Word: credit-card
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REVOLVING CREDIT Credit-card companies have been going on a shopping spree lately--and you may get stuck with the bill. Industry leader Citibank just purchased 800,000 accounts from Mellon Bank, part of an industrywide consolidation that last year saw 20 million accounts worth an estimated $32 billion change hands. A new owner can jack up rates and fees when it buys your account, except in a few states that let you keep the old terms. So make sure you watch out for the fine print detailing any changes...
...people get 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...
Potential 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...