Last Minute Tax Tips - What If You Can't Pay And Other Advice

Tomorrow at midnight is Tax Day, the annual tax filing deadline for U.S. taxpayers. In keeping with this yearly ritual, I came across a piece from NBC's "The Today Show" that featured financial news correspondent Sharon Epperson (from the network's sister financial cable network, CNBC) providing last minute tax tips for late filers. In the video (below) Epperson provides, among other things, advice on what to do should you owe the I.R.S. money but can't pay at the time of filing--as well as other last-minute filing advice.

Happy filing!

Traveling By Bus Makes a Comeback

Recently on CBS's "Morning Show," the network's news travel editor, Peter Greenberg talked about the financial advantages of traveling by bus. Among the points that Greenberg made was that travel by bus is most economical for trips below $400 miles; after that, it becomes a less-bang-for-the-buck endeavor, especially in relation to a plane ride of the same distance (view video). 

In addition, Greyhound, the nation's premier cross-country bus line, has several options to make bus travel even cheaper. Most of these advantages can be capitalized on if you book through their website. Discounts are available for students with a Greyhound Student Advantage Discount Card. The card costs $20 to buy, and can pay for itself if you’re going to be making regular journeys across the country. The discount card earns users a 20% discount on bookings. Other discounts include a military discount (10% discount) and a senior discount (5%) for those aged over 62.

Other affordable bus travel alternatives include those that have less extensive, but more fixed routes to major cities include:

Megabus is a location-to-location bus line. It's somewhat upscale, offering free amenities such as free Wi-Fi and reclining seats. The fares can be more expensive than other budget bus services (see below) as a result of this, but there are some real bargains to be had if you travel on the right day and perhaps at less convenient times, such as early morning. Some fixed routes among its most traveled routes are priced as low $1.00 for a trip that lasts several hours, such as its New York to Washington DC run.  However, not all runs on this particular route leave or arrive at the most undesirable times.  As a result, a search of its site might be advisable in planning a trip through Megabus.  

Chinatown Bus is a budget bus company that services routes between the larger U.S. cities, mainly Seattle, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Current fares include Philadelphia to New York for $10 and Washington DC to New York for $18.

Boltbus is similar to Megabus in that it offers Wi-Fi and extra leg room on its buses and fares start at just $1 dollar. After every eight trips made using the service, you’ll receive one free trip (one-way only).

Granted, long bus rides are not always the most pleasant of experiences, the prices for short and intermediate-length routes compared to airplane trips of similar duration and distance make it more-than-affordable for even the most price-conscious traveler.

New ATMs dispense $1 and $5 bills

For the life of me, I don’t why know it took banks so long to catch up to reality. But I suppose that the old saying is true about how its better being late than never. Earlier this year, it was reported that a couple of the larger banks—namely Chase and PNC—were in the process of switching over to Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) that actually dispense $1 and $5 bills. This is a convenience that’s long overdue in the realm of banking. However, as with many such improvements in service related to banking, there are advantages and disadvantages to this move.

As many of us forced to make an unscheduled withdrawal from our local ATMs know, this move by these two banks has the potential to save us tons of money by helping to curtail the spending of the excess change we are forced to deal with because we are forced to take out more than we need. In addition, the most could save some customers money in punitive and costly fees. For example, a customer who needs only $25, but would likely overdraw their bank account if they took out $40 would benefit from smaller denominations. However, the new ATMs are free only to the customers of the particular banks. The same $3 out-of-network fees apply to non-customers as they do for any of the banks' ATMs (a customer's own bank typically charges a fee of around $1.60 or more when they use an out-of-network ATM).
At this early point in this new banking practice, it might be wise to anticipate that banks making this move to ATMS that dispense these smaller bills might be tempted become creative with other types of fees and cost to make up for the fact that it cost banks to make this switch in the first place, as well as add the smaller bills. But until banks do start adding more fees for this particular convenience, the only way money can wasted is if the customer is not being cognizant of his/her withdrawal and spending practices.