checked on my tax refund

It should arrive February 15th, but from what I’ve read… the government outsourcing to Santa Barbara Bank & Trust hindered the delivery of the refunds. They also charge a $29.95 fee to process your payments ($29.95 federal and $29.95 state, in my case) if you decide to pay from your tax refund rather than your bank account. How confusing is that?! So, we had to pay $90 to file our taxes online, and pay the filing fees out of the tax refund! One would think the internet would be less hassle and more fluid than mailing PAPER to the IRS and having actual PEOPLE HANDLING the paperwork! That’s where the processing fee needs to be! We should be rewarded for using less paper. Seriously. Not going to happen with “Dub-ya” up there!

I had to make payments this week on credit cards today so payment won’t be late even though I’m paying some of the cards off this month.

I’m trying to get our rotation of bill-paying caught up from Christmas. We got behind by spending money and then having to wait until the next paycheck to pay the bills we should have paid two weeks before. (smart) They weren’t late, but barely on time. I’d like the get away from that. I’d like to be paying bills at least two weeks before they’re due. It’ll will definitely help to have 2.5 less bills to pay, even though it won’t add up to that much extra cash each month.

I was under the impression that when you pay a credit card off, the next month is a final payment for interest for the previous month. Is this not always the case? I paid a card off and never had another bill after that. Maybe it was brilliant timing.