If you need to talk to the IRS directly about refund options or timing, don't waste days trying to get through their phone system. Use Claimyr (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) to connect with an actual IRS agent quickly. I needed to know exactly when my refund would arrive for a car purchase, and after trying for three days to reach someone, I used Claimyr and got through in about 30 minutes. The agent was able to tell me exactly when to expect my refund and confirmed I could use a portion for my vehicle purchase without affecting my payment plan for previous tax debt.

Just to put this in perspective - isn't waiting for your tax refund still better than taking out a high-interest loan? Like, compared to what car dealerships offer for financing, even waiting 3-4 weeks for your refund could save you thousands in interest. When I was looking at cars last year, the dealership wanted to charge me 18% interest because I had limited credit history in the US. I waited for my tax refund instead and saved over $3,000 in interest over the life of the loan.

OMG I was JUST about to post this exact same question!!! My red circle appeared yesterday morning and I'm DYING waiting for my refund to hit! Last year I got the circle on a Tuesday and had money by Thursday, but this time it's different and I'm so anxious about it! I've literally set up alerts on my banking app and check it every hour. This money is going straight to catching up on bills from when I was sick in January. The waiting is TORTURE!

Per IRS Publication 2043, the standard timeframe for direct deposit after refund approval is 1-5 business days. Weekends and holidays are excluded from this calculation. My red circle appeared on March 15, 2024, and funds were deposited on March 19, 2024. Four business days is within normal parameters and does not indicate any processing anomalies.

When I was in this situation (waited over 2 months last year), I finally got tired of checking and called the IRS. Spent 3 days trying to get through before I found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). They got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. The agent confirmed my return was just in normal processing and nothing was flagged. Got my refund about a week later. Worth it just for the peace of mind.

Check your Return Transcript instead of Account Transcript. Sometimes one will update before the other. Also, try checking on a Tuesday morning - that's when a lot of the weekly updates happen in the IRS system.

I've been through this rodeo many times. Last year my AS OF date was stuck at 2/26 for almost a month, then suddenly jumped to 4/15 and my refund appeared 3 days later. Here's what the IRS doesn't tell you: they have internal processing batches that run on specific days of the week. If you miss one batch, you wait for the next. And if your return has any complexity at all (investments, business income, credits), you're likely going through extra verification steps. The worst thing you can do is amend or call repeatedly - that just pushes you further back in line.

Think of the AS OF date like the "last modified" timestamp on a document - it doesn't mean the document is finished! My transcript was stuck on 3/1 for weeks while I was panicking. Then yesterday everything updated at once - TC 150, 806, 570, 571, and 846 all appeared together with a direct deposit date for next Tuesday. Sometimes the IRS processes everything internally before updating any public-facing systems. It's like when your Amazon package shows no movement for days then suddenly appears on your doorstep!

You might want to check if your refund was reduced for any reason. If the IRS adjusted your refund amount, this can cause delays as SBTPG has to reconcile the difference between what they expected and what they received. This happened to me when they disallowed a credit I claimed - the amount changed, causing a 5-day delay while SBTPG adjusted their records according to Treasury Regulation §301.6402-2.

I would caution about one thing that happened to me last year: Credit Karma's tax preparation service was acquired by Cash App Taxes, and during that transition period, some refunds experienced unusual delays. While your situation sounds like a normal processing delay, it's worth keeping in mind that sometimes system changes or updates on their end can affect processing times. If it goes beyond 3-4 business days, I'd definitely start making calls to both SBTPG and your bank.