FAFSA
CommunityFinancial Services
Pay nothing until a live FAFSA agent is on the phone with you.
Can't reach FAFSA? Claimyr calls for you, so you don't have to wait on hold.
$0 upfront. We only hold your card.
No live agent, no charge.
$9.99 is charged only once a live FAFSA agent is on the phone with you.
Using Claimyr will:
- Connect you to a human agent at the FAFSA
- Skip the long phone menu
- Call the correct department
- Redial until on hold
- Forward a call to your phone with reduced hold time
- Give you free callbacks if the FAFSA drops your call
Ask the community...
- DO post questions about your issues.
- DO answer questions and support each other.
- DO post tips & tricks to help folks.
- DO NOT post call problems here - there is a support tab at the top for that :)
FAFSA verification stuck after birthdate correction - will aid still process?
I'm so frustrated with this FAFSA nightmare! My daughter completed her portion of the 2025-2026 FAFSA without issues and sent it to me. I filled out my contributor section, got verified through the IRS portal, and submitted everything about 10 days ago. But NOTHING has shown up in my daughter's StudentAid.gov account yet! We finally figured out the problem - she accidentally entered her birth year as 2003 instead of 2004 (making her 21 not 20). When she logged in to fix it yesterday, the system locked her out completely! She had to call and they said she needs to go through identity verification AGAIN for her Social Security number because of the birthdate change. This is driving me crazy! Does anyone know if we'll still get her SAI score and aid package information once this verification clears? Or does the whole application need to be reprocessed from scratch? Her college priority deadline is coming up in 3 weeks and I'm panicking that she'll miss out on grants because of this stupid typo. 😫
Join the conversation
Do students AND parents need separate FAFSA login accounts? Confused about who fills out what
I'm completely confused about the 2025-2026 FAFSA login process. My son is going to be a junior this fall, and for the past two years, my husband has been the one filling out the FAFSA with both the parent and student information under his account. We never created a separate account for our son. Now we're having processing issues. When we check the status, it says we never provided my SSN and birthdate (the mother). But when my husband tries to correct this info, we just get an error message saying "sorry, please be patient. We are unable to process this at this time." Do we actually need TWO separate accounts now? One for my son and one for us as parents? Would my son logging in and creating his own FSA ID and filling out his portion separately fix this processing issue? The whole system seems different from previous years and I'm worried we'll miss deadlines because of these technical problems.
Join the conversation
To address your specific error about the mother's SSN and birthdate not being processed: This likely happened because the system now requires the actual person (you) to enter and verify this information using your own FSA ID, not your husband entering it on your behalf. Our financial aid office has seen hundreds of these cases since the new FAFSA launched. Starting fresh with each person having their own FSA ID is the cleanest solution. And don't worry about the previous attempts - the system will recognize the newest submission as the valid one.
This makes so much sense now. I'll create my own FSA ID too. Do both parents always need to submit information, or can we choose just one parent to be the contributor?
If you're married and file taxes jointly, you'll generally designate one parent as the contributor, but both parents' income information will be reported on the FAFSA. The contributor parent will need an FSA ID to complete their section. If you file taxes separately, the situation might be different based on your specific circumstances.
And FYI when ur son makes his FSA ID, make SURE he uses an email he actually checks!!! My daughter used some random gmail she never looks at and we missed deadlines cuz she never saw the notifications 🤦♀️
That's great advice, thank you! He has a personal email he uses for college stuff, so we'll make sure he uses that one.
FAFSA loan servicer reporting me delinquent despite active repayment plan - legal options?
I've been fighting with my FAFSA loan servicer for months and I'm at my wit's end. I originally requested lower monthly payments because I couldn't afford them, and after being ignored multiple times, I started making partial payments (which they said was fine). The loan eventually went into default status. After MONTHS of calling and getting nowhere, they finally put me on a repayment program with lower payments, lower interest, and extended terms. Great! I've been on auto-debit for 3 months now making ALL payments on time through their system. Here's the problem: They NEVER sent me the program details in writing despite me asking twice. And now, even though they're taking my money through auto-debit, they're STILL sending threatening emails/letters saying I'm delinquent and STILL reporting me as severely delinquent to credit bureaus! My credit score has tanked from 680s to 510s, and my parent's score (who's on my Parent PLUS loan as contributor) dropped from 790s to 670s. I literally can't qualify for anything now without insane interest rates. I've tried calling, escalating, everything. This is destroying both our financial futures even though I'm making EVERY payment they're requesting through THEIR auto-debit system. Is there any kind of legal action I can take against a FAFSA loan servicer for this? Has anyone dealt with something similar?
Join the conversation
THIS IS WHY I TELL EVERYONE TO AVOID STUDENT LOANS!!! The whole system is RIGGED against borrowers!!! I had $45k in loans and they somehow ballooned to $68k even though I never missed a payment! These companies are PREDATORY and the government LETS THEM GET AWAY WITH IT!!!!
Ok but like.... some of us don't have rich parents and actually need loans to go to college?? Not super helpful to OP's situation rn
Quick update based on other responses: Since you confirmed these are federal student loans (not private), you have additional protections. Contact the FSA Ombudsman Group specifically - they're designed to resolve disputes between borrowers and loan servicers. Their contact info is: https://studentaid.gov/feedback-ombudsman/disputes/prepare Also, federal student loan servicers are required by their contracts with the Department of Education to maintain accurate credit reporting. This gives you additional leverage beyond just the FCRA protections.
Thank you for the follow-up and that link! I've bookmarked it and will definitely be contacting them. It's reassuring to know there are multiple avenues for addressing this since they're federal loans.
FAFSA parent contribution link error page - finally worked after multiple tries
Hey everyone, just wanted to share something in case others are running into the same frustrating issue. We just finished submitting our 2025-2026 FAFSA application yesterday, but not without some technical headaches! When my son sent me the contributor invitation link (for the parent portion), I kept getting thrown to an error page every time I clicked it. Nothing but a blank page with 'Error' at the top. Super helpful, right? 😒 I was ready to give up after the 3rd try, but after clicking the EXACT SAME invitation link 4-5 times, it magically decided to work! No explanation, no different approach - just persistence. Just sharing this in case any other parents are banging their heads against the wall with the same issue. Keep trying the link, apparently that's the secret password lol.
Join the conversation
After dealing with this for days, I called my son's college financial aid office directly. They said they're hearing about this issue from LOTS of families. Their suggestion was to have the student remove the parent as a contributor temporarily, then add them back and generate a fresh invitation link. Apparently this resets something in the system. Worth trying if you're still stuck!
We tried that THREE times and it still gave me the error page each time! This whole system is a disaster. Why did they have to change everything from the old FAFSA anyway? That one at least WORKED.
The change to the new system was mandated by the FAFSA Simplification Act passed by Congress. The intention was good - to make the form shorter and easier to complete - but the implementation has obviously been problematic. The Department of Education had to compress what was supposed to be a multi-year rollout into a much shorter timeframe, which is partly why we're seeing so many technical issues.
when my mom had this problem we fixed it by having her create a completely new FSA ID. for some reason the old one she used last year kept triggering the error page. kinda annoying to make a new account but at least it worked!
Interesting! I might try this as a last resort. Did she have any trouble with the new FSA ID being linked to her tax information for the IRS Data Retrieval Tool?
yeah actually that was kind of a pain. she had to wait like 3 days before the new FSA ID would link with her taxes. something about verification taking time. but eventually it worked and we got everything submitted before our priority deadline
FAFSA impacts of student loan servicer change from Navient to MOHELA - payment increases?
Just got a letter saying my federal student loans are being transferred from Navient to MOHELA. Has anyone else gone through this transition? I'm in the middle of my FAFSA application for my daughter and I'm worried this will mess up the parent loan information I already submitted. Do I need to update my FAFSA with the new loan servicer? And has anyone noticed their monthly payments increasing after a transfer? I'm already stressed about helping my daughter with college costs, and this sudden change has me worried about how it might affect our financial aid eligibility. Thanks for any insight!
Join the conversation
I experienced the Navient to MOHELA transfer about 8 months ago. Here's what you should know: 1. This won't affect your FAFSA or your daughter's financial aid eligibility at all. Federal loan information is tracked by your SSN in the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), not by servicer. 2. By law, your loan terms cannot change during a servicer transfer. Same interest rate, same payment plan, same forgiveness progress. 3. What DOES often happen: - You'll need to set up a new online account with MOHELA - You'll need to re-establish autopay (this doesn't transfer automatically) - Your due date might shift slightly - You'll get new payment instructions 4. If you notice ANY changes to your payment amount, immediately contact MOHELA and reference the "servicing continuity" requirements from the Department of Education. The transition was relatively smooth for me, but it does require some proactive monitoring on your part.
I wish mine had been smooth!! took like 4 months to get everything fixed and they kept giving me different answers every time I called 🙄
Thank you for breaking this down so clearly. I'll definitely watch for those issues you mentioned. I'm glad to hear your transition went smoothly - hoping for the same!
my cousin had this happen and he said mohela actually LOWERED his payment by like $12/month so maybe youll get lucky lol. but yeah you gotta redo all your account stuff and autopay and everything its super annoying
Oh wow, that would be a nice surprise! But I won't hold my breath lol. Thanks for letting me know about redoing the account setup. I'll start getting that ready now.
Natasha Volkova
my neice had something similarr with fafsa and she just went to the finacial aid office in person and they fixed everything right there!! maybe try that?
0 coins
CosmicCaptain
The financial aid office can help with many things, but they can't directly fix FAFSA account verification issues - that has to be resolved through Federal Student Aid directly. However, going to the financial aid office is still a good idea because they can note the account issue in your file and may extend institutional deadlines while you get it resolved.
0 coins
Oliver Zimmermann
Just wanted to update everyone! My daughter was finally able to get through to someone at FSA after using Claimyr (thanks for that recommendation!). The agent confirmed that her original submission date was still preserved, and they were able to expedite the verification process. Her account is now showing the SAI score, and she's already contacted her schools to let them know about the situation. They were all very understanding and said it wouldn't affect her aid consideration. So relieved this is finally resolved!
0 coins
Malik Johnson
That's great news! Glad it worked out for you. It's such a relief when you can finally get through to someone who can actually help.
0 coins
Ravi Sharma
Excellent! This is exactly how it should work. Now that her SAI is showing, the schools can access her information and proceed with her financial aid package. Make sure she checks her school portals regularly for any additional documentation requests.
0 coins