Wells Fargo, Chase customers may not get 3rd stimulus check until Wednesday
When the $1.9 trillion stimulus package passed last week, President Joe Biden announced that funds could be available in taxpayers’ bank accounts as early as Monday. The IRS has started distributing the payments of up to $1,400 per each adult and child in a household, CBS News said, but not every bank is making that money immediately available to its customers via direct deposit.
Find: Biden just signed the stimulus – and it’s giving millions of parents a monthly allowance
Notably, JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S. with assets worth $3.03 trillion, and Wells Fargo, the country’s third-largest bank with $1.77 trillion in assets, said they won’t be releasing the funds to customers’ bank accounts until Wednesday.
On its website, Chase said, “We expect that electronic stimulus payments will be available in eligible Chase accounts as soon as Wednesday, March 17, 2021.” Both Chase and Wells Fargo told CBS “MoneyWatch” that the official payment date isn’t until March 17.
In a statement to Huffington Post, Wells Fargo said, “We know the importance of the stimulus funds to our customers, and we are providing the payments to our customers as soon as possible on the date the funds are available — based on IRS direction,” adding, “Wells Fargo is not holding the funds.”
See: Are you sure you’re getting a stimulus check? 16 million Americans won’t get a third one
Nacha, the organization that governs the ACH Network, which processes electronic funds transfers, also weighed in on the issue in a statement to CBS “MoneyWatch.” The organization stated that March 17 is the date on which the IRS will provide the funds to the banks and credit unions. “The Nacha Rules require the banks and credit unions to make the funds available to the account holders by 9:00 a.m. local time on the settlement date; again, in this case, March 17.”
However, some digital banks announced on Twitter that they were releasing the money early, as an advance to account holders. For instance, Chime made $600 million available to its members last Friday, Huffington Post reported.
Similarly, mobile bank Current drew from its balance sheet to credit the funds to customers, in some cases as early as March 12, just one day after the American Rescue Plan act passed, according to CBS “MoneyWatch.”
See: 10 surprises hidden in Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package
Wells Fargo did agree to proactively waive overdraft and other fees for customers who have a “qualifying negative ending daily balance” when the stimulus funds are deposited, CBS “MoneyWatch” reported.
Big-bank customers on Twitter are not happy over the perceived delay in receiving their funds.
“I need to switch banks. I don’t trust @Chase,” wrote one customer, retweeting a Huffington Post news report.
Another Twitter user noted, “@WellsFargo and @Chase have decided that profits are more important than customers. Yet another reason why the banking industry needs to be disrupted.”
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Wells Fargo, Chase customers may not receive third stimulus check until Wednesday
