Word: cards
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...refunds, or have the means to pay Uncle's tab. So if the convenience is worth it, charge away. But if you're cash poor and may be that way for many months, you have better options than running up the nation's already staggering $559 billion credit-card balance...
...credit-card option is part of the IRS' recent customer-friendly makeover, and in our credit-card culture it's a route many people will take. Indeed, the number of taxpayers who are going plastic is running ahead of the 75,000 the agency projected this year. But this is one bandwagon you shouldn't hop on quickly. For starters, you'll have to pay the typical 2% or so transaction fee that merchants normally cover when you whip out plastic at the mall. On the average expected federal-tax balance...
...balance within three years. There are a few other minor conditions, a $43 application fee and annual interest expense of around 7%. There's a monthly late fee too that comes to 6% annually. But all in all it's a better deal than a high-interest credit-card loan...
...deadbeats, though, will want to charge their taxes early and often for two reasons. First, if you end up being hounded for the money, you don't want the IRS on your case. The agency can and does garnish wages and place liens against or confiscate property. A credit-card company is a pussycat by comparison. Sometimes it will simply write you off as a cost of doing business and place a blot on your credit report. At worst, it will hand off your debt to a collection agency, which can plead and annoy but not confiscate. And should...
Worried that your kids are blowing their allowance on video games or Spice Girls CDs? A new website will let them shop in cyberspace while you monitor their spending habits. At icanbuy.com which launches next week, overanxious parents will be able to use a credit card to set up online debit accounts for their children, who get fixed weekly or monthly withdrawals and a list of acceptable shopping sites. Parents can then watch their hard-earned money evaporate in real time...