Michelle answers:

FAFSA stands for “Free Application for Federal Student Aid.” It’s the online form you fill out at fafsa.ed.gov to start the financial aid process.

A lot of people use the term FAFSA to mean federal aid itself. That’s not correct, but it might be why you’re confused. 🙂

Michelle answers:

FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. You definitely should complete the FAFSA as that’s the only way you can get any federal student aid. Depending on your financial situation, you might get a Pell Grant and you can definitely get federal student loans (which are always better than private loans).

You should complete the application here: https://fafsa.ed.gov/

Michelle answers:

Yes your safe.. Fafsa.com is a legitimate website which files your fafsa application for you. They charge you since its a private company which offers additional services and assistance which would otherwise not be available if you were just filing through fafsa.gov (Financial aids official site)
If you dont want to pay just go file your application at fafsa.gov, but dont worry about the private info you entered at .com, cause its safe

Michelle answers:

It’s all going to be ok.

I was fooled too earlier this year by fafsa.com. I was very freaked out when it happened, but luckily I called the REAL fafsa people and the employee said the FAFSA.com people will only take my $79.99, not my identity.

Here’s my yahoo question about it several months ago:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtRPKeX8KCbb9uxRKd8usXojzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20090428194224AA78aSv

I came across the site on accident, looking for the real fafsa website (like many others do). After reading the website, I understood that they were FAFSA preparers. A few hours later, it came to me that they could be a scam organization that could steal my identity. Luckily, they are a legitimate company like I first thought (so I rate them as a semi-scam, tricking people to get to their website and charging $79.99). I still think that their practices are shady, but I think they are in the business of getting a quick $80 out of you, not identity theft.

So why did I use FAFSA.com when I realized they were a FAFSA preparer? I didn’t realize how easy it was to get live telephone support from the free fafsa website. I thought the most help would be an FAQ page. I was happy to have a number that I could call 24/7 with my FAFSA questions. I was wrong – and it cost me $79.99.

And, to the FAFSA.com’s credit, the “Student Aid Adviser” they set me up with on the phone gave me 100% correct information for my questions (I called the people at fafsa.ed.gov after I realized my mistake with FAFSA.com to ask the same questions, and the info I was given by the fafsa.com person was correct). The only thing – The phone number listed on the fafsa.ed.gov website gave me the same helpful and patient people – for free.

This is the deal: They do submit your FAFSA for you and they do not steal your personal info. The only scam is having the web address fool people into thinking it is the real fafsa site.

Here is the yahoo answers link of a question where 2 reputable top contributors in this section (Suba and NotAnyoneYouKnow) discuss FAFSA.com. It really put my mind at ease to see them discuss it.

Http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ap9W7Av_xYbUhUAZ0vE3gYQjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20090618080343AAgc4Ti

Also, you can write “FAFSA.com” in the yahoo answers search box and see many answers that can help put your mind at ease.

I did call FAFSA.com and asked that they remove my information from their database (I had set up the account over the phone with my Social Security Number and my birthdate. I didn’t activate my online account, so I didn’t have anything to delete manually). The employee said he would email their technical department and have the data “scrubbed” as he called it. Hopefully he did.

Don’t worry too much about it. Luckily you realized before you were taken for $79.99 like I was (they never charged me for more money, either – No weird charges on my account).