Credit: Unsplash

Some banks have been slow to deposit the third stimulus check.

Last week, the America Rescue Plan was signed into law by President Joe Biden. Among its many financial allocations, a third round of stimulus payments were immediately ordered by the IRS to be direct deposited to as many qualifying Americans as possible. Many citizens received their funds almost immediately over the weekend, but customers of certain banks have been required to wait and are growing impatient.


Banks like JPMorgan and Wells Fargo have been fielding angry complaints from customers for several days now, as they still have not allocated the stimulus payments into direct deposit bank accounts. Wells Fargo has asserted that they are not purposely holding the funds back, but the matter is currently out of their control. According to Nacha, the organization that manages electronic money transfers, the money is still with the IRS, and will be until at least Wednesday morning.

“This is the date on which the IRS will provide the funds to the banks and credit unions to further make available to recipients,” Nacha said in the statement. “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.”

JPMorgan and Wells Fargo have been receiving threats of account closures from customers if they are forced to wait any longer. Some customers have expressed concerns of overdraft fees resulting from this delay, though Wells Fargo has promised to waive any fees resulting from the confusion.

“Our goal is to support our customers, and we will proactively reverse outstanding Wells Fargo fees, including overdraft fees, for those who have a qualifying negative ending daily balance when their stimulus payment is deposited,” the bank said in an emailed statement.

Wells Fargo added, “As we did for prior stimulus payments, we will reach out proactively to those customers who have a qualifying negative ending daily balance on the day prior to the deposit to inform them of the specific steps we have taken, which includes providing temporary repayment deferrals”