How to Complete your FAFSA starting with the FSA-ID (Login)

How to Complete your FAFSA and Make it Easy

The 24/25 FAFSA was the first time the FAFSA was changed in many years.  It is still similar but there are some new changes that can make it easier than before if you know what to do.

FSA ID:

This is your FSA ID or FAFSA ID which is just your username and password used to login to the FAFSA.  If you’ve never had one before you just follow the instructions and “Create your FSA ID”.  If you’ve had one in the last 10 years your social is likely tied to your FASFA login already. 

In all my time helping students with their FAFSA this is the one area that holds people up the most.  The hard part is when you login to the FAFSA, it will always give you a 2 – step verification where you can text yourself a code or send it to your email to verify this is you. 

The trouble with this is even if you know your “username” and “password”, but both your phone and email have both changed recently then you’re unable to verify by receiving a code because they will likely have an old number and/or email for you. 

If you still do have the same phone or email that they would have for your FSA ID then the process is easy.  Just click “forgot password” unless you know it and have them text/email you a code to reset it.  This can be done with the phone number or your email. 

When both phone/email have changed, then you really have no choice but to do an “FSA ID Recovery Case.”  There are 2 ways to accomplish this; 1) You can submit this from the login screen or 2) you can call the 800 #: 800-433-3243.