FreeTax refund deposited to different bank account - What's going on?

This is actually normal when you choose to pay your filing fees from your refund! What happens is that FreeTax (and most tax prep companies) use a temporary bank account to receive your full refund first, deduct their fees, and then send the remainder to your actual bank account. The account you're seeing that ends with 9369 is likely their processing account, not your personal one. This is called a Refund Transfer or Republic Bank Product and it's how they collect their payment when you choose the "pay with refund" option. Your refund will go to that third-party account first, they'll keep their fee amount, and transfer the rest to your actual bank account that you provided during setup. This usually adds 1-3 business days to the refund process compared to direct deposit straight to your account.

I had this exact situation last tax season! Don't worry - this is totally normal when you select the option to have fees taken out of your refund. I used FreeTax too and saw a strange account number on my 1040. I found that https://taxr.ai helped me understand what was happening with my refund and tracked the whole process for me. The strange account you're seeing is a clearing account that FreeTax uses. The IRS deposits your full refund there, then FreeTax takes their fee, and forwards the rest to your actual bank account. I was freaking out too until I realized this is their standard procedure! The taxr.ai tool helped me see exactly where my refund was in this process and when to expect it.

After seeing the recommendations here, I decided to try taxr.ai to track my refund situation with FreeTax. It was really helpful! The site explained exactly what was happening with that mystery bank account on my 1040 and showed me the timeline of when my money would move from FreeTax's temporary account to my actual bank account. The tool also explained that this refund transfer process is completely normal when you choose to pay your filing fees from your refund. I was able to see exactly when the IRS sent my refund, when it hit that temporary account, and got an accurate prediction of when my actual bank would receive the remainder. Way more detailed than what the IRS tracker was telling me. My refund arrived exactly when taxr.ai predicted!

If you're having trouble getting answers from FreeTax about where your refund is, I'd recommend using https://claimyr.com to get through to the IRS directly. I had a similar situation last year with a different tax service, and after waiting weeks with no refund, I couldn't get straight answers from the tax prep company. Claimyr helped me skip the ridiculous hold times and actually talk to an IRS agent who confirmed exactly where my refund was in the process. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The IRS agent I spoke with explained that they had already sent the refund to the temporary bank account, but the tax company was delaying the transfer to my personal account. Once I had that information, I was able to get the tax company to release my funds.

I have to admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to try it since I was desperate to figure out what happened with my refund that was sent to a similar third-party account. The service actually worked exactly as described - they called me when they reached an IRS agent and connected me directly. The IRS representative confirmed my refund had been sent to the temporary account five days earlier, which meant the tax prep company should have forwarded it to my personal account already. With this information, I called my tax preparer, and suddenly they "found" my refund and processed the transfer to my actual account within hours. Without speaking directly to the IRS, I might have been waiting weeks while the tax company held onto my money. The service saved me a lot of stress and probably sped up getting my refund by at least a week.

Last year I had almost the exact same issue with FreeTax. The different account number is definitely their third-party bank that processes the refund and takes out their fee. My experience was that it added about 5 business days to the total refund time compared to when my husband got his (he filed separately and had direct deposit straight to his account). One thing to watch for: make sure the final amount you receive matches what you expect (your refund minus ONLY the fees you agreed to). I had an issue where they took out an extra $39.95 for some "audit protection" I never requested. Had to call and complain to get it refunded.

This happened to me two years ago! Don't panic - there's a simple explanation. When I called FreeTax customer service, they explained that they use Republic Bank for all their refund transfers. The routing number ending in 7418 is from Republic Bank - they're the financial institution that processes all of FreeTax's refund transfers. The process takes about 1-2 weeks total from when the IRS approves your refund until the money shows up in your actual bank account. It's annoying that they don't explain this clearly during the filing process!

I just went through this exact same situation with FreeTax a few weeks ago! Like everyone else has mentioned, that different bank account number is completely normal when you choose to pay filing fees from your refund. What I found helpful was checking both the IRS "Where's My Refund" tool AND logging into my FreeTax account online to track the status. The FreeTax portal actually shows when they receive the refund from the IRS and when they forward it to your personal account after deducting their fees. In my case, once the IRS sent my refund (which showed as "sent" on their website), it took exactly 4 business days for the money to appear in my actual bank account. The routing number you mentioned ending in 7418 does sound like Republic Bank, which is the third-party processor FreeTax uses. One tip: make sure you have the correct bank account info saved in your FreeTax profile, since that's where they'll send the remainder after taking their fee. You can double-check this in your account settings. The whole process was nerve-wracking at first, but it worked exactly as described!