<p>hi!</p>
<p>i just have a quick question regarding financial aid and bank accounts. when i filed my FAFSA and all of the other forms, I didn't have an active checking/savings account (and no other money in the bank). So now that the process is pretty much finished, can I open an account? Or will they "find out" and reduce my aid?</p>
<p>thanks in advance</p>
<p>yes, but if you had $XXXX.00 sitting in a shoebox when you filed the fafsa, that should have been put on the Fafsa. they ask how much CASH you have. Cash includes money not in the bank.</p>
<p>lol i had no cash when i filed the fafsa.</p>
<p>my question is, now that i’m finished (and i do have cash), can i open a bank account without any ramifications?</p>
<p>I can’t imagine why not. My son didn’t have a bank account when we filed his first FAFSA because he didn’t have a job at the time. He opened an account in the summer after his senior year when he started working.</p>
<p>hmmmm… but in the summer aren’t financial aid decisions “solid”? right now, all signs are pointing to go, but i’m worried it might be too early?</p>
<p>Sounds like you’re trying to be too cagey, jeremysjustfine. If you’re not trying to do anything sneaky, why would it matter? You are creating the impression that you’re trying not to get caught at something. Even if a college asked whether you opened a bank account after filing your FAFSA, or else just “found out” you did, why would that be a problem? If you’re trying not to declare money that you actually have, then why not wait until after the financial aid decisions are “solid”, as you put it, and open it then? I think it’s unlikely anyone is going to come around looking at whether or not you have a new bank account, but if you’re worried about it, why not wait to open one until you’re not worried anymore?</p>
<p>Let me clear this up. FAFSA asks for a snapshot of your situation as of the moment you click “Submit” or drop the paper application in the mailbox. So if you had zero dollars as of that moment, and said so on the FAFSA, you did exactly right and what happens from that moment forward is irrelevant. Obviously everyone’s cash and bank situations change over time, even daily or hourly if you get right down to it. So if you want to open a bank account now or anytime, no one will question it.</p>
<p>Now there is an ongoing debate about what one would do if he won the lottery after FA apps are filed, but we don’t need to get into that now.</p>