(NBC 26) -- Many people say they woke up to some extra money in their bank accounts.
According to the IRS, more than 80 million Economic Impact payments started going out this weekend and throughout this week as part of the first round of payments. The IRS is starting with people who have provided banking information while filing taxes the past few years. Those eligible who haven't used direct deposit for tax refunds in 2018 or 2019 will receive checks by mail in the near future.
The IRS has also launched a website to allow people to track their payments. It's called "Get My Payment." The site will allow users to see the status of their payment as well if any additional information is needed. The site also allows users to add their direct deposit information and change their address.
When it comes to spending this money, we reached out to Doug Gjerde, the managing partner at Heritage Financial, for some advice.
"If you don't need it for something right now, you might want to hold onto it, at least some of it, if not all of it, in case this drags on longer than we hope," said Gjerde.
NBC 26 reached out to the IRS for more information on how the website is operating. Here is part of the statement we received:
"The Get My Payment site is operating smoothly and effectively. As of mid-day today [Wednesday], more than 6.2 million taxpayers have successfully received their payment status and almost 1.1 million taxpayers have successfully provided banking information, ensuring a direct deposit will be quickly sent. IRS is actively monitoring site volume; if site volume gets too high, users are sent to an online “waiting room” for a brief wait until space becomes available, much like private sector online sites."
We also asked about instances where some say they tried to access their payment status and the site said it was not available. Here is what the IRS said about it:
"In situations where payment status is not available, the app will respond with “Status Not Available”. The IRS reminds users you may receive this message for one of the following reasons:
- If you are not eligible for a payment (see IRS.gov on who is eligible and who is not eligible)
- If you are required to file a tax return and have not filed in tax year 2018 or 2019.
- If you recently filed your return or provided information through Non-Filers: Enter Your Payment Info on IRS.gov. Your payment status will be updated when processing is completed.
- If you are a SSA or RRB Form 1099 recipient, SSI or VA benefit recipient – the IRS is working with your agency to issue your payment; your information is not available in this app yet.
You can check the app again to see whether there has been an update to your information. The IRS reminds taxpayers that Get My Payment data is updated once per day, so there’s no need to check back more frequently."
For more information on the "Get My Payment" site, click here.
When trying to access the site, it is important to make sure you're going through irs.gov to avoid any scams.
