Okay, so I just got a check from FAFSA mailed in and it’s the money that i didn’t use for my tuition. I want to save it in my savings account for future needs, but I don’t know. Someone said if it’s in my bank account and i dont use it, FAFSA is gonna take it back?? and another person said that FAFSA won’t take it unless it’s in a separate bank account? Or if it’s under my mom’s name?? I am so confused, like, is it my money now or what?? And it’s not a loan, it’s the money that I don’t need to pay back.
FAFSA doesn’t actually give you money (it’s an application for federal grants and loans), so you need to know from which source you received the funds. Pell grant? SEOG? Stafford loans? Look at your financial aid award from your school and figure it out.
It’s your money (but if a loan you’ll have to repay it). If it is in your account next time you file FAFSA you’ll have to report it as an asset unless you can proved that it was from FA. Keep in a separate account, or keep records that the amount balance has never gone below this amount.
FAFSA is just a form you fill out to file for aid (free application for…) so don’t call it that.
If you got grants that are greater than your tuition/ fees any any other direct costs, then it is refunded to you. You get to keep it, no one will take it back. It is meant for books and personal expenses and maybe room and board if you aren’t living on campus. But you get to keep it even if you don’t spend it.
Now when you have to file FAFSA next year, you are supposed to report any money sitting in the bank. Student accounts are counted 20% toward your EFC. Parent are counted only 5.6%. Also you are supposed to count income but grants given to you are not income, do not count it. However I have heard that if it is kept accounted for as coming from that, they you don’t have to report it, that’s why people say keep in a separate account.
Money that is awarded as financial,aid is not supposed to be reported as an asset on next year’s FAFSA. But it’s also supposed to be used for your college expenses. So…right now, put any refunded amount your school sent you in a bank bank account, but plan to use it for things like your books, and college bill for the spring term. You will likely get a refund then too.
It is your money.
It won’t be taken from you.
Don’t include what’s left of it on the FAFSA you submit in January 2016.
FAFSA simply would not send you money. You need to find out what it is and it should be shown on your FA summary.
Like others have said, you need to nail down where it’s from. It’s not “from FAFSA.” Make 100 percent sure it’s not a loan (over-payment from a parent plus loan 1st semester is sent to the student, not the parent who took out the loan.) Before you spend it, find out how much money is needed for next semester tuition and housing. Subtract your financial aid and see if there is still over-payment next semester. It’s not unusual for there to be over-payment the first semester because a housing deposit or enrollment fee of some sort was deducted from the total. The Spring semester total can be a touch higher simply because there wasn’t a deposit to subtract.
If it is grant money, then it’s meant to help you with books, supplies and living. Bank it and use when necessary.
Thanks everyone! I got a pell grant by the way. But, I received a check and on the check, it says “void after 6 months” and I asked the bank teller what it meant. She said that after 6 months, I should ask the school to issue me another check to keep the money in my account because after the 6 months, the money is unavailable. And I am still a little confused, I’m not sure if I heard her correctly, which makes me scared.
OK, thanks for adding info, please check back more often.
All checks are pretty much only good for 6 months, which means you have to cash it within 6 months. Once you cash the check you have the money and it is good for as long as money is good. The 6 months applies if your mom gave you a check, or the college, or the federal govt or me. It has nothing to do with aid, just with bank rules that means when you hold a check in your hand it is only good for 6 months. If you let it expire it is just paper. unless the person who wrote it will give you another one.
So cash the check. The check is not in your bank account until you cash it.
So you have an uncashed physical check? that is from a Pell grant? Well, that is yours. Please cash it. Put it in your savings account. You are allowed to use it for your books, for your living expenses, for your transportation expenses. If you are able to save it, you still keep it. Read the discussion above all over again. Ask if you still have questions.
If you don’t cash or deposit the check in your account within 6 months, the check will be voided. You can’t keep the “physical” check forever.
A check is just paper until you cash it. The paper expires in 6 months. Cash the check and turn it into real money. No one will take a Pell Grant away from you.
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But, I received a check and on the check, it says “void after 6 months” and I asked the bank teller what it meant. She said that after 6 months, I should ask the school to issue me another check to keep the money in my account because after the 6 months, the money is unavailable
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You took the check to a bank teller, correct? Did you ask the teller to deposit the check into your account? or what?
Do you still have the check or did the bank take it? If you still have it, then go back to the bank and say that you want the money from the check deposited into your bank acct…or you want to cash the check.
The teller did NOT say that after 6 months, that you need another check to keep the money that is in your acct. If the money from the check has been deposited, then the money stays there until you spend it.
Are you pulling my leg?! The teller did not say that.
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I received a check and on the check, it says “void after 6 months” and I asked the bank teller what it meant. **She said that after 6 months, I should ask the school to issue me another check to keep the money in my account because after the 6 months, the money is unavailable.
^^please guys , the student just does not understand how bank accounts or checks work.
^^ That’s sad for a college student.
Do you have a bank account in your name? If not you should open one. Find a student checking or savings account with no fees or monthly minimum balance requirement.
You received your financial aid refund as a check by mail because you didn’t give the school the bank account info to deposit your refund directly.
My D had to specify an account for refunds. If you don’t do that they either issue a check or a prepaid debit card.
Depends on the policies of the school.
You should sign into your student account of your college and look up your financial aid award. Or your billing statement. It should list all charges for this semester, tuition, fees, room, meal plan, etc and also all credits to the account like scholarships, grants, tuition and housing deposit, loans, etc.
Then it should list an amount due or a refund due to you.
If all payments of scholarships, grants, loans, deposits, etc total more than the charges, then you receive a refund of the overpayment.
If you need the money for books, travel costs then you can use it. If you don’t need it put it in a bank account and save it.
Yes, it’s clear that the student doesn’t understand checks and bank accounts but the teller certainly does and would not have said that.
I’ll use this analogy that may help you understand…
You have a hamburger coupon for Wendy’s and it will expire on Dec 31st. You take it to Wendy’s TODAY and use it to get $1.00 off your purchase. Good. You gave it to the cashier today (in September) at Wendy’s before the expiration date. That doesn’t mean that after Dec 31st, Wendy’s is going to come back and ask for that $1.00 back…because you properly used it before the expiration date.
The bank teller is like a cashier
Hopefully, you GAVE the check to the teller recently (before the 6 month expiration date), and the teller either gave you cash OR deposited the money into your account. So…you properly “used” the check before its expiration date. The money is yours, no one can take it.
BUT…if you are still holding onto the paper check, and you forget that you have it, and then next June you find it, then you won’t be able to give it to the bank because the check (coupon) will be expired.
If you still have the check, go to the bank on Monday, sign the back, and either get the cash or have it put into your account.
Does that help?
Folks…I know that this may seem odd, but with everything being electronic today…debit cards, auto-deposit salaries, emails, etc…many young folks aren’t familiar with the stuff we 'old folks" grew up with.
the post office by the university has a big pic of an envelope that shows where to put the (to:) address, where to put the (from/return) address, and where to put the stamp…because kids today have little experience with these things.
My friend’s DD tried to put ONE regular stamp on a HEAVY big envelope…she had no idea that more postage would be needed.
all of these things should be a “heads up” to parents to make sure that their kids get exposed to the “old stuff” we grew up with.
OP said she’s not sure she heard the teller correctly and she’s getting different messages from the people around her (deposit the check, don’t deposit the check). It’s understandable that she’d be confused.
What the teller meant is that if you don’t deposit the check, that check is void (worthless) after 6 months. You’d have to ask the school to issue a new one. You should make it a habit to deposit all checks immefiately. If you don’t, someday somebody will refuse to write you a new check and you’ll have no affordable recourse. (If a friend owes you $60 and you don’t cash his check, the only way you could get it is to sue him, which costs way more than $60.) However, checks from employers, businesses, and schools that are lost or stolen can be voided by the institution and reissued. That’s what the school would do.
The people who are saying not to deposit it mean to cash it and hold onto the money instead of putting it in an account because once it’s in an account it can be tracked. A student’s EFC is 20% of their assets (I think everything over $6k is counted), so if you have $7k in the bank when you file FAFSA, that would add $200 to your EFC. They’re thinking that not depositing it will save you that money. You’re better off depositing the money. It’s safer in a bank than in your dresser, you can budget and track it better, and it’s far easier to pay your bills from an account than to have to take cash to the bank to buy a money order every time you want to pay a bill. Pell money is yours to keep. You don’t have to repay it.