It's completely fine to help your daughter set up her FSA ID and store the information in a family password manager. The important thing is that you're using her information (her SSN, her email, etc.) for her account. Many parents help their children with this process, especially for first-time applicants. Just make sure she understands this account will follow her throughout college and beyond for any federal student loans, so eventually she should take ownership of managing it.

Just wanted to add a helpful tip for anyone going through this process - when you're creating the FSA IDs, make sure you have all the required documents ready beforehand. You'll need Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers (if applicable), and basic contact information for both student and parent. Also, I recommend doing a "test run" by logging into both accounts a few days after creation to make sure everything works smoothly before you actually need to complete the FAFSA. Nothing worse than discovering login issues when you're trying to meet a deadline!

Thank you everyone for the helpful responses! I've updated my info on my son's FAFSA last night and will wait for it to process before applying for the Parent Plus loan. It's such a relief to know the credit check isn't based on a specific score number. I'll definitely borrow only what we need and keep that refund tip in mind! I've also bookmarked that Claimyr service in case I run into trouble reaching someone at FSA. You all have been so helpful!

Just wanted to chime in as someone who went through this process recently! Yes, the FAFSA is absolutely required first - learned this the hard way when I tried to apply for Parent Plus without it being complete. One thing I'd add is to double-check that your son's school participates in the Direct Loan program (most do, but it's worth confirming). Also, if you're worried about the 3-week deadline, don't stress too much - once you're approved for the Parent Plus loan, you can usually work with the school's financial aid office on the timing of disbursement even if it's after the deposit deadline. Most schools are understanding about federal loan processing times. The whole process from updating FAFSA to Parent Plus approval took me about a week total.

Great to see you got it working! Just wanted to add for future readers that if you're still having issues after following all these steps, try clearing your browser cache and cookies before attempting to log in with your new FSA ID. I had a similar problem where old session data was interfering with the new login process. Also, make sure you're not using any VPN services as the FSA system sometimes flags those as suspicious activity. The whole process really is unnecessarily confusing, but once you get through it, the actual parent contribution section is pretty straightforward to complete.

As someone who just went through this nightmare last month, I feel your pain! The new FAFSA system is so poorly designed when it comes to communicating what parents need to do. Here's what saved me after wasting hours on this: 1. Create your FSA ID at studentaid.gov/fsa-id/create-account BEFORE clicking any links 2. Use YOUR personal email (not your daughter's) and make sure it matches exactly what she put when adding you as a contributor 3. Wait at least 10-15 minutes after creating the FSA ID before trying to access anything 4. If you're still getting errors, have your daughter log into her FAFSA and resend the contributor invitation - sometimes the original links get corrupted The "unable to complete action" error almost always means you're trying to access the parent section without having your own FSA ID set up first. It's such a basic thing but nowhere in their emails do they clearly explain this! Once you get your FSA ID created and verified, everything should work smoothly. Don't give up - your daughter's aid depends on getting this done!

Don't worry at all! I'm a college financial aid advisor and I can confirm that having both parents create contributor accounts is actually very common and won't cause any problems with your FAFSA submission. The 2025-2026 FAFSA system is designed to handle multiple contributors seamlessly. Since your daughter can see both accounts linked in her dashboard, that means everything was set up correctly. You should receive your SAI within 3-5 business days if there are no other issues with the application. The only time multiple contributor accounts cause delays is if there are significant discrepancies in the financial information provided, but that would trigger an immediate error during submission rather than a processing delay later. Since your application went through successfully, you're in good shape! Keep an eye on your email for the SAI notification, and don't hesitate to contact your daughter's school's financial aid office if you have any questions once you receive it. They can help interpret the results and guide you through next steps for aid applications.

I just went through this exact same situation a few weeks ago! Both my husband and I created contributor accounts and I was absolutely panicking that we'd ruined our son's application. Turns out it's totally fine - we got our SAI in 4 days and everything processed normally. The new FAFSA system actually expects multiple contributors in many cases, especially for married parents filing jointly. As long as both of your accounts show up in your daughter's dashboard (which you confirmed they do), you're all set. One thing that helped ease my anxiety was calling the school's financial aid office directly. They were able to pull up our application and confirm everything looked good on their end. Might be worth doing that if you want extra peace of mind while waiting for the SAI!

I'm going through the exact same situation and this thread has been incredibly helpful! My parents divorced when I was in middle school and they absolutely refuse to communicate about anything, including my college finances. What's been working for me so far is creating a detailed expense tracker for the past 12 months, similar to what others have suggested. I'm tracking everything from my mom paying for my car insurance ($150/month) to the value of staying at my dad's apartment during winter break (which I calculated as about $800/month based on local rent prices). One thing I learned from my older cousin who went through this last year - save screenshots or receipts for everything you can! She said when her school did verification, they wanted to see documentation for some of the larger expense categories like housing value and insurance payments. Has anyone dealt with parents who are just completely unwilling to help with the FAFSA process at all? My biggest fear is choosing the right parent based on support calculations but then having them refuse to complete their section. The 35-day deadline seems really stressful when you can't even get them to respond to basic texts about it.

Wow, reading through all these responses has been SO helpful! I'm a junior dealing with a similar divorced parent situation and was dreading having to figure this out for next year's FAFSA. The spreadsheet approach that everyone keeps mentioning sounds like the most practical solution - I love how @Santiago Diaz and @Zainab Ismail broke down all the different categories to track. The housing calculation seems like it could really be the deciding factor for a lot of us. What really stands out to me from everyone's advice is how important it is to contact your school's financial aid office early in the process. It sounds like they have way more specific guidance and tools than what's available on the general FAFSA website. I'm definitely going to reach out to mine before I even start filling anything out. One question for those who've been through this successfully - did any of you have to deal with verification afterwards? I'm curious if having divorced parents makes you more likely to get selected for verification, and if so, what kind of documentation they actually wanted to see for the support calculations. Thanks to everyone for sharing your real experiences with this! It makes such a difference to hear from people who've actually navigated these complicated family situations rather than just reading the vague official guidance.