Nobody plans to dig themselves into a financial hole, but going into Christmas 2005 many people were still paying for Christmas 2004.
If a taxpayer files electronically, he'll get his refund almost as fast as he would with a RAL, and he'll often get it without paying any fees or interest.
The amazing thing about the popularity of these loans is that people are paying triple-digit interest to get their refunds back only a few days earlier.