The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of unofficial out-of-pocket payments on satisfaction with education in the countries of the former Soviet Union and Mongolia. Linear IV indicates that out-of-pocket payments weaken satisfaction by a factor of -0.98, while biprobit indicates that out-of-pocket payments lessen satisfaction by 0.29 percentage points. At the same time, the interaction model demonstrates that the negative impact of paying unofficial out-of-pocket payments declines as quality of education improves. As quality of education deteriorates, the negative impact of paying unofficial out-of-pocket payments grows considerably. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.