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Where's my stimulus check? Financial planner helps answer your questions

Nursing Homes-Stimulus Checks
Posted at 5:13 PM, Jan 05, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-06 18:30:28-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — According to the Internal Revenue Service, most people will get their second stimulus check this week.

However, many people are still wondering, "where's my stimulus check?"

On Tuesday, 41 Action News talked with people at the Price Chopper located at 6327 Brookside Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, about the second round of checks.

"Just waiting. What else can you do?" one woman said.

Another man we spoke with wondered about the delay.

"The way everything is going, I have no idea. And I'm just going to wait," the man said.

Matt Frankel is a certified financial planner for The Ascent, the personal finance brand of The Motely Fool.

He said the distributions of this round of checks is going much smoother, but he's still answering a lot of questions.

"A lot of confusion, but for the most part, people have already gotten them," Frankel said. "If they got the first check successfully, they're getting the second pretty seamlessly."

Another woman we spoke to agreed with Frankel.

"When they sent the first round of stimulus checks, I had to sign up for direct deposit. The first one was a little bit of a wait but now since I got direct deposit it was earlier than I expected," she said.

Some people are saying their stimulus check went to a bank account they're not using anymore. They might have switched or merged accounts with a partner. While other people might have switched addresses.

"If it's returned to the IRS, for example, they'll have a record of that. If it wasn't cashed, if it was lost in the mail or something, they'll have a record of that," Frankel said.

Some people may be receiving their second check in the mail this time, when the first check was deposited to their bank account.

"There are a variety of reasons that one payment was direct deposited and one could be arriving in the mail," Frankel said. "Maybe if you didn’t have your 2019 tax return direct deposited for example, that could be one reason. If you didn’t receive a refund in 2019, the IRS might not have your current deposit information."

The IRS is using the information you had on file for your 2019 tax return. If your information has changed since, your check may get bounced back to the IRS, but you can still get your money.

"If you don't get it, you can claim it on your 2020 tax return," Frankel said. "A lot of people who are going to start filing in the next few weeks, what's called the Recovery Rebate Credit."

In those case, Frankel says to file your 2020 taxes as quick as you can to get your money sooner rather than later.

The IRS has also made a web page called "Get My Payment" where people can track the status of their stimulus.