Why do I have to pay before I file my taxes or even before seeing how much I'm getting back

[DoninGA]

You don't.  Your tax refund or taxes due is shown on the indicators on the top of the screen.  

You are only required to either pay the TurboTax account fees with a credit card or have the fees deducted from your federal tax refund(which includes a service charge of $40 for that option) when you have completed your tax return and are in the File section of the program in Step 1.

You can view your Form 1040 at any time. Click on Tax Tools on the left side of the screen. Click on Tools. Click on View Tax Summary. Click on Preview my 1040 on the left side of the screen.

[xmasbaby0]

Why do you think you have to pay before you see how much your refund will be?  You are mistaken about that.  You can see your refund before you go through the FILE section and decide how to receive your refund and whether you want to pay upfront using a credit card----or pay with your federal refund and have the extra refund processing fee deducted from your refund.  If you choose refund processing it will cost you an extra fee of $39.99 ($44.99 in CA)  but you are not forced to do that.  You can pay upfront using a credit/debit card to avoid the extra fee.

To see your refund----look at your Form 1040---a refund is shown on line 20; tax due is on line 23 if you

PREVIEW 1040

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901539-how-do-i-preview-my-turbotax-online-return-before-filing

We cannot tell you where to look on your state forms since each state is different, but you can look at your TurboTax summary, the "refund monitor" and your Tax Home.

What does the TurboTax summary show you?  What does it say in Tax Home?

What are your fees?  Are you having them deducted from your federal refund?  If so, then do some math.

How can I see my TurboTax  fees?  

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2565973-how-do-i-review-my-fees-in-turbotax-online

[sheenabox6]

This is wrong you have to pay with credit card now they won't take it out of your taxes no more going with another tax company that turned me away from turbo tax for good 

[VolvoGirl]

@sheenabox6    You have  added on to a 3 year old post.  What is your question or problem?  You can have the fees deducted from your refund if your refund is big enough to cover the fees plus the extra $40 Refund Processing Service charge.   We recommend paying upfront with a credit card to avoid the extra charge and to avoid using the 3rd party bank that takes the fees out.  They were taking a long time last year to process the fees so people weren't getting their refunds.  

You only have to pay the fees with a credit card if you want to print before you file.