Patent ID: 8868454

Claim:
A method for providing rapid access to tax refund money comprising: providing a refund issuing station, the refund issuing station including a user interface and a pre-paid debit or credit card dispensing capability; a financial management system, the financial management system having access to user tax and/or refund data associated with a user; providing the user an expedited refund option through the financial management system; the user selecting the expedited refund option through the financial management system; obtaining at least part of the user tax and/or refund data associated with the user from the financial management system; using one or more processors to analyze the user tax and/or refund data to determine an expedited tax refund amount to be made available to the user; responsive to determining an expedited refund amount to be made available to the user, assigning user ID data to the user; providing the user the user ID data and data indicating the determined expedited tax refund amount to be made available to the user; the user selecting one of the refund issuing stations; the user providing the selected refund issuing station the user ID data; providing the selected refund issuing station expedited refund data, the expedited refund data including data indicating the determined expedited tax refund amount to be made available to the user; and the refund issuing station providing the user a pre-paid tax refund debit or credit card having a pre-paid tax refund debit or credit card balance representing the determined expedited tax refund amount to be made available to the user.