There were 31.5 Million FREE FAFSA applications completed in 2011 according to the US Department of Education however, there may have been over 2 million students scammed by the misleading website FAFSA.com!
Because of the number of people completing the FAFSA there have been unscrupulous people trying to make money off of the back of it.
The biggest site that I have found potentially ripping off students is FAFSA.com.
FAFSA.com is potentially scamming 2.1 Million Student Per Year!
See how they are ripping off students and getting away with it below…
How Is FAFSA.com a Scam?
The way fafsa.com scams students is by charging them $79.99 to “assist” them in completing the FREE FAFSA form.
I have 2 issues with FAFSA.com:
- They mislead students into thinking that they are completing the official FAFSA form and then charge them for it. They do not clearly show that it will cost $79.99 until you have already filled in all your information
- The $79.99 charge is according to some complaints online not a one time fee but a recurring annual fee that automatically gets charged to students credit cards
They acknowledge in 2 locations that they are not affiliated with the department of Education and the FAFSA could be completed with no professional help.
Source (fafsa.com)
My belief is that they are providing a service of value to some students, however, I suspect they get a lot of customers who think they are applying to the official FAFSA and are paying the $79.99 to the government and not to this for profit company.
Where is the legitimate FAFSA?
The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The U.S. Dep. Of Ed. Is the largest issuer of financial aid and the FAFSA is the common starting point for all students to access that aid.
If you are looking to get student loans than the FAFSA is step #1.
The FAFSA application opens Jan 1 of each year for the next school year. Make sure to apply early as some grants are given out on what amounts to a first come first served.
APPLY TO THE FAFSA 100% FREE – HERE
Use FAFSA.org NOT FAFSA.com
Where Does FAFSA.com Attract Students to Scam?
FAFSA.com attracts student to their website through search engines like Google. They are currently ranked #3 for the search term FAFSA.
There are 1.8M students per months searching for the term FAFSA according to Google…
By ranking #3 for this one keyword they would get hundreds of thousands(typically 20% of 1.8 million) of visitors per month!
Unofficial Site Ranks #3 in Google
FAFSA.com Reviews
There are many negative reviews of FAFSA on the internet and I was unable to find any positive reviews other than ones on their own website!
On the Better Business Bureau site there is 186 complaints yet somehow they still have an A+ rating.
Here are a few of the complaints…
To present what I hope is as fair a representation as possible of FAFSA.com below is their very canned response to most of the complaints at BBB.
BBB Review – Source
Their website has supposedly 246k positive reviews however, on external websites I was unable to find any remotely positive reviews. I am not clear on how they have so many positive reviews but any service that claims a 98% satisfaction has my BS alert going off!
Photo By: leejayjee
How Many Students Are Getting Scammed? ~ 2,106,040 in 2011!
Traffic for FAFSA.com = 236 Thousand per month (estimated)
Traffic for FAFSA.gov = 3.5 Million visitors per month (estimated)
Source (http://www.semrush.com/)
(FAFSA.com visitors) / (FAFSA.ed.gov visitors) x (Number of FAFSA.ed.gov applications)
=
(Potential Number of Ripped Off Students!)
236,230 / 3,533,012 * 31,497,543 = 2,106,040 Potentially Ripped Off Students in 2011!
Who is behind FASA.com? – Haliburton
I am kidding about Haliburton.
FAFSA.com is very transparent and to their credit very clearly identify they are a private for profit company with their profile on the BBB website…
FAFSA.com is a legal business that appears to operate within all laws however their ethical compass seems to be very poor, they knowingly mislead students and take their money to complete a service which could be completed for FREE!
7 Best FREE FAFSA Resources
To make sure you are armed with knowledge and will avoid being scammed you can get advise on how to complete the free FAFSA from these great resources…
Lynn O’Shaughnessy from TheCollegeSolution.com provides a lot of great financial advice for students looking to apply to college.
The Scholoarship Experts from ScholarshipExperts.com shared these common FAFSA mistakes students should avoid.
The blog at MoreThanaTestScore.com (@zinch) is a great resource for college bound students and a recent article by Jacqueline Kim…
The official ed.gov blog has some really helpful FAFSA articles written by Nicole Callahan
- Top 3 FAFSA FAQ’s
- 5 Reasons You Should Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
SimpleTuition (@SimpleTuition) has an article on Demystifying the FAFSA
How Can We Stop Students From Getting Scammed by FAFSA.com?
Make sure you do not pay for the FREE(F) FAFSA form and apply to the correct location…
APPLY TO THE FAFSA 100% FREE – HERE
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Jon, there are over 296,000 positive comments about fafsa.com. Check out this link http://www.fafsa.com/client-feedback . This service is authorized by Congress and, in fact, the CEO was recently a speaker at the Datapalouza hosted by the Department of Education at the White House. Additionally, we work with about 700 college campuses to accurately present the net price of their college.
I fail to understand why someone would think it is acceptable to pay an expert to assist you in filling out a tax return which can be done for free, but it is unacceptable to pay an expert to assist you in filling out the FAFSA. The FAFSA,for many families, is a much lengthier and difficult form. Also, we offer a full refund to anyone is disastisfied with our service for any reason. That is why we have such good ratings.
You may not have needed help with the FAFSA, but that doesn’t mean other people may want and need help. I think it is great that you are trying to provide information for families planning for college. I only hope that your goal is to alert them to all the options, provide complete information, and not steer them in a particular direction of your choosing. Otherwise, you are no better than your accusations on this web site.
Robert Reeder, CIO, Student Aid Service, Inc.
Robert
I appreciate the response and I believe I presented what I hope is a fair representation of your services and acknowledged the positive feedback…however…
My concern is not with your legal legitimacy it is with your misleading domain name and landing page.
I understand your argument(we simply are a professional service provider like an accountant) but I counter with these 3 points/questions…
1. What would you say to a company that was at IRS.com charging for audit protection consulting? Do you think people would be wrongly mislead thinking they were paying the government for taxation/audit consulting?
2. Why not change domains to your student aid services business name…the only reason to be on the website FAFSA.com in my mind is to trick students…you could argue it is for the search engine benefit but now that you own the domain you could simply 301 redirect it and you would still get the same traffic. So why are you on FAFSA.com vs a less confusing domain?
3. Accountants have years of training, professional standards to uphold what level of training do your advisers have who fill out the FAFSA? This is an honest question and not accusation I do not know and could not find out.
My opinion is that what you are doing is misleading students and a high % of your customers are thinking they are giving money to the government and not a for profit organization.
Look forward to seeing an answer to the above 3 questions and I do appreciate you coming here to comment.
Jon
“we are just like accountants” – Give me a break Robert you can’t honestly believe that! But hey I have to give you cred for having the balls to come here and post.
Great article John I am sure this will help save lots of students the $79.99!
Jon – The federal government authorizes 2 options for preparing a federal student aid application (FAFSA) – either prepare one on the US Dept. of Education’s website or get professional help from a fee-based preparation service. Your statements about Student Financial Aid Services http://www.fafsa.com are false. Serving students for the past 20 years, the company is very careful about informing students and their family members of their options. In every telephone call, website and marketing collateral, both options are clearly explained. In large type on the home page, the online service’s $79.99 price is stated, as is the disclaimer that the company is not affiliated with the Dept. of Education. The fafsa.com home page also explains the options and provides a list of free FAFSA preparation services. In addition, there is at least one and usually multiple links to the Dept. of Education’s FAFSA website on every page of Student Financial Aid Services’ website. Students who call in also know upfront about their options and the service’s cost. The fees are one-time charges, unless a student chooses our help for multiple years.
As our clients attest, the value of is getting professional help is peace of mind that their aid application is accurate and submitted before deadlines. The FAFSA’s 130 asset, income and dependency questions can be complex for many, especially first-time students. FAFSA mistakes move students out of the first-come, first-served virtual line for aid. Last year more than 750,000 of the students notified of FAFSA errors by the US Dept. of Education failed to correct their application, and thereby left money on the table. When caught by the DOE, FAFSA mistakes temporarily bump a student out of the virtual, first-come, first-served line for aid. But unfortunately some mistakes that can lower aid eligibility don’t get flagged by the DOE for correction. In contrast, Student Financial Aid Services’ clients benefit from a computer review of the 450 data points on the form where one can make an error and by having a well trained Student Aid Advisor also read each answer. Besides accuracy, some people don’t want to take the time needed to correctly prepare the application. Students new to the FAFSA spend about 78 minutes to complete a FAFSA alone, according to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Repeat FAFSA applicants shave only 11 minutes off that time. In comparison, Student Financial Aid Services walks a student (or parent) through FAFSA preparation in about 20 minutes if they chose our telephone service.
Suggested by syndicated columnist Terry Savage, a nationally-known personal finance expert, Student Financial Aid Services also offers free and discounted FAFSA help to thousands of low-income students each year. We also provide FAFSA assistance in Spanish, many Asian languages, and other languages. SFAS’ services are available at least 13 hours daily during Monday through Friday and on weekends. Our clients receive unlimited telephone consultations.
The company also prepares students FAFSAs via colleges and corporations that offer employees tuition reimbursement.
As for training, our Student Aid Advisors participate in rigorous training to ensure FAFSA accuracy and excellent client service. We adhere to very strict data privacy policies and offer refunds as part of our terms of service.
Your article is inaccurate and unfair in associating Student Financial Aid Services’ fafsa.com website and service with anything illegal. It is the type of headline that drives traffic to your website, but your misinformation is a disservice to your readers and our clients and employees.
Mary Thanks for the comment.
If there is any information that I have presented that is false I will happily change it to correct information. I believe I have presented my fair opinion and I hope it attracts people because if they come and see value in your service they will use you but what I also believe will happen is people will go to the correct FAFSA.gov website.
I have clearly stated several times that this is not a question of legality but morality.
You have not addressed my 2 questions…
1. What would you say to a company that was at IRS.com charging for audit protection consulting? Do you think people would be wrongly mislead thinking they were paying the government for taxation/audit consulting?
2. Why not change domains to your student aid services business name…the only reason to be on the website FAFSA.com in my mind is to trick students…you could argue it is for the search engine benefit but now that you own the domain you could simply 301 redirect it and you would still get the same traffic. So why are you on FAFSA.com vs a less confusing domain?
I really hope you respond to my questions.
Thanks
Jon
If FAFSA was a trademarked brand for a private company, they would likely force fafsa.com to stop using that domain through some sort of cease and desist order or even possibly by suing them. Since FAFSA is just an acronym for a government program, they can easily get away with this.
I agree Jon, this is a huge scam. Fafsa.com should absolutely either change their domain or put something in the header of their site that boldly and blatantly tells users that their fee is not necessary and can be avoided by going directly to fafsa.org. Their services may actually be valuable, but they would earn a lot more credibility if they did this.
Really good point about a private company would not allow this!
They do have small text in the header but based on the negative reviews people have clearly missed them.
I agree, their service MAY be valuable and useful to some students but they are misleading students currently.
Thanks for sharing!