Angry customers with bank arrears on stimulus checks

Americans who expected to receive their stimulus checks were increasingly frustrated on Saturday after discovering that some banks will not make checks available to them for days, even though they have already been deposited by the federal government.

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

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

Some digital banks, like Chime, said they authorized customers to access the money instantly. Chime announced on Friday that it had already distributed $ 600 million in “stimulating” checks.

Chime’s Twitter customers confirmed that they already had access to the money.

Chase, however, issued a statement that it will release payments from March 17, apparently even if the money reaches the accounts earlier.

Wells Fargo said the same: that it will treat all checks as arriving on March 17th, whether they arrive sooner or not. “Wells Fargo will process all direct deposits according to the effective date provided by the United States Treasury,” on March 17, the bank said on its website.

The bank expressed the policy positively on Twitter, announcing that customers can receive the money “as early as March 17” – but clearly not before that, even if the government’s millions are under the bank’s control days before that.

It is not yet clear how other banks are handling payments. Some bank customers have received notification that the money has been deposited in their accounts, but the the money will not be available to them until March 17th, The Washington Post reported

The Journal noted that in previous rounds of stimulus checks, transactions at larger banks sometimes took a few days to appear as being 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 does not have direct deposit information on file.

The slow processing of checks only works in favor of banks because of the increase in the “float” created by a massive influx of government money. They can reconcile arrears to increase the outflow of loans to other customers and to increase their profits.

Customers were getting irritated by the stall and seemed to be focusing on Wells.

The IRS said on Friday that people can start tracking the status of their checks using the “Get my payment” portal starting on Monday. The agency also said it hopes to issue more direct deposits and send payments by check or debit card in the coming weeks.

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