It's your money

Blog post by:
Velma Jean

I don’t know about you, but especially now, I need to keep every dollar of my paycheck! So why would I pay a lot of money to get what already belongs to me? That’s what a lot of lower income families do – they go to commercial tax preparers to get a “rapid refund”.

According to the Center for Responsible Lending, “consumers paid an estimated $1.24 billion in Refund Anticipation Loan fees in 2004 to get quick cash for their refunds – essentially borrowing their own money at extremely high interest rates.”

The Center’s website goes on to ask, “How would you like to pay a super-high price to borrow money that already belongs to you? Sounds ridiculous, right? But that’s pretty much what happens to many folks at tax time in the crazy world of RALs, or refund anticipation loans.”

You’ve seen the advertisements for “Fast Cash Refunds,” “Express Money,” or “Instant Refunds.” These ads offer to get you your refund in just a day or two, or even on the spot. But these “fast refunds” are really LOANS, refund anticipation loans.

To learn more about free tax preparation, go to http://www.freetaxprep4u.org/
And keep your hard-earned money!