Scoundrel Alert: Tax Preparation

The world, I am convinced, is full of scoundrels. My latest discovery in this area is the refund anticipation loan debit card being offered (and endlessly shilled) by H. & R. Block on television. The ad in question shows two guys sitting at a bar, one of them covered with money. This is his tax refund. It's a refund suit. His counterpart asks him if this form of refund isn't inconvenient, to which the dullard in the money suit says, "Do you know a better way?"
This question, of course, leads our hero--or at least Block's hero--into a plug of the debit card. Interestingly, however, it doesn't lead him to say, "Yeah, I know a better way. A check!" or "Direct deposit!"
How would a debit card be better than one of these traditional methods of getting your refund? First of all, Block isn't offering you your refund. They're offering a refund anticipation loan. A couple of years ago, the company got hammered for the obscene fees they were levying on these loans. Now, they've found a new way to perform income redistribution.
What a sensible consumer needs to ask is why would Block want to put money on a card. Is a card cheaper than a check? I can't imagine that it would be. It seems, from my research, that Block charges people $20 if they want their loan on a check rather than the card. I'm certain that a check doesn't cost any $20 to produce. If they do, then I'm going to get into a check issuing business.
Block wants the money on a card because then they can still get their greedy paws on it. Once that money is on a check, they've seen the last of it, but if it's on the card, they can still play nasty games, charging you for ATM usage and the like.
This company, headquartered in Kansas City I must confess, charges (too much) for doing taxes. Then they charge a fee for the refund anticipation loan. Then they charge (excessive) interest on the loan. Then they charge fees when you use the card that has your money on it.
I'm also curious as to what percentage of money on these debit cards gets used. If I get a check for $1,000, I'll put it in my bank account and I'll eventually spend all of it. If I have a debit card that's down to $2.39, however, I might never get that last $2.39 spent. That's $2.39 that Block can just keep. Imagine if a million taxpayers all left an average of $2.39 on their cards. Wouldn't that be a sweet little pile to clean up?
So why does H. & R. Block want you to take out a loan and put it on a card? Just like the guy in the money suit on TV, they want to fleece you of your dollars. They're scoundrels.