Every day, I receive emails from public relations people trying to interest me in doing articles on their clients’ books, products or services. This recent one really missed the boat when she wrote to me twice to push the concept of pawning personal items to pay IRS.
Email 1:
Subject: Re: Alternative ways to pay taxes
Hi Kerry,
With tax season around the corner, many people may find themselves in a
position where they owe back more than they can afford. What they may
not realize, is that getting fast cash for the watches or jewelry you
have lying around is easier than you think.Personal asset lender, borro, offers cash in less than 24 hours with no
credit checks. Might you be interested in speaking with Paul Aitken, CEO
of borro, about why individuals turn to them as an alternative during
tax season?Best
Brittany
Brittany Kelly
Email 2:
Subject: Re: Alternative ways to pay taxes
Hi Kerry,
Just wanted to check and see if you’d be interested in speaking with
Paul Aitken, CEO of personal asset lender borro, about how individuals
are using their platform to pay their taxes.Best!
Brittany
Brittany Kelly
My reply:
Brittany:
I’ll pass. In fact, your angle of using pawn shop loans to pay off IRS debts is misguided. It make no logical sense.I checked out the website for borro.com and it appears to just be a web-based pawn shop, charging interest of three to four percent per month, plus additional setup fees of from three to five percent of the asset’s value.
When the IRS is only charging three percent interest per year on back taxes, why would anyone want to pay the 36% to 48% rate that your client charges? In addition, IRS allows installment payment plans of up to six years, while borro’s loans are six months in duration.
Good luck.
Kerry Kerstetter