Careful with those TurboTax bonus offers
Refund Bonus gift card requires thorough checking before accepting
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JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
Word of warning in advance to any TurboTax users. TurboTax continues to be one of the easiest to use tax prep packages on the market. It still installs quickly and easily, automatically updates over the network (even for dial-up internet users) and this year actually even includes a free State Module when you buy the retail package TurboTax Deluxe version of the software. And oh, it also includes a new and special bonus: The TurboTax Refund Bonus Gift Card Program.
What is the Refund Bonus Gift Card program? TurboTax offers a deal where you can get gift cards with part of your refund -- you buy the gift cards out of your refund, in effect reducing the refund, but because of the partnering that TurboTax has done with the gift card sellers, you get a bonus for each card you take. See below for a better explanation, example of how things work.
The idea is you trade part of your refund for the gift cards, but then get extra value in the cards compliments of TurboTax and/or their partners.
The problem is that you really have to read the small print. For example, you can get a $200 value American Express Shopping card by giving up $180.00 worth of your federal refund. Looking at the surface, you'd be earning $20 via that swap. Sounds good, but... There's a fee of $14.99 to get the cards shipped to you (only one time charge for however many cards you ask for). That means you are only earning $5 for the first card you take. It's free money, which is good, but there's a bigger problem - it's an American Express Shopping card, and those cards are only good with select American Express/TurboTax partners. It's not a traditional American Express Gift card which can be used anywhere American Express is accepted, but instead is limited to a few places, such as The Gap, Old Navy, etc. Good if you want to shop at those places, but the suck if you want to be able to use the cards to get food at a restaurant, or something like that.
There are some other cards available, including some for J.C. Penneys, Starbucks, Lowes (hardware) and more. If you are a frequent customer of those businesses, then perhaps the cards are good for you, but you should note that the bonuses aren't that great on most of the cards. For example, you can buy 4 of the $25 Starbucks gift cards for only $90. That's a $10 bonus, but again you have to factor in that $14.99 fee to get the cards shipped to you. So for those 4 Starbucks cards, you are losing $5. The only way to earn back that money is buy other cards, from other vendors, such as Lowes or Penneys and stock up on cards. After you add enough cards, you can earn enough bonus money to make that shipping and handling fee for the cards a non-issue, but you have to remember than your money (which would be cash in your bank or a check written directly to you by the Feds) is committed to specified vendors.
There are a few other issues in that TurboTax and their partners limit how many of each card you can buy. They won't allow you to ask for more than 4 of the American Express Shopping cards (as an example), and I believe they also limit how many of the cards you can buy. They are doing that to limit how much any one partner is committing to a customer, which seems fair, but it limits your ability to maximize the refund bonus without taking several different offers at the same time.
Anyway, I highly recommend that anyone that starts to take one of these bonus offers read the small print and disclaimers. You really have to check it thoroughly or you could sign yourself up for what looks like a deal and find out it's not such a great deal after all.
I don't mean to belittle the offer that TurboTax and their partners are making. It's a good deal for some folks, but personally, I'll stick with cold, hard, cash for my refund. Or at least a direct deposit. I might personally have invested in some of the Starbucks cards, but from the list of offers, that was about the only one I really could picture myself using regularly enough to be worth a look. I suppose Lowes might have worked also, but that's about it. Between myself and my wife, we'd rather use the cash to get items we need around the house.
What is the Refund Bonus Gift Card program? TurboTax offers a deal where you can get gift cards with part of your refund -- you buy the gift cards out of your refund, in effect reducing the refund, but because of the partnering that TurboTax has done with the gift card sellers, you get a bonus for each card you take. See below for a better explanation, example of how things work.
The idea is you trade part of your refund for the gift cards, but then get extra value in the cards compliments of TurboTax and/or their partners.
The problem is that you really have to read the small print. For example, you can get a $200 value American Express Shopping card by giving up $180.00 worth of your federal refund. Looking at the surface, you'd be earning $20 via that swap. Sounds good, but... There's a fee of $14.99 to get the cards shipped to you (only one time charge for however many cards you ask for). That means you are only earning $5 for the first card you take. It's free money, which is good, but there's a bigger problem - it's an American Express Shopping card, and those cards are only good with select American Express/TurboTax partners. It's not a traditional American Express Gift card which can be used anywhere American Express is accepted, but instead is limited to a few places, such as The Gap, Old Navy, etc. Good if you want to shop at those places, but the suck if you want to be able to use the cards to get food at a restaurant, or something like that.
There are some other cards available, including some for J.C. Penneys, Starbucks, Lowes (hardware) and more. If you are a frequent customer of those businesses, then perhaps the cards are good for you, but you should note that the bonuses aren't that great on most of the cards. For example, you can buy 4 of the $25 Starbucks gift cards for only $90. That's a $10 bonus, but again you have to factor in that $14.99 fee to get the cards shipped to you. So for those 4 Starbucks cards, you are losing $5. The only way to earn back that money is buy other cards, from other vendors, such as Lowes or Penneys and stock up on cards. After you add enough cards, you can earn enough bonus money to make that shipping and handling fee for the cards a non-issue, but you have to remember than your money (which would be cash in your bank or a check written directly to you by the Feds) is committed to specified vendors.
There are a few other issues in that TurboTax and their partners limit how many of each card you can buy. They won't allow you to ask for more than 4 of the American Express Shopping cards (as an example), and I believe they also limit how many of the cards you can buy. They are doing that to limit how much any one partner is committing to a customer, which seems fair, but it limits your ability to maximize the refund bonus without taking several different offers at the same time.
Anyway, I highly recommend that anyone that starts to take one of these bonus offers read the small print and disclaimers. You really have to check it thoroughly or you could sign yourself up for what looks like a deal and find out it's not such a great deal after all.
I don't mean to belittle the offer that TurboTax and their partners are making. It's a good deal for some folks, but personally, I'll stick with cold, hard, cash for my refund. Or at least a direct deposit. I might personally have invested in some of the Starbucks cards, but from the list of offers, that was about the only one I really could picture myself using regularly enough to be worth a look. I suppose Lowes might have worked also, but that's about it. Between myself and my wife, we'd rather use the cash to get items we need around the house.
