FAFSA Scams & Services

The FAFSA form costs nothing! Zero, zip, nada! It is a free government Department of Education form that has been almost universally accepted as the standard for collecting student financial aid information

You may receive numerous offers to "help" with your FAFSA. Many for-profit companies and online entities present themselves as "FAFSA experts," or as providing FAFSA preparation services similar to tax preparation services. They often imply that you can’t fill out a FAFSA completely or correctly without their help - 'help' that YOU must pay for.

In such cases, remember that nobody can legitimately claim to get you "more" financial aid in any way other than helping you fill out the form completely and correctly. Offers to get you "more scholarships" and so forth should be viewed with a great deal of skepticism and very carefully investigated before you consider them.

If you choose to use such a service to help with FAFSA, you should carefully research the service before providing sensitive personal information. Consider that you will be providing anyone in the FAFSA process with extraordinarily sensitive information about yourself and your family. Also consider that, while no site can offer absolute security, the official FAFSA website is very, very secure. In fact, it has won many awards for best security practices. It is truly "best of breed" in this area.

A special note regarding email. Do not click any links or respond to any email requesting your PIN or any other FAFSA-related information. Your application is entirely managed from start to finish through the secure FAFSA website, not through email. If you are unsure about a FAFSA-related email, do not click on anything or reply: instead, visit the FAFSA website directly (www.fafsa.ed.gov) and navigate to the page in question.