Answers to commonly asked questions regarding online transactions are answered below. Please feel free to contact the Tuition Trust for further assistance or complete the form at the bottom of the page if you are experiencing difficulties with our site.

•Call us at 1-800-AFFORD-IT (233-6734) Monday - Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST
•Email us at info@collegeadvantage.com.

1. How do I access my account?
A. If you opened your account online, you already have access to your account. The User ID and password you established when opening the account will remain valid until you choose to change them.

If you did not enroll online, the first step in obtaining a user ID is to click on "Get a User ID" on the left-hand side of the home page. (Only the account owner is permitted online access to his or her CollegeAdvantage account. ) Enter the account owner's first and last name exactly as you set up your CollegeAdvantage account, i.e., "William" Smith, not "Bill" Smith.  You will need your Social Security number and a valid email address that you can immediately access. Once you have completed the registration page, an email confirmation will be forwarded to the email address you provided when registering. (If you have activated the spam blocker filter on your email program, you will need to make the necessary changes to allow the confirmation email to come through BEFORE registering.) Once you receive the confirmation email, you must click on the link contained in the email to activate your registration for online account access.

2. I logged on to my account, but all I see is a blank page.
A. This happens in two circumstances: 1) the account is on hold for some reason, such as no valid mailing address on file, repeated non-sufficient funds transactions, etc.; or 2) the account was opened through a financial advisor. If you did not use a financial advisor when opening the account, and see a blank area where your account data should be, please contact us immediately at 1-800-233-6734. We will be able to determine why the account is on hold and rectify the situation so your account is on "Active" status. You will then be able to see your account data.

If you opened your CollegeAdvantage account through a financial advisor, and participate in BlackRock CollegeAdvantage, your account information can be accessed through their website at BlackRock CollegeAdvantage. The collegeadvantage.com website is only for direct investors.

3. I tried to open an account, or tried to register for online account access, but did not receive my confirmation email from CollegeAdvantage so I could complete the process.  What do I do? 
A. Before you begin the registration process, it is important to make the necessary modifications to your spam blocker to allow the registration email to come through. The email will come from  feedback@collegeadvantage.com,  so please add this to your list of accepted email senders. If you did not receive the confirmation email, you will need to call us or send an email to us at info@collegeadvantage.com  and include the email address you provided during the first phase of registration so we can manually activate the registration.

Customers who have fuse.net and Adelphia.net email addresses have been experiencing difficulty receiving the User ID confirmation email. In order to receive emails from CollegeAdvantage, the provider for fuse.net, Cincinnati Bell, informs us that you have to turn off your Spam Filter. To do this, you will have to contact the provider. After you have successfully turned off the filter, in your Inbox, go to Webmail - “Filtered Mail.” That’s where you will find our email. Also, if you add the CollegeAdvantage email addresses to your contact list, you should be able to receive future emails ( feedback@collegeadvantage.com, and info@collegeadvantage.com.)

4. I forgot my password.
A. If you have forgotten the password, please use the password reminder option on the Web site. Please note, the reminder will only be sent to the email address of record. The password reminder button is on the log-in page.

5. I forgot my User ID.
A. If you forget your User ID, call customer service at 1-800-AFFORD-IT (233-6734) between 8:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. EST Monday - Friday, or email us at info@collegeadvantage.com and we will send you an email containing your User ID.

6. Can the successor owner or beneficiary view their accounts online?
A. Online access is only available to the account owner.

7. What if I only have one email address and my wife and I share the same email address?
A. Unfortunately, for security reasons, if you are enrolling online, each account owner must use a unique email address in order to receive the validation email required for online enrollment. If our system finds the same email address used by another account owner during the enrollment process, an "invalid email address" error will result.

8. How do I add recurring EFT online to my account?
A. Log into your account and add or change instructions for recurring electronic funds transfer (EFT) by clicking on the "Recurring Contributions" link on the left.

9. How do I update my email address?
A. Log-in to your account and click on "Update Personal Info" to change your email address.

10. How do I update my profile?
A. Log into your account and click on "Update Personal Info" to change your profile, including mailing address, email address, home and work phone numbers. You can use the "Change Password" on the page to change your password. 

11. I keep getting an alert message that your Web site displays secure and nonsecure content. Is this an error on your site?
A. No. This is a security setting that many Web browsers default to when a Web site displays mixed content (secure and nonsecure pages). If you have Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), you can change this setting by doing the following from within the browser:
1. Go to Tools
2. Internet Options
3. Security Tab
4. Custom Level
     -scroll down to Display Mixed Content
5. Change "Prompt" to "Enable"
6. Click OK, Yes and OK. The change should take effect immediately (no need to reboot).

12. I want to open a Fifth Third Bank 529 CD. Will I receive the APY posted on your Web site?
A. Contributions to the Fifth Third 529 Savings Account and CD Options require two business days to complete the transaction. Accordingly, such contributions will receive the APY in effect on the business day following the receipt of a contribution received in good order before 4:00 p.m. on any given business day. Online contributions may take one to four banking days to process completely.

Advanced authentication

1. What is advanced authentication?
A. Advanced authentication adds an extra layer of security to prevent unauthorized account access and fraud.

2. What does advanced authentication involve?
A. After logging in, registered users will be asked for the first five numbers of their social security number, and will be required to answer four predetermined challenge questions. Users select these questions from pre-populated lists and submit their answers once completed.

3. Will I have to answer these questions every time I log in?
A. No. After you complete this step the first time, we will only ask you these questions in future sessions to verify your identity when a transaction you are attempting requires additional security. 

4. When you ask me an authentication question in future sessions, does my answer have to match exactly what I typed in as the answer the first time?
A. Yes (however, the responses are not case-sensitive). An answer will be interpreted as incorrect if it does not match the answer stored in our database, even if the error occurs because you spelled the answer incorrectly the first time, or you have a new favorite now and forget what you selected previously, etc. You will have two attempts to answer the question.

5. What do I do if I get an error message and cannot proceed?
A. If your answers are not recognized by our database and you get an error message, please call our customer service center at 1-800-233-6734. After verifying your identity, our customer service representatives will request that your previous answers be cleared from our system, and you can then select new questions and/or answers. This process can take up to 3 business days. You will not be locked out of your online account while the matter is being resolved, but you will be prevented from performing the original transaction  online that required the extra security. Our customer service center is open Monday - Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Extended validation (green bar) certification

1. Why is my browser address bar green?
A. You may have noticed that on several pages within the secure portion of our Web site, the browser address bar is green. You can also see our organization’s name (Ohio Tuition Trust Authority, or Tuition Trust Authority of Ohio) and country location (US) inside the security status bar to the right of the address bar. This indicates extended validation on those pages and that you are truly on our site.

2. Wasn’t your site secure before?
A. The Ohio Tuition Trust Authority has always maintained a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate that enables encryption of information sent to the Tuition Trust. Information you provide to us on secure pages is encrypted, or scrambled, at your computer and decrypted, or decoded, once it reaches the Tuition Trust. The extended validation SSL certificate ensures information is still secure in transit, but it also identifies the name of the entity holding the certificate (in this case, the Tuition Trust). This is an added protection against phishing scams which redirect your information to a Web site that seems legitimate, but in fact is a phony duplicate of the real site.

3. I don’t use one of the newest browsers.  If I don't see the green address bar, how can I be assured your site is secure?
A. You can check that your Web session is secure by looking for a small padlock symbol usually located in the lower corner of your Web browser window. Current versions of leading Web browsers indicate when a Web page is encrypted for transmission through this symbol. You may also look for the letters “https://” at the beginning of your Web site URL in your Web browser. The “s” means that the Web connection is secure.  Upcoming releases of Firefox and Opera, as well as all future releases of Microsoft Internet Explorer, will display the green address bar and related site identity verification on sites with extended validation certificates.

4.  I never really noticed that the security status bar can be different colors on secure pages of a Web site. What do the different colors mean?
A. When you visit a Web site with pages that use a secure connection, the color of the security status bar (located right beside the address bar), tells you whether the security certificate is valid, and it displays the level of validation that was performed by the certifying organization.

Red: The certificate is out of date, invalid or has an error. Contact the Web site’s administrator before entering any information or browsing further.

Yellow: The authenticity of the certificate or certification authority that issued it cannot be verified. Proceed with extreme caution unless you are absolutely certain this is a legitimate Web site.

White: The certificate has normal validation. This means that communication between your browser and the Web site is encrypted.

Green: The certificate uses extended validation. This means that communication between your browser and the Web site is encrypted, and that the certification authority has confirmed the Web site is owned or operated by a business that is legally organized under the jurisdiction shown on the security status bar via a thorough documentation process.

Web site feedback form

Please use the form below to comment on the CollegeAdvantage Web site, or make suggestions regarding something you may find helpful on our site in the future. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us. Your feedback is a valuable tool which helps us to continue adding content and other features to our Web site, while improving your overall experience.

Please note that you cannot request account information by using this form. If you are reporting a problem with the site, please complete the Browser and Version fields. Also, please include the page you are having trouble with in the Comments field.

*If you have a specific customer service or account related question or comment that is not technical or Web site related, do not use this form. Instead, please send an email directly to the Customer Service department at info@collegeadvantage.com.