Third stimulus check: Wells Fargo online banking outages leave customers raging as payments are delayed
SOME Americans may have their third stimulus check delayed as Wells Fargo online banking outages have left customers raging. The third round of stimulus checks – worth $1,400 and a part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9trillion Covid relief package – have already started going out to eligible taxpayers. However, around 12,000 people who bank with Wells Fargo reported to […]
SOME Americans may have their third stimulus check delayed as Wells Fargo online banking outages have left customers raging.
The third round of stimulus checks – worth $1,400 and a part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9trillion Covid relief package – have already started going out to eligible taxpayers.
However, around 12,000 people who bank with Wells Fargo reported to be having issues with the federal institution on Wednesday morning, downdetector.com revealed.
Between 8.30am and 1pm, the number of reports spiked to 12,053.
Seventy-three percent of the reported problems were connected to Wells Fargo Online Banking.
One Twitter user shared a meme of Kathryn Hahn as Agnes Harkness winking in the 2021 Marvel superhero comedy WandaVision.
Alongside the viral photo of Hahn winking, the tweet read: “Wells Fargo: ‘We are processing stimulus payments on the 17th.'”
Another social media user shared a GIF of a young George McFarland playing Spanky in The Little Rascals.
McFarland appears to be waiting for something, while tapping his fingers and holding one hand under his chin.
The Twitter user wrote: “Me waiting for our stimulus check to arrive. Didn’t hit today like I figured it would.”
In a separate tweet another upset taxpayer wrote: “When its the 17th and @WellsFargo is still holding people’s stimulus.”
Below the text was a popular GIF of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker screaming “liar” in a Star Wars episode.
Another meme featured the fictional character Spongebob and his snail pet Gary with bloodshot eyes in front of a TV – sitting near what seems to be beer cans.
In the meme, the normally energetic sea sponge looks to be extremely tired and holding a cigarette in one hand.
Above the meme read: “Woke up with no stimulus.”
Another comical meme, shared this morning to Twitter, showed D.W. – a character from the animated TV show Arthur – holding a chain link fence with sunglasses on.
The tweet, equipped with crying-face emojis, read: “Me watching everyone get their stimmy while I still gotta wait cause I bank with Wells Fargo.”
Despite the social media backlash, Wells Fargo took to Twitter this morning to confirm their online banking was having technical difficulties.
“We apologize to our customers who may be experiencing an issue with our online banking,” the bank tweeted. “Thanks for your patience while we research this issue. If you are impacted, please check back here for updates.”
In a followup tweet, Wells Fargo noted that stimulus check deposits were unaffected.
The tweet read: “We apologize to our customers who may be experiencing issues with our online banking this morning due to high volumes.
“This does not affect stimulus payments with a March 17 effective date which were credited to accounts today. Thanks for your patience.”
The third round of relief checks were approved and signed off last week and lawmakers have taken steps to get payments out as soon as possible.
This is the reason why President Biden’s name will not appear on the memo line of this round of checks as The White House didn’t want to delay distribition.
The checks are being sent by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and some were sent at the end of last week and could have landed in your account this morning.
The IRS said: “The first batch of payments will be sent by direct deposit, which some recipients started receiving as early as March 12.
“Additional batches of payments will be sent in the coming weeks by direct deposit and through the mail as a check or debit card.”
The ACH network, which is the payment system that manages direct deposits in the US says the funds should be available from 9am this morning March 17.
It said: “The IRS announced that the settlement date for the initial wave of tens of millions of economic impact payments by direct deposit will be Wednesday March 17.
“This is the date on which the IRS will provide the funds to the banks and credit unions to further make available to recipients.
“The National Automated Clearing House Association rules require the banks and credit unions to make the funds available to the account holders by 9am local time on the settlement date.”
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Some banks moved faster though – prompting delighted Americans to take to Twitter to confirm that the highly-anticipated stimulus cash had finally landed on March 12.
Payments can be tracked on the IRS website.
You will need to enter your social security or tax identification number, which can be found on your payslip or previous tax returns, plus your date of birth and address.