'Don't belong to me:' Stimulus checks deposited into wrong bank accounts

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- There’s a major mix-up with the economic stimulus checks.

Millions of dollars worth of relief appears to have been deposited into the wrong bank accounts. The first batch of the relief checks were deposited Wednesday, but many people are upset, saying their money is missing.

Waitress Ashley Olsen of Milwaukee has been out of work for two weeks. She’s been waiting for her check, but said when she checked the IRS website, they had the incorrect information. “When I looked at it, it said they were gonna deposit it in a bank account that I no longer have.” 

Olsen said she filed her taxes with ATC Income Tax service. The company posted on Facebook, “The IRS sent over 300,000 Stimulus Deposits to our bank - MetaBank - in ERROR.”           

Those payments were meant for taxpayers suffering from the pandemic, like mother of four, Damaris Williams of Racine. “It said it would be deposited April 15 and it has four digits that don’t belong to me,” she said.

So what led to the mistake?

Olsen said when she filed her taxes at ATC, the fees were deducted directly from her refund.

Meanwhile, Williams got a refund anticipation loan, which allows people to get their money sooner from a lender.

Once the actual refund is ready from the IRS, it’s sent to the bank -- in this case, MetaBank. According to the ATC Facebook post, it could take at least 7-14 days to fix the issue.

"That was gonna be my rent money for these two months,” Olsen said disappionted.

MetaBank released the following statement:

"This week, MetaBank learned that the IRS is inadvertently distributing some Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) to consumers’ temporary bank accounts with our tax divisions Refund Advantage and EPS Financial. It was an error to send these EIPs to these accounts. The IRS has not explained to us why this error occurred. These accounts managed by our Refund Advantage and EPS Financial tax solutions only process standard tax refunds owed to taxpayers as a result of a tax filing. As we are required, for EIPs sent to these accounts, upon receipt, MetaBank is immediately sending these EIP payments back to the IRS so that the IRS can distribute directly to consumers. We are deeply concerned that this error will delay consumers from receiving EIP payments during this difficult time. MetaBank is working closely with our tax refund partners to ensure that they redirect customers to the IRS.  As we are expeditiously sending EIP payments back to the IRS, we encourage impacted consumers to contact the IRS directly with questions or for further details."