The Internal Revenue Service says that it will not allow consumers to direct any part of their tax refund to pay to settle their tax preparation fees.

The new split refund proposal would have cleared the way to solve a pending problem for consumers. With the likely elimination of refund anticipation loans, consumers will have fewer (more…)

Wells Fargo has dropped the fees for its Direct Deposit Advance line of credit.

The Direct Deposit Advance is a short-term cash advance available to Well’s checking account customers (in good standing) in about 15 states.

Wells charges $1.50 for every $20 increment that a customer is (more…)

The Senate Committee for Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is taking testimony this morning on how pulling back the role of the GSEs would impact small banks. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) is hearing from small bankers, credit unions and two policy advocates:

• Jack Hartings, small banker from Ohio and Treasurer of the ICBA
• Christopher Dunn, ABA member and small banker from Massachusetts
• Ted Staatz, Credit Unions
• Edward Pinto, American Enterprise Institute
• Peter Skillern, Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina

“What you really find out is not the down payment, it is really other things: what is your debt-to-income, (more…)

A large shareholder has decided to take its concerns about the share price of MetaBank to the public.

The SEC published a June 21st letter from Philadelphia Financial Management, a private equity firm from San Francisco, written to MetaBank’s Board of Directors. The letter seems to have no basis and (more…)

There are new reasons why the Amex prepaid card presents some problems.

I have written twice about the Amex card already. The Amex card appears to be a great card but hard to use. BillPay only works for vendors that accept American Express. It won’t use recurring ACH transactions, (more…)