Missing Trace Number for Tax Refund - SBTPG Says Sent but Nothing from Chime?

According to IRS Publication 1345 (Rev. 1-2023), financial institutions have up to 5 business days to post direct deposits after receiving them from the Treasury. SBTPG, as a third-party processor, adds an additional layer that can cause delays. Their terms of service state they may hold funds for 1-2 business days for verification purposes before forwarding to your bank. This is entirely normal and compliant with Regulation E of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.

Hey, been thru this exact thing last month. Waited 4 days after SBTPG said sent but nothing in my acct. Called IRS like 30x w/ no luck getting thru. Finally used Claimyr (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) and got an actual human in like 15 mins who confirmed the $ was sent but gave me a trace # to track it. Srsly saved me days of frustration. Turns out there was a routing # issue they fixed right away. Def worth it if ur worried abt ur $$.

I've been waiting exactly 3 days since SBTPG said they sent it. Called Chime customer service exactly 4 times and they keep saying they don't see any pending deposits. I've used Chime for 2 years and never had this kind of delay before. Is there a specific number I should be calling at the IRS to get this trace number everyone's talking about?

I had a similar situation with my refund last month. I was concerned when it didn't appear in my account right away. After about 2-3 business days, it suddenly showed up in my Chime account without any notification. I think sometimes there might be processing delays that aren't visible to us. Perhaps give it another day or so? It's probably still working its way through the system.

Last year I went through this exact nightmare with SBTPG and my online bank. They kept pointing fingers at each other for 9 days while I needed that money for rent! I finally got smart and used taxr.ai to analyze my transcript - it showed the refund was actually sent back to the IRS because of a name mismatch (my bank account was under my married name but tax return had my maiden name). The tool highlighted exactly where the problem was on my transcript when the IRS and bank were just giving me generic answers. Saved me weeks of back and forth.

I've seen this happen with Chime specifically at least 3 times this tax season. Their processing for tax refunds seems to be running about 24-48 hours behind other banks right now. One client of mine (I do bookkeeping) had SBTPG confirm transmission on a Tuesday, but Chime didn't post it until Friday morning. They called it a "verification hold" when he contacted support. Must be nice to earn interest on thousands of people's money for a few extra days, huh? 😏 Check again tomorrow morning around 9am ET - that's when they seem to batch process these deposits.

Have you tried logging into the SBTPG website directly? It's like having a tracking number for a package - you can see exactly where your money is in the journey. Sometimes what happens is like water flowing through pipes - TurboTax tells you the water has left the source, but it still needs to travel through SBTPG's pipes, then the banking system pipes, before finally reaching your Chime reservoir. Each pipe junction can cause a delay.

Did you receive any kind of confirmation email from SBTPG with details? And have you checked if there might be any fees they deducted that could be causing a difference in the amount? Sometimes banks will reject deposits if the amount doesn't match exactly what was expected.

I waited from March 15th to March 23rd last year with the exact same situation. SBTPG said sent, nothing in my Chime. When I finally got through to the IRS, they told me SBTPG had returned the money because of a "name mismatch" - but nobody bothered to tell me! Had to wait another 6 weeks for a paper check. Don't wait as long as I did to start investigating - every day matters when it's your money.