The IRS is set to mail over 1 million additional stimulus checks in the coming days. As such, the USPS has offered a tool, free of charge, that keeps track of your mailbox. There is no need to worry as using it is easy and tells you exactly what to keep an eye out for so that you do not accidentally throw it away thinking it is spam.
The tax agency has recently started paying attention to completing the delivery of the third round of stimulus checks. This check is worth a maximum of $1400 per individual. The delivery is planned to take place mainly over the mail. As such, it is important to be aware of what is being delivered to the mailbox. To help you avoid disposing of the envelope accidentally, this article will tell you all you need to know. This includes the free USPS service that lets you track the money in the mail as well.
Additionally, Social Security beneficiaries, including SSDI and SSI recipients, are supposed to have their stimulus checks on the way earlier this week. Most of them are going to be directly deposited into their accounts. Veteran Affairs recipients who are also non-filers, however, will be receiving theirs as per another schedule. 14th April is the deadline for the stimulus check for them. So if you are among them and the check is on the way over mail, there is a tracking tool by the IRS. It offers good information to decide on whether to avail of the USPS service.
First Step: The IRS Tool “Get My Payment”
This tool by the IRS provides a tracker of its own for a stimulus check. It also gives you information regarding the exact payment schedule, approximately when to expect the money, and what method the stimulus check will be paid by. It will also let you know if there have been any errors during processing the payment. The tool is named “Get My Payment”. It is especially useful for people checking whether they do not know their qualification status for the stimulus check. It will also help you know if the tax agency knows of your eligibility.
However, the tool cannot provide any specific dates as to when the funds might actually arrive mailbox which is a major downside. This is exactly the place that the USPS tool comes in. As most stimulus checks are expected to come over the mail service, the USPS has launched Informed Delivery. It is the service that will be the next point in tracking the stimulus check. This article will detail everything you need to know about the service from USPS.
The Second Step: Use Informed Delivery
Informed Delivery, from the USPS, is a mail-tracking service that is free of charge. It automatically looks at your letters. Then, should you choose so, it will send an alert every time one of your letters is out for delivery. The alert will include an image of the letter. The third stimulus check letter also will be kept a note of.
The USPS system for mail sorting is automated. All letters running through it have an automatically created digital image. The image captures the front side of any mail that has the size of a letter. As such, any person who signs up for the USPS service has access to this information. They can do so by telling the USPS to send a notification when any mail is out for delivery that has your name. However, it should be noted that as many as three days can be taken for the account to get activated.
Under the notification service, an email will be sent every morning from Monday to Saturday. The email will be the notification about any letter that is on the way. The email will also contain a black and white photo of the face of the letter. Informed Delivery is also available on iOS and Android as dedicated applications.
However, it is important to know that all mail that is scanned in the post office will send out a notification when you sign up. It is not exclusive to the stimulus check. The service can be opted out whenever you want to.
Appearance Of The Stimulus Check And Debit Card
The stimulus check will come inside a white-colored envelope. It will be sent out by the United States Treasury Department. It will also have “Economic Impact Payment” clearly written on the box for memos. The details have been given out by the IRS. The stimulus check will come with an expiry date for one year later.
EIP prepaid debit cards will also arrive in a similar white envelope. However, it will also have a US Treasury Department seal on the inside. Inside the envelope, there will be a Visa card with the name of the bank that issued it, written in the form of Metabank, N.A. The information will be written on the card’s back. The envelope will also have paper and other literature explaining that the card is the Economic Impact Payment. However, individuals who are Social Security beneficiaries are not expected to receive such cards.
Process To Track The Stimulus Check Through USPS
The USPS service Informed Delivery does not do everything however and has some significant limitations. For one, the service will not work with any business PO boxes. However, most personal PO addresses and residential addresses are fine. Another exclusion would be residential buildings whose every unit has not been identified by the post-service till now.
To know whether the service is available for you, start by going to the Informed Delivery website by the Postal Service. On getting there, press the option to sign up. It is free. After that, enter the mailing address. Here, the service will let you know if it will work at that address. If it does, then accept the conditions and terms and press Continue. After that, you can enter your desired security questions, password, and username. After entering the contact information, press continue.
Finally, the website will try to verify the user’s identity. Choose to do so online and you will be sent a code for verification on the given entered phone number. Or, you can also choose to receive an invitation code over mail. Then USPS will deliver a code to your mailbox. A third option is available where you can personally turn up at the post office and get your identity verified.
Along with this, the IRS is also sending out plus-up amounts. These payments will also be sent over mostly by direct deposit. However, if the IRS does not have the bank account on their files, it will be sent by mail, in which case the USPS service can track it.
