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Answered by: 
Rick Wemmers

Question: 
Our marketing department would like to run an ad that says: "File your taxes "for Free" online at (Institution Name)." We do not charge customers to access online banking. After sign in, there is a link to an online tax preparation service. When it is launched, it goes directly to their site and shows the options of tax preparation services. Only one option is free; the others are not. Could this be unfair and deceptive advertising based on the fact that we do not mention that if you do not qualify for a particular tax preparation service that a fee will be imposed?
Answer: 

I would suggest that you rethink this offer, especially as you have outlined it. It may not be a letter-perfect violation, but having customers who do this only to discover they don't qualify for a free service isn't, to my way of thinking, something I'd want to risk.

First published on BankersOnline.com 2/08/10

First published on 02/08/2010

Filed under: 
Operations
Filed under operations as: 
IT

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