When last week came and went with no deposit of our stimulus check into our bank account, I began to do some searching around for a reason WHY. I know I could have called the IRS, but did I really want to sit on hold for god knows how long?

So, the WHY:
If you chose direct deposit as your method of receiving your tax return refund, you would receive your stimulus check via direct deposit…

UNLESS…

Unless you used a service where a refund anticipation loan or similar service was used. These include:

• Paying H&R Block a percentage based fee or flat $300 to receive your tax refund the day you filed with them
• Having your refund loaded onto an “Emerald” card, whatever the heck that is
• Using any service where your refund was handed to you in cash or via some sort of gift card or check from ANY OTHER COMPANY THAN THE IRS
• Using TurboTax AND choosing to have your filing fees deducted from your refund, rather than paying for them outright

Well, we used TurboTax. And we chose to have our filing fees deducted from our refund, rather than paying for them up front. When you do it that way, the IRS sends your refund to a third party, a temporary deposit account set up through Santa Barbara Bank Trust. They then deduct the filing fees and forward the remaining balance to you. Needless to say, the IRS only has SBBT’s bank account information on file, and not yours, so that means you’re getting a paper check.

When will the paper checks be mailed? Some places say May 9th. The others say May 16th. I’m praying for May 9th, but knowing the IRS and government, I’m not holding my breath. It’ll get here when it gets here, I suppose. In the meantime, we’ll keep waiting on being able to add money to our savings account, and building that awesome desk we so desperately want to have.

Related posts:

1. No rebate yet.
2. IRS Stimulus Payment… delayed???
3. I talked to the IRS
4. Our stimulus payment arrived!
5. cashadvance1500.com