1 lesson worth of fees) and the tutor is to receive $150 (3 lessons worth), the payment of $50 will be made to us after the first lesson, and the payments for the remaining 3 lessons will be made to the tutor after each lesson has been completed.
Cancellation Payments
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You may terminate the tuition at any time after the first lesson, but you must inform SmileTutor at least 24 hours in advance of the next lesson and pay for all lessons conducted.
Terminations made less than 24 hours before the lesson will incur a late charge of 50% of that lesson’s total fee.
For example, client Ms Lee cancels her tuition 30 minutes before the lesson is scheduled to begin, and the lesson fee is originally $100, she will have to pay $50 (50% of $100) to us as a late cancellation fee
For cancellations that are made within 1 day notice with no lessons conducted, you do not have to pay anything!
GST and Agency Payments
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Yes, we do not charge an agency fee!
However, in accordance with the GST laws, we have no choice but to implement a GST surcharge for all payments made to us.
Do note that the tutor’s portion of fees have no GST surcharge.
Paid Trials
We can arrange a paid trial for you if you wish to see if a recommended tutor is suitable for your child.
If you are unsatisfied with the tutor, we will help you source for another tutor with no additional charge, but the trial’s fees would still need to be paid to us.
For successful trials, the payments would follow that of either the short- or long-term assignment policies.
Conclusion
We hope that this article helps you better understand our payment policies, and we hope to work with you soon!
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