FAFSA verification

Paying for College
1

Two colleges notified me to verify my fafsa. The emails said my parent needed to use the IRS transfer thing and provided a link to a 3rd party verification site. We waited more than 30 days and the email said the link was only good for 30 days. When we tried it, the link did not go to a valid webpage.

We went directly to the FAFSA website, and updated the info using the IRS data retrieval tool there.

Will this take care of the verfication? Nothing on the FAFSA site indicated a need for verification or that using the retrieval tool satisfied verification.

2

I’m curious what third party you were asked to update with??

You need to check with these colleges to see if this has satisfied their verification request.

Colleges can ask for verification of your FAFSA without there being any indication (*) on your FAFSA at all.

Just a little FYI…don’t miss deadlines. They told you to do this within 30 days…and you didn’t. Deadlines are important and schools have them for a reason. You need to contact these colleges today to see if your verification requirement was met.

And free advice…next year, if you can…use the IRS DRT. Why didn’t you do that this year?

3

The 3rd party was Inceptia.

It was not possible for us to use the DRT at the time we filed.

Thank you for your free advice.

4

Maybe that email was from a scam. Maybe they were trying to trick you into giving your sensitive info.

5

@silverpurple Exactly what I was thinking. I never use links with anything that has to do with my confidential information. I go straight to source.

6

You need to make sure the schools got the FAFSA update. They should, but things don’t always work like they should.

If the DRT didn’t work, have your parents order a tax transcript for 2018 and gather all their taxes and W2s. Don’t send them until asked.

7

Some schools use third-party vendors to perform verification (cost-cutting). Inceptia is a legitimate company that performs verification for colleges.

8

I was asked to verify this year for my daughter’s school. I check with the school to verify they were legit. Could also check online and see that it was a legit request. I have never used the IRS retrieval because it never worked for me. Was just as easy to enter info from my returns (which I have on the same laptop anyway). They also needed one additional form which I had the school send to me.

9

Thanks for all the advice. I checked the portals this morning and the schools that requested the fafsa verification now say they have all they need. I guess updating the fafsa and using the DRT was all it took.