The third round of stimulus checks is on the road. Fortunately, some tools will help you keep a track of their status. Ensure that you do not consider it spam by using the tool by the postal service.
Is your stimulus check arriving anytime soon? Provided you have qualified for the third round of stimulus checks, and are eligible for a payment that could be as much as $1400, the checks are reported to be on the way. On Wednesday, the IRS, the government body handling the payments, said that over 150000 checks have been dispatched through the mail already. Eligible people can expect to get more checks in the coming weeks in their mailbox. As such, if you are one of them, here are ways to know that you have received the check on a prepaid debit card and not another junk mail.
There is not just one tool to help you do that. Both the postal services and the IRS have launched their portals and apps that will let you keep an eye on the exact location of your check, till it reaches your hands. Unfortunately, though, it cannot tell you the exact date on which it will finally reach the house.
However, the USPS service can give you that information as well. Here is all you need to know about how to use the service to keep track of the payment.
Be Informed By The USPS
The service is called “Informed Delivery”. It lets you track your mail free of cost. The USPS systems scan letters addressed to you automatically. When one of your letters is out for delivery, the service can send a notification about it. The alert will also include an image of the letter. Since all letters are scanned, the third stimulus checks are also counted by it.
The USPS has a completely automated system that generates a digital picture of all mail that is letter-sized whenever they are sorted. The sorting is also done automatically. As such, any individual who creates an account in Informed Delivery has permission to access this image stored in the USPS database. The service will then alert you when a mail that is addressed to you passes through its systems. However, new accounts are usually not activated until as many as three days have passed.
The service will send you an email every day in the morning, throughout the week except Sunday. The mail will list all of your mail that is currently on the way. The digital mail will also have a black and white picture of the front side of the mail. Informed Delivery has apps for both Android and iOS phones, which are available as free downloads.
However, there is a major trust issue involved. Subscribing to the free service implies that every single one of your mails will be scanned in the systems of USPS. It is not a special service solely for the third stimulus check. Of course, the account has no time limits or limitations. Should the user decide so, the service can be terminated at any moment, without any repercussions.
The free service also, unfortunately, comes with some limitations. For example, although the service works fine for almost all personal and residential PO Box addresses, business PO boxes are not supported. Furthermore, if the postal service has not identified all the units of a residential building, Informed Delivery cannot work properly. There is a dedicated page for this information under the Postal Services website. The page on Informed Delivery can provide information as to whether the service is available at a specific location.
Steps To Track Your Stimulus Checks
Be that as it may find below the steps to getting started with the service:
- Press the Sign Up For Free button.
- Type in the mailing address. Here, you can also check the availability of the service at your address. If it is supported, agree to the terms and conditions and then press Continue.
- The page after that will ask you to choose a username, a password, and a security question that will let you access your account. After that, it will ask for the contact information. Once it has all been entered satisfactorily, press Continue again.
- The page after that will ask for identity verification. You can verify identity in one of two ways: You can receive a code on the phone by pressing Verify Identity Online. Or, you can choose to ask USPS to generate a verification code and send it to you by mail by pressing the Request Invitation code by mail. There is another option for the less technologically gifted: you can go and visit the post office physically, and there they will verify your identification.
When Can You Expect It?
Even with 90 million stimulus checks having been already sent out, there is still a backlog of tens of millions. People who will be receiving an EIP debit card or are beneficiaries of Social Security services are expected to face a much greater delay.
Unfortunately, the wait can prove to be even longer for people who do not regularly file their taxes. The current round of stimulus checks, according to the IRS, is calculated based on the most recent tax filings. As such, if your 2019 taxes do not reflect your current financial situation, you will have to claim the rest of your deserved payment in the next years.
Furthermore, the stimulus checks fall under different rules of processing for different categories of people. For example, someone with is supporting a child or a senior citizen, or someone who does not have to file taxes annually, or someone who is from a family of mixed citizenship, or even someone who only resides in the US will possibly have their stimulus checks delayed.
Direct deposit payments are the first to be processed and sent out. Paper stimulus checks, according to the IRS, are the second in line. It has the further factor of getting delayed because it has to be physically delivered to the mailbox. However, once the stimulus checks arrive, the money can be accessed instantly. The prepaid debit cards or the EIP cards will be issued last. They also have to be activated through the internet.
Furthermore, one is not certain to get the money through the methods by which one received the earlier two stimulus checks. There can also be issues within the system that can hold up the checks or cause error messages. However, the apps by the USPS and the IRS should give a correct assessment of the stimulus checks.
