Is there any downside to grandparents (or anyone else for that matter) helping D pay students loans while she is attending school? Not sure what their intention is but they have mentioned they would like to help out by making payments to her loans instead of handing her cash each semester. Do I understand there is a place on the FAFSA that asks if a relative is helping pay? If their help is going to decrease her aid I’m not sure we want to go that route…they are retired and not wealthy, just want to help if they can. Do the burser’s office and finaid collaborate at all?
No, the grandparents helping with loan payments won’t change anything besides paying down her loans faster. This isn’t even something that has to be reported. They are paying existing loans, not paying tuition up front.
Just for an example that I think is the same, my mom insisted on making a small payment on my loans while I was still in school and they were on deferment to help lower the amount of loans I would have when I was finished with school.
@TU0515, your situation is different than the OP’s because presumably your mom’s income and asset information was reported on fafsa and/or other finaid forms. The grandparent’s info wasn’t.
I don’t know definitively if the grandparents paying off loans is reportable as money received or paid on student’s behalf. This is the question at issue:
Thanks annoyingdad, maybe I can research from there…
Maybe your child’s grandparents could do this:
That seems pretty clear that they can pay the monies to me and I could make a loan payment. At least that’s what I got out of it…now to look at the implications in the CSS profile as well.