Tuesday, Feb. 13
Posted 2 p.m. EST

Banks and the IRS: New best friends

USAToday reports that banks are loving the new IRS Form 8888. This is the document, which debuted this tax filing season, that lets you divvy up your refund across three accounts.

According to the story, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Countrywide Bank are among the financial institutions that are urging taxpayers to take advantage of the triple-deposit option and put part of their tax cash into savings or individual retirement accounts.

Overall, this is a good idea. Americans are notoriously bad about saving money. Tax season is often the only time any folks have any extra cash, and that's because too many of us use overwithholding as a forced savings mechanism. It's not a very smart way to save; you're basically giving the IRS an interest-free loan of your tax money. But it's better than nothing.

Once people get their hands on their refunds, however, their "savings" quickly disappear. They tend to spend that tax cash not very wisely. Can you say big-screen TV?

By giving us the chance to directly deposit the cash into other, longer-term savings accounts instead of putting it into our hot, consumer-crazy hands, Uncle Sam hopes we'll be able to make it work toward our retirement or our kids' educations instead of simply fulfilling immediate gratification needs.

If you do opt for three direct deposits, just make sure you enter all those account and routing numbers correctly on Form 8888. If you mess up, however unintentionally, you could end up losing your refund altogether.

Also make sure you get the best rate on your new savings option. Bankrate's search pages can help you find the best rates on money market accounts or certificates of deposit.

Bankrate's listening: Please take a minute to vote in our poll as to whether you plan to deposit your refund money into more than one account.