Extra Money from FAFSA, what do I do?

austinmshauri
Sat, 19 Sep 2015 15:34:58 +0000

OP said she’s not sure she heard the teller correctly and she’s getting different messages from the people around her (deposit the check, don’t deposit the check). It’s understandable that she’d be confused.

What the teller meant is that if you don’t deposit the check, that check is void (worthless) after 6 months. You’d have to ask the school to issue a new one. You should make it a habit to deposit all checks immefiately. If you don’t, someday somebody will refuse to write you a new check and you’ll have no affordable recourse. (If a friend owes you $60 and you don’t cash his check, the only way you could get it is to sue him, which costs way more than $60.) However, checks from employers, businesses, and schools that are lost or stolen can be voided by the institution and reissued. That’s what the school would do.

The people who are saying not to deposit it mean to cash it and hold onto the money instead of putting it in an account because once it’s in an account it can be tracked. A student’s EFC is 20% of their assets (I think everything over $6k is counted), so if you have $7k in the bank when you file FAFSA, that would add $200 to your EFC. They’re thinking that not depositing it will save you that money. You’re better off depositing the money. It’s safer in a bank than in your dresser, you can budget and track it better, and it’s far easier to pay your bills from an account than to have to take cash to the bank to buy a money order every time you want to pay a bill. Pell money is yours to keep. You don’t have to repay it.