Customers angry about bank delays on stimulus checks

Americans waiting for their stimulus checks became increasingly frustrated Saturday after discovering that some banks don’t make checks available to them for days, even if they’ve already been deposited by the federal government.

The official payment date for the “Economic Impact Payments” is March 17, but by Friday millions of dollars in checks had already arrived in numerous bank accounts, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Some Americans may view the direct deposits as pending or as interim payments to their accounts before the official March 17 payment date,” the Internal Revenue Service explained on its website.

Some digital banks, such as Chime, said they gave customers permission to access the money immediately. Chime said on Friday that it had already distributed $ 600 million in “stimmy” checks.

Chime customers on Twitter confirmed they already had access to the money.

However, Chase released a statement that it will release the payments starting March 17, apparently even if the money ends up in the accounts earlier.

Wells Fargo said the same thing: that it will treat all checks as arriving on March 17th, whether they arrive earlier or not. “Wells Fargo will process all direct deposits as per the effective date provided by the US Treasury,” March 17, the bank emphasized on its website.

The bank put the policy in a positive light on Twitter, beeping that customers can get the money “as early as March 17th” – but clearly not sooner, even if the government’s millions are under the bank’s control days before.

It is not yet clear how other banks handle payments. Some bank customers have received a notification that the money has ended up in their accounts, but the money won’t be available to them until March 17, The Washington Post reported

The Journal noted that in previous rounds of incentive checks, it sometimes took a few days for transactions at larger banks to be found as credited to the accounts.

Treasury and IRS officials do not disclose how much money has already been sent in the first batch. Additional direct deposits will be sent in the coming weeks. People will receive paper checks or new debit cards in the mail if the government has no records of automatic deposits.

The slow processing of checks only works to the benefit of the banks because of the larger “float” created by a massive influx of government cash. They can juggle the delays to boost outgoing loans to other clients and increase their profits.

Customers got annoyed by the booth and seemed to go into Wells.

The IRS said Friday that starting Monday, people can start tracking the status of their checks using the “Get my Payment” portal. The agency also said it expects to make more direct deposits and send payments as a check or debit card in the coming weeks.

This third round of payments – worth a total of $ 411 billion – is larger than any of the previous two last year. Eligible households receive up to $ 1,400 for each adult, child and adult dependent.