The option many of us know to pay taxes is by issuing a check to IRS. What if we don’t have enough money in our checking accounts ? Paying by credit cards is alternative option. IRS has two authorized partners - Official Payments and Link2Gov. MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express, can be used to pay federal and state income taxes

Before you resort to paying by credit card remember that there is fee 2.49% that is charged. For regular credit card transactions this amount is usually paid by merchants to credit card companies like Visa or Master Card. The IRS reversed this charge to the tax payers. If you are paying $1000 in taxes then $1024.9 is the amount paid through credit cards Note: The credit card fees of $24.9 can be deductible in next year taxes

> Official Payments – You can can pay all states taxes

> Link2Gov – You can pay only these state taxes - New York, North Dakota, Kentucky, Alabama and Kansas

Source : Pay taxes by Credit Cards

Labels: credit cards, Ireland, taxes

I just received a mail notice from U.S District Court settlement administrator approved refund notice regarding the foreign transaction fees class action suit and settlement.If you have used your Visa or Mastercard or a Diners Club credit cards in another country in the past decade, you can fill out a claim for refund that you got in mail or online at http://www.ccfsettlement.com/

Several major credit card companies were successfully and recently class-actioned for charging unnecessary fees for overseas transactions. The class action law suit claim form specifically states that since our Card Company did not adequately notify card holders of the fee charged between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006, we are now entitled to get that fee returned to us.Consumers will share in a $336 million settlement of a lawsuit accusing several banks and credit card groups of conspiring to charge excessive fees on foreign currency transactions.This is a wonderful news for tens of thousands of cardholders, including companies whose employees travel internationally, may recover money.

The first option is a flat $25 payment in trade for forgiving all the card companies from any other claims.My case I'll probably go for this option and I wonder why don’t the credit card companies use their computer records to compute the amount of my foreign charges and relieve me and compensate the excessive fees ? Anyway good that this is unexpected extra cash in our pockets.

Like me many of you should start receiving claim forms in the mail, but if you can’t wait for yours to come, you can download a claim form at http://www.ccfsettlement.com/

Updates :
1] Is this a scam ?

There has been too many rumours that this is a scam.This is NOT a scam.Please check this link.

The settlement, signed off on by U.S. District judge William H. Pauley, covers MasterCard, Visa or Diners Club credit card users who held the credit cards between Feb. 1, 1996, and the preliminary approval date. Final approval is set for November 2007.

Even MSNBC covered this on December 7 about this settlement.

Still not convinced I'd go with 25$ option as we have nothing to loose even if its a scam.

2]When will I get my refund?

After receiving the notice from the mail -- Enter the code into the website and you will receive a claim number.

The settlement website FAQ

When will I get my refund?

Refunds will be paid after the Court finally approves the settlement, and approves any award of attorneys' fees, awards to the class representatives, and allocation of the settlement fund among Settlement Damages Class members, and any appeals related to that approval are resolved. It is possible that this could take several months, or, if appeals are filed, several years. You may want to check this website from time to time for updates.

Labels: class action lawsuit, credit cards, foreign transactions, Mastercard, Visa