What is a Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL)?

A refund antipation loan or RAL is a method of receiving a Federal income tax refund sooner than it would come to the taxpayer from the IRS. Other common names for this type of transaction are: Fast Cash Refunds, Rapid Refunds, Express Money, and Instant Refunds.

All of these common names are misleading because they are not refunds; they are actually high interest loans.Taxpayers are paying high fees to borrow their own refund money. The IRS has become quite efficient …