RAL's almost extinct

Given the many past (vitriolic?) discussions here, I'm surprised this has not come up, or is it simply that I could not find it in a search of recent posts to this newsgroup?

RAL's (refund anticipation loans) are almost completely gone, maybe one bank or some non-financial institutions are still offering something, but on pretty bad terms, even compared to the original RAL "bad terms" (namely, a greatly-reduced amount of loan). As predicted by many over the years, the elimination of the IRS debt indicator for e-filed returns had a lot to do with it, although not the only factor.

Link courtesy of another web discussion group:

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I'm still wondering, where is the IRS debit card for direct deposit of refund? (For those taxpayers who do not have, and cannot qualify for, traditional checking accounts). Or did I miss that announcement too?

The closest I've seen to an IRS debit card was the option offered last year through TaxWise, and publicized in the IRS VITA/TCE material. It was not offered by AARP/TCE locally; I don't know if that was a local, regional or national decision. As I recall the fees for use of the card were non-trivial.

The option is still in the 2011 TaxWise software, but I have seen nothing that would indicate that it is supported by the IRS partner organizations.

FYI, New York now offers a NYS branded BOA debit MasterCard. No fee to withdraw the entire amount at a bank. Else no fee to use at a retail store; $1.00 fee for partial refunds at a bank; ATM fees for non-BOA ATMs. This was originally intended to REPLACE the paper check option, but the Legislature passed the "Taxpayer Refund Choice Act" mandating that paper checks still be an option, at least through November 2016.

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Don EA in Upstate NY