I went in to HR Block to get my taxes done - they were pretty easy and straight forward to do, I SPECIFICALLY TOLD THE HR BLOCK REP that I did not want any refund loans, I simply wanted it direct deposited into my checking account.

She began by stating that that would not be a problem and it would cost $236.00 to prepare, I told her that I would be back in after my last pay day and have them done. She stated she can do them on the spot without any money up front, and she would just have the IRS deduct the prep fee from my refund.

Figuring that HR Block was an established company that must have worked something out with the IRS to help tax payers with Prep fees during a economic recession, I agreed and was extremely grateful. I must have thanked her ten times over.

She mentioned that the direct deposit from the IRs would go directly into my checking account within two weeks max. After the second week I Google "where is my tax return" and a website for IRS popped up, there I was able to check the status of my return. It reflected it was already sent to bank for direct deposit.

After calling my bank several times and no money there. I decided to open the package received from HR Block to double check the routing and bank information and noticed that above my bank information was a separate set of numbers that did not belong to my account. The sheet reads a title of " IRS DIRECT DEPOSIT INFORMATION" its deceiving because the first two top blocks have just numbers in it (HSBC) they will ask you to verify that the numbers on the bottom are your routing and account number, and never mention what the set of numbers on top are for.

Those numbers turned out to be the routing numbers ( You can google routing numbers to check bank name) for HSBC bank, when I called that bank I was told a refund anticipation loan check had been issued and they were deducting my fees to then redirect my tax return to my bank. Bottom line is they charged me interest, a processing fee and delayed my refund an additional 4-5 days.

I called HR Block and asked where my refund was and the Rep asked me to hold and came back and said your refund is at the IRS, and it will be deposited in your bank account in another week or so. I then told her that I knew where my money was and that I had spoken to the HSBC bank that stated she submitted a "RAC" application on my behalf to pay her fees, which she said would be deducted by the IRS.

I have two small kids, I am recently laid off due to the economy affecting my industry and people are playing games with tax payers money - HR Block turns the other way and played the ignorant role to all this.

Its a damn shame - Our own fellow Americans and established companies screwing each other to make a few hundred bucks. We will never get out of this recession if we as a working class don't start speaking up to get change happening. I have never entered any information on a website. I just hope this helps the next person to NOT get shafted by HR Block.