Word of caution about paper checks: I had one last year that never arrived. Here's what I had to do: 1. Wait 4 weeks from mail date (IRS requirement) 2. Call IRS to report non-receipt (waited 2 hours on hold) 3. Complete Form 3911 (Taxpayer Statement Regarding Refund) 4. Wait another 6 weeks for them to trace the check 5. Finally received replacement check The entire process took almost 3 months. If you're approaching week 3 with no check, I'd recommend starting the process. The IRS won't begin a trace until at least 4 weeks have passed from the mail date.

Has anyone noticed if there's a difference in delivery times between states? I'm in Florida with an April 30th mail date, and I'm trying to figure out if I should expect it by next week or if I should be planning for a longer wait.

According to the IRS website (https://www.irs.gov/refunds/direct-deposit-limits), they don't officially endorse any specific financial product for receiving refunds. SimOne and other prepaid cards are just banking products with their own terms. I tried calling about this last year and waited 2+ hours. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has warnings about these products too: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/prepaid-cards/

I'm THRILLED with my credit union for tax refunds! They process government deposits immediately without holds. I've gotten my refund as early as 6am on the day the IRS releases it! No fees, no hassle, and I can set up automatic transfers to savings. I've meticulously tracked this for 5 years and direct deposit to a good credit union beats prepaid cards EVERY TIME! 🎉

I think you should be aware that in some cases, they might possibly offset your refund for debts you didn't even know existed. It happened to a friend of mine who had a small SBA disaster loan from Hurricane Sandy that was supposedly forgiven, but apparently wasn't fully processed correctly. The worst part is that sometimes the offset notice might get sent to an old address, so you might not even receive the warning. It could be worth checking with any federal agencies you've ever had dealings with, just to be on the safe side. Better to be prepared than surprised when your refund is smaller than expected.

I work with tax resolution cases and can tell you that the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) can intercept refunds for numerous liabilities beyond just student loans and child support. The most common offset categories by percentage based on my caseload are: - 42% Child support arrearages - 27% Federal student loans - 14% State income tax obligations - 8% Unemployment compensation overpayments - 6% Federal agency non-tax debts (HUD, SBA, USDA, etc.) - 3% Other miscellaneous debts The TOP database is updated every 2 weeks, so checking now doesn't guarantee no offsets later. In my experience handling exactly 372 offset cases last year, approximately 8% of clients had offsets appear after initially checking the TOP line.

Has anyone tried calling the card issuer directly instead of the IRS? Sometimes they have more up-to-date information about when funds will be available since they're the ones actually loading the cards. The customer service number should be in the information packet that came with your card.

Be careful about checking your balance too frequently! Last year, my account got temporarily locked because I was checking it every hour on my DDD. The system flagged it as suspicious activity, like someone trying to hack the account. It was like watching a pot that never boils - the more I checked, the longer it seemed to take, and then I ended up with an extra headache getting it unlocked.

SUCCESS! Filed 2/14, transcript updated today with DDD of 4/9! For anyone still waiting, I highly recommend checking your transcript instead of WMR. My WMR still shows only the first bar, but transcript has all the details including the 846 code with the direct deposit date. According to the r/IRS megathread, most 2/14-2/16 filers are seeing updates this week. Check https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript if you haven't already!

I filed exactly on February 15th at 10:23am and have been checking WMR exactly every 4 hours. My transcript just updated today with a 571 code and an 846 code with a date of 04/10/2024. Does this mean I'm getting my refund on April 10th? The amount shows $4,328 which matches what I was expecting.