Way back in the day when I worked at Block, I found you could get on your hands and knees and beg clients not to go for a bank product, usually to no avail. I'd point out that for the exorbitant fee you could buy a couple of weeks of groceries or a tire for the car. (That really was back in the day.) Maybe a few really did need the money now because the rent was overdue, but I think the majority were EITC recipients and the refund was free money to them so it didn't matter if they got $3k or $2700 because either amount made them a lot richer than they were.