Schear Lending Drops Tax Advances

Schear Lending will not offer tax advance products for the upcoming tax season.

In conjunction with Atlas Financial, Ohio-based Schear Lending had offered a tax advance product last year in a small number of states. As a non-bank, Schear was able to operate outside of the jurisdiction of bank regulators. The door would have been open for them to continue on through this year.

The owner of a tax preparation software told me that Schear never developed the business know-how to run successfully run program. She said that Schear had unrealistic expectations. The company imagined that it would be able to generate volume while only working with plus-700 credit score tax filers. Naturally, filers with those kind of profiles are more the exception than the rule.

Atlas Financial does not have an alternative provider for a tax-season cash advance.