New Orleans Refund anticipation loans or RALs, as they were known, were one of the most predatory products on the market in their heyday targeted solely to low-and-moderate income workers who were most desperate for their tax returns. They were on the other side of the digital divide so less likely to file with the …
Tag: RALs
Victory! H&R Block Finally Kills RALS!
New Orleans Early this week H&R Block finally threw in the towel and announced that they would totally discontinue RALs for this coming tax season on 2011 returns. After seven (7) years we can finally count coup on a total victory that once preyed on lower income and desperate families for close to half-a-billion dollars …
H&R Block, HSBC, & the end of RALs
New Orleans Refund Anticipation Loans or RALs are a product that have preyed on lower income worker families since their inception and promotion by the big tax preparers, H&R Block, Jackson-Hewitt, and Liberty, as well as smaller fry who could get access to credit. Negotiating with these companies could get depressing when I worked with …
Santa Barbara Finally Pulls Up Short
Quepos It was an extra present under the palm tree to read in the pre-dawn that Santa Barbara Bank & Trust was being pulled out of the business of factoring RALs, predatory refund anticipation loan for Jackson & Hewitt and other companies in the viciously competitive tax services market for lower income and working families. …