Some students around the nation may be getting cheated by paying for student financial aid services.

Some online services charge students for help with their Free Application for Federal Student Aid forms, such as www.fafsa.com, run by the company Student Financial Aid Services. The site offers an online service for those who prefer to have experts fill out their FAFSA forms and charges fees up to $189.99 for the use of the services.

“We are similar to taxpayers using H&R Block and other tax preparation services who complete [Internal Revenue Service] forms,” said Michael Alexander, founder and chief executive officer of Student Financial Aid Services.

FAFSAonline.com also charges for FAFSA help. According to www.FAFSAonline.com, the service is designed to help prevent a delay with receiving financial aid.

Two members of Congress, Rep. George Miller, D-Cal. and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., wrote a letter to Secretary of Education Rod Paige last week asking him to investigate private companies that are illegally charging fees to students filling out financial aid applications.

Miller and Kennedy cited the Higher Education Act, saying entities are prohibited from charging students and their parents for collecting, processing or delivering federal aid through the FAFSA.

While some private companies are charging fees to help people fill out their FAFSA forms, the service is provided for free on FAFSA’s Web site, www.fafsa.ed.gov.

“We strongly believe that people should not have to pay to get financial aid,” said Roberta Johnson, associate director of financial aid.

Johnson said when ISU students seek assistance with the FAFSA, they are directed to the federal Web site, which offers a Web-based version of the Department of Education’s FAFSA form. Free help is offered on the Web site and by telephone.

The FAFSA services that charge money are not ones the Office of Student Financial Aid recommends, Johnson said. She said the office also does not recommend scholarship search services that charge money, because students who don’t pay for the service get the same results as those who do.

“The ones that charge are the ones that usually send postcards and it’s really just a scam,” Johnson said