<p>I recently applied for FAFSA and I was asked a question about how much money my parents and I had in checking or savings account.
Is there a way that FAFSA or my school Financial Aid office can check the balance of those accounts?
Can I hide that in some way?
Should I use that money to pay other debts?</p>
<p>Also, I have heard that the money in my parents account is counted at a higher percentage that the money in my account, is this true? and if it is then should I move money from my parents' account to mine?</p>
<p>If you’ve already submitted your FAFSA the amount reported in your and your parents’ bank account should have be accurate as of the day you filed. It’s not something you can go back in and change.</p>
<p>For next year, though, yes you can pay off bills prior to submitting your FAFSA, however there is a protected amount of assets your parents have, so if they have, say, $10,000 in the bank, that would be protected anyway and not be considered available to pay for college. It won’t help you to spend it down paying off bills since it wouldn’t have been counted by FAFSA to begin with. How much parent savings/assets are protected depends on the age of the oldest parent. I’m in my mid-50’s and I believe we have a protection allowance of over $50,000. We’ve never had that much money saved in our entire lives… so spending down our bank account balance before filing the FAFSA is pointless.</p>
<p>Student assets are calculated at a much more severe rates than parents’. You should definitely NOT move money into your account. Student assets have NO protected amount.</p>
<p>Thank you for the quick response.
My parents are both in their 40s, the amount I have in my account is $2000, however the day that I filled my FAFSA I had $4000. Yesterday I signed in and made a Correction to the FAFSA for the new amount; my EFC went down because of it. I can still lower the $2000 to about $1000 if I pay the next two months of off-campus rent. </p>
<p>Should I pay off the rent and then make another correction with the new amount of money or can Financial Aid or FAFSA access my bank statements?</p>
Assets are supposed to reflect the assets of the day you filed FAFSA. You are not supposed to change the assets reported unless they were incorrect on the day you reported them. </p>
<p>Maybe they can. If you earned interest on a savings/checking account and suddenly the account is empty…there could be some questions. Schools ask for copies of tax returns during verification (if you are so chosen)…why couldn’t they also ask for bank statements?</p>
<p>Unless you have tons of money in the bank you’re not going to earn much interest on a checking/savings account these days. Certainly not this poster with $4,000 in the bank.
They can ask for whatever they want, DNA, hair samples etc but they can’t check your bank accounts without your permission.</p>
<p>They can verify you though (and changing the assets, which you are not supposed to do, can trigger this). If you are selected for verification you will be asked for supporting documentation. You can’t be forced to provide it. But your financial aid will come to a standstill unless you do. And if they think you are trying to commit some sort of FAFSA fraud then they can definitely pursue it further (there was a case reported here last year or a couple of years ago that went to court - I never did hear the results though).</p>
<p>We been verified several times. We have not been asked for proof of the asset data, but we have never done anything that would have raised red flags about our reported assets (such as changing them).</p>
<p>Paying bills or debts before you file FAFSA is a good idea and perfectly acceptable. But you must do it before you file FAFSA. Hiding assets is illegal.</p>
<p>This poster is merely keeping FAFSA updated on the financial situation. FAFSA apparently doesn’t recommend that, but no laws have been broken. The poster has nothing to worry about. For all I know, they may very well base the EFC on the lower numbers. That said, one update is probably enough. Don’t push your luck.</p>
<p>The FAFSA rules quite clearly state that assets are supposed to reflect the assets “as of the day FAFSA was submitted”. They are not supposed to be changed unless the information was incorrect on the day FAFSA was submitted.</p>
<p>Speedo, that’s a rosy interpretation… keeping FAFSA updated on the financial situation. Actually the poster clearly broke a rule as those fields are not to be changed unless they were entered incorrectly the first time.</p>
<p>That said, it will probably flag the applicant for verification and not much else will happen. (That’s just my guess, based on not much of anything.) It is good for the poster, and anyone else reading this thread, to know that it is permissable to pay bills before submitting your FAFSA, but this should happen before the original submission. Also, for most people (parents, anyway) it won’t make a difference because of their automatic asset protection. For students, yeah, it might be a good idea to pay off bills, loans, car payments, etc. before filing.</p>
<h1>10 and #11. I “should not” eat red meat. You are interpreting FAFSA’s very harshly and #10 is even underlining for emphasis. The rules do not mention any penalty for updating. I have never heard of anyone having to provide their banking accounts to FAFSA. You are unecessarilly worrying the poster.</h1>
<p>I would rather encourage posters to follow the rules posted on the FAFSA website than encourage them to do something that might trigger a verification process and possible problems for them.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure it’ll trigger a verification. I had to change an “as of the date submitted” field on the FAFSA last year, and then the SAR had the verification flag (where it hadn’t previously). I changed it because I had entered an incorrect number (this pertained to some “bills paid on your behalf” for my daughter.)</p>
<p>The verification was routine, however, just asking for tax documents. It did not ask for documents pertaining to the field I corrected. I suspect that will be what will happen for the OP also, but of course I don’t know for sure.</p>
<p>Speedo, you are wrong. Assets are reported ON THE DAY THE FAFSA IS SIGNED. THEY CANNOT BE UPDATED. The instructions are quite clear. While you are correct in stating that no one can make anyone provide bank statements, I can tell you that a financial aid officer CAN refuse to continue processing aid until statements are provided if the aid officer feels they are necessary due to conflicting information. Changing the amount of assets on the FAFSA does constitute conflicting information, and yes, an aid officer may very well require a bank statement verifying the amount in the bank on the date the FAFSA was initially submitted. The student could refuse to provide it; the aid officer may then refuse to continue processing aid.</p>
<p>While I have not found it necessary to hold up aid for this particular issue (our student population does not have much in the way of assets to bother hiding), I absolutely have held up aid for other things students do not “have” to provide. For example, I often have to request that students and/or their parents amend their tax returns because they filed incorrectly. I can’t make them do that. But I have had students who never got their aid for the year because they chose not to file an amended return … their choice, of course. I do NOT have a choice … if something is done incorrectly, I can’t pay out aid unless & until it is fixed.</p>
<p>Federal aid is regulated by laws enacted by Congress. They must be followed or schools can be fined.</p>
<p>And, yes, this student’s FAFSA will almost certainly be selected for verification after the change (if it wasn’t already selected). Personally, if I were verifying, rather than asking for bank statements, I would just use the original (higher) amount reported on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>They can be updated and no penalty is mentioned for doing so. I too read the instructions and you’re correct they are clear. I have never heard of an aid officer demanding bank statements. You’re confusing school responsibilities with the students responsibilities. There’s an attitude from some folks on this thread. Scare the kids. That’s not the way FAFSA is supposed to work. Judging from some of the statements you just made, your institution is flirting with a lawsuit. You have no business asking people to amend their tax forms.</p>
<p>Since the amount is not supposed to be changed, it seems to me the fair thing to do is for the school to ignore the changes and go with the original number. Perhaps then, if the student wants to prove that they made a mistake, it is incumbent on them to produce the bank returns showing the lesser amount.</p>