Question

Why can H&R help their customers but not turbo tax

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 6, 2021
1 reply
0 views

Why is it that H&R block was able to get their customers their stimulus right away after they sent their checks to the wrong account but TurboTax isnt doing anything?

TurboTax Deluxe Online

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Opus 17

Employee

HRB's tweets mention Green Dot bank. Turbotax's banking partner is SBTPG, and SBTPG has released a statement that they are returning all direct deposits to closed refund transfer accounts to the IRS.

https://www.sbtpg.com/coronavirus-stimulus-payment-info/

I don't have an authoritative reason for this, but I can guess that because Turbotax's market share is much higher, there would be many more customers affected making the work needed by SBTPG that much harder. Also, SBTPG is actually following the law and IRS regulations, and Green Dot (if they are re-opening closed temporary accounts to process payments, without a signature from the customer) is violating several banking laws. (Remember when Wells Fargo was caught opening accounts without authorization to generate extra fees? That's illegal now.)

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aydgavsmomAuthor

Well after what TT did to a majority of their customers they won't have to worry about having too many people filing with them this year. I'm sure the IRS is okay HRB doing what they are to cutdown on the numerous phone calls they are receiving.

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Opus 17

Employee

@aydgavsmom wrote:

Well after what TT did to a majority of their customers they won't have to worry about having too many people filing with them this year. I'm sure the IRS is okay HRB doing what they are to cutdown on the numerous phone calls they are receiving.

The only Turbotax customers affected are those who used refund transfer to have their tax prep fees deducted from their refund and who did not update their banking information on the IRS web site when the IRS asked over the summer. I use Turbotax and I got my payment just fine.

As an unpaid volunteer, I am free to say that refund transfer is a terrible idea, and if this situation makes fewer people use the service in the future, that's great in my opinion. It's overpriced, and you should never put a bank you don't know in between you and the IRS. There are lots of ways to pay for turbotax that are cheaper and safer.