Should I be worried about Republic Bank with our tax refund?

[hopeforus]

I am about to efile and I have to admit I'm a bit worried after reading the application you have to print in order to get your money direct deposited. I don't remember all of this from prior years! It looks like Republic Bank can take your money if you owe them money but I guess I'm concerned about 3rd parties.
"I (including my spouse if filing jointly) understand that by signing this Application/Agreement, I hereby irrevocably authorize the Bank
to deduct from my tax refund the amount of any outstanding prior year Loan obligation that I owe the Bank or Republic Bank."

"I acknowledge that the Bank may provide third parties, including without limitation, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, HSBC Bank USA, N.A.,
J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., credit reporting agencies, and my TRP, ERO, Transmitter and/or service bureau with information regarding the status of my
ERD including whether the IRS or any state taxing authority funded, partially funded, or failed to fund my tax refund and whether I received an ERD."

We owe HSBC as well as Chase. Should I be afraid that Republic will take our refund and give it to them?????

[AngelinaCatHub]

This is easy to avoid. Don't e-file. Have them send you a check. 'Hub

[hopeforus]

Period? Like don't e-file with anyone at all? I was just about to try Taxslayer and see who they use...
We really need our refund quicker than waiting for a refund check to be mailed on the 12th. This stinks.

[helpmeout]

Why not just mail it to the IRS? This way you don't have to worry about it. You can still have it direct deposited into your account. I usually have my refund within a month of mailing it.

[catleg]

Reading that carefully, it only sounds like you're at risk from Republic Bank exercising its right of set off.

The other stuff seems to apply to sharing information, my question would be: how late are you with any of these banks?

The safe bet is to find another provider for e-file or just get a paper check. I imagine that if you file early the turnaround is probably pretty quick. Or as someone else suggested, e file and have the money sent somewhere else.

Again, the way I'm reading that agreement is that they can disclose whether you got a refund or not, but the account number the refund was directed to, if outside Republic Bank, would be "tax return data" which should be privileged and not subject to disclosure.

[hopeforus]

Oh, I'm over a year late. lol

I went and efiled with H&R Block and noticed that they were trying to set up a bank account for me as well. BECAUSE I tried to have them take the filing fee out of my refund. Once I paid with my bank account I was able to efile using my PIN and AGI like I have always done before. So now I'm wondering if the Republic Bank thing with TaxAct was only for trying to have your fee deducted as well. Maybe not but I'm glad I decided to just switch.

I know that creditors can't take your federal refunds without a judgment so I should be ok now since I'm not having a bank account set up for me. I haven't been sued by anyone yet and it's been about 14mos since I've paid anyone. We are filing soon.