FAFSA Stupidity

Oh. My. Gosh.

Am I the stupidest person on the face of the earth? I feel like it right now.

I have two boys that are high school seniors this year, and so I must figure out all the college stuff and FAFSA (federal financial aid). *sigh*

So, today I googled FAFSA and clicked on the link for fafsa.com.

Big mistake.

But I didn't figure it out until I'd entered ALL our personal information (son's, mine, and husband's) social security numbers, birthdates, bank account balances, and so much more. It wasn't until I got to the final screen, where it asked for a credit card number, when I sat back and thought, WHAT?? (They wanted $79.99 to process the application.)

I scrolled down and read the teeny-tiny print at the bottom of the website. It said they were not affliated with the Department of Education and linked to the correct FAFSA website.

SHEESH!!

I clicked over to the correct site: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ and started over. Interestingly enough, the application took a fraction of the time and asked for a fraction of the information the other site did. Oh. My. Gosh.

Did I mention how stupid I feel? Is that other site going to steal our identities? I did go back to the other site and alter our information (changing it all to john doe and generic numbers). It wouldn't let me delete the account I had created.