Trouble tracking your stimulus check via Get My Payment? 6 problems and how to solve them

You’re sure you qualify for this second round of stimulus checks, but the IRS and Treasury Department have been making payments since the end of December and you still don’t have your $600 check. You’ve estimated how big a payment you should expect, figured out how the IRS calculates your stimulus money and you’ve read up on what happens after Congress’ Jan. 15 cutoff for the IRS and Treasury to send payments. 

But you’ve still not received your stimulus money, either to your bank account through direct deposit or in the mail as a paper check or an EIP card.

If you’ve tried to use the IRS’s Get My Payment app to check on the status of your payment, maybe it’s not telling you anything useful — or anything at all. Here are some possible solutions we’ve discovered from the first and second stimulus checks. And here’s what’s happening now with the debated third stimulus check for $2,000.

The IRS doesn’t have enough information on you

The IRS said if the Get My Payment tool isn’t sharing useful information about the whereabouts of your check, it may not have enough information about your specific circumstance, especially if you didn’t file a 2019 tax return, didn’t use the Non-Filers tool by Nov. 21, 2020 or don’t receive federal benefits. You’ll need to use the Recovery Rebate Credit as part of Tax Season 2020 to file a claim for your missing money.

Try using another browser with Get My Payment

With the first check, we heard from several readers that accessing the IRS’ Get My Payment tool from a different browser than the one originally used could be the key to success to using the service. In particular, some CNET readers pointed out that trying a browser other than Google Chrome worked for them. Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari are common alternatives.

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Enter your address in all caps

Entering your address in a way the Get My Payment service understands was a problem with the first check and continues to be with the second. Some readers reported with the first check filling in the Get My Payment fields using all uppercase letters worked. The IRS said to enter your street address using this format: 123 Main St NW #7 and to not enter the city, state or town on the address line.

You could have typed your information incorrectly; try again

The simplest reason the IRS might not be able to match you with your stimulus payment status could come down to your keyboard. If you accidentally entered a typo, the wrong address or a different name than the government has under your record, the tool may not be able to find you. This one is simple enough to correct — so try again before assuming the worst.

You checked at the wrong time

The IRS only updates information once a day, overnight, so if you happen to time it before the update comes, you may be out of luck. You can always try again later in the day or keep checking at the same time each day.

You’re temporarily locked out of the Get My Payment tool

If you see a cryptic message that only says “Try again later,” you might be locked out of the tool. According to the IRS, “If the information you enter does not match our records multiple times, you will be locked out of Get My Payment for 24 hours for security reasons. There is no need to contact the IRS.”

Speaking of which, the IRS has a new preference for how you contact it — no calling. Instead, here’s how to go about hunting down your missing stimulus money. For more information about stimulus checks, here’s everything else that could hold up your second stimulus payment, and how to claim any missing money after Jan. 15.