CHRISTMAS IN APRIL?

     In the Retail world, Christmas is the  B I G  sales time.  Most retailers 'make' their yearly profits during the Christmas shopping season.  Now you know why Christmas Items show up earlier and earlier each year.  Car dealers have their "christmas rush" at Tax Time.  Think about it, most of us work hard all year and have very little savings.  April 15th comes and  B O N U S  we get a  R E F U N D !!  Suddenly we have  C A S H for many things.  Sadly many of us use the over payment of Federal Income Tax as an annual savings account.  What we don't realize is in realty we are giving the government  an interest free 'loan' of our money.  Yet we almost all of us do it year after year.  When we do get our refund we can't wait to spend it. Car dealers are more than willing to help us do just that.  

Use your refund WISELY 

     Over the years, more and more 'tax preparers' offer  I N S T A N T refunds.  These tax services offer an instant refund which is in reality a L O A N given at a very high interest rate and you get your money in 3 days or less.  The average refund from the I R S is in your hands in less than 2 weeks.   In reality, you would be paying a good portion of your refund to a company you have already payed to PREPARE your taxes in order to get your own money a few days sooner.  I bring this up because I have seen a trend of Car dealers having tax preparation services on site so you can do your taxes and drive home T O D A Y!!  No one does something for nothing, so dealers are making money not just on the car but on the refund loan as well. Some of the less reputable dealers even go so far as to offer "your W2 IS your down payment"  meaning they will file your taxes FOR you, take a huge fee and the rest is applied to your down payment.  Don't fall for it!!

Do it yourself and SAVE

     If you are using your refund as your down payment, do yourself a favor and wait for your your refund.  Let all of the money you have work for you and give you a larger down payment.  Waiting  a few extra days can put quite a bit more money towards your car and help you keep your payments as reasonable as possible