H&R Block Emerald Card and Stimulus Payment

[Sandy]

I diffinately think this should be settled with all of us damanding a check for atleast half of the stimulas payment, on them!No charge!Even if they did not know we were going to receive it!They made their money off us!Their system is going to end up with nobody next year!I guess they helped us in our time of need but now they back out when we all need HELP! They act like they dont know a thing!Of course they do."RELOAD THE EMERALD CARD"

[Shay]

has anyone talked to the emerald card customer service?

[sarah]

You should go to www.onlinecardaccess.com/hrblockcard to see how the money got deposited.

Sym wrote:

Well I actually called the local branch of H&R Block today to find out if the IRS was considering the card our accounts to have the check deposited in... The woman that answered was extremely rude to me and told me the card had NOTHING to do with the rebate check. I also tried to call the local branch of the IRS but they do not accept vocal communication on their line A** Holes! Anyway for giggles I dug out my Emerald card and called to check the balance. That's messed up because there is 150.00 on that card that was not there the last time I checked the balance(2 months ago). So I wanted to talk with CS about it but there is a 2 hr wait on hold.. No thanks for that.... So now I am in a worse scenerio.

[Kara S]

I am also hearing that the Stimulus rebate will be in the form of a check based off of the last two digits of your SSN. So I guess the best thing for everyone to do is to continue checking the emerald card balance, but don't count on the money until a few days after the paper check is scheduled to be mailed out. It's kind of a shity situation, but what can you do??!! I personally, have learned my lesson with the EMERALD CARD and will NEVER use it again!!!!

[Carolyn]

ok I went to somthing on hrblock.com that i cannot find again at the moment.. but I am still looking.. but it was a voice thing that said that there was alot of confution about the direct deposit with the H&R Block Emerald prepaid mastercars.. and it said that to clear up the confution anyone who had there 2007 tax return put on the the card will be considerd for direct deposit. and then i called my card and it said that we would be getting a check because we used the card so i got upset.. i called h&rblock.. they said that we will be getting direct deposit if we did NOT do a rapid return.. and we did not do a rapid return we had to wait 10 to 15 days for ours to be put on the card.. so therefor WE BETTER GET OUR MONEY tommarow because on the socail security bracet they go by.. we are listed for May 2nd for direct deposit. so maybe that will clear up a little bit of confution.

[april]

I talked to h r block yesterday and they told me alot of bull about how they are just going by the rules the irs has gave to them well i guess those rules change every min. because i called four times and went in to the local h r block and was told it would be on the card,then last night they changed the story so i let them know my story and that they lost a client that had been with them for 16 yrs. and that i would of rather heard that they did not know rather then be lied to.

[Timothy Stewart]

I call the IRS - the guy was very polite - he said that if you had a emerald card from HR block- your rebate money would post as directed deposit -00-20 last 2 digits 1st batch and so on.

[Carolyn]

OK EVERYBODY I FOUND IT!!! LISTEN UP AND GO HERE NOW IF YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT IS REALLY GONNA HAPPEN WITH DIRECT DEPOSIT AND THE EMERALD CARD!! http://digits.hrblock.com/taxrebate/ THEN GO THO THE THING THAT SAYS "TAX REBATE PODCASTS" AND CLICK ON "Tax Rebate & The Emerald
Prepaid MasterCard®>" AND THIS WILL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING!! GOOOO NOW!!!!! YOU WILL BE SOO RELIEVED!!

[Carolyn]

Has anyone went to that website i posted yet?? Im tellin ya it explains EVERYTHING!!

[april]

yes i have but maybe i am putting to much into it but can you shed some light on it my paper work says direct deposit into emerald card on account type it says checking so what does this mean direct deposit or check

[sarah maine]

I called irs today and if account through emerald card is active you will get it put on there if not by check

[kathy]

lorrie wrote:

I work for H&R block. here is the answer as it has been given to us (which has changed for the last time hopefully).
If you got a bank product (RAC, RAL, or IRAL), you will get it MAILED.
If you got a savings account opened but had the refund go to a personal account, your refund will be MAILED.(The IRS has PROHIBITED DD to taxpayers who had their money split between accounts in any fashion).
If you had a savings account opened through us and your initial refund DD to the card, the refund will be put on the card.
FYI: if you split your return between two or more accounts, you will have your check MAILED.
The associates apologize for any communication errors... in other words, fault the big wigs... they didn't have their ducks in a row

does this meen i had my refund put on the card for 2007 and then had my paychecks direct deposited since then, then had my taxes done this year and put on the card, same account, my refund will be deposited rather than mailed, is this correct?

[Tina]

Liz wrote:

This question is for those people who did their 2007 taxes and had their refund direct deposited directly onto their Emerald card without using any bank products.
I am wondering if anybody has received their Stimulus payment direct deposited onto their Emerald card yet.
I am interested in hearing if anyone has or not.
Keep us posted.

I have just discovered that those of us who received our Tax returns for 07 on the H & R block emerald card "direct deposit" will get checks rather than the funds put to the Emerald card. I am upset at this because nothing on the IRS web site suggests that. Also the customer service number you call on the back of the card didn't have the recording until today, May 1st!!! I am irritated because when I looked at my return, the "direct deposit" numbers (routing and account) are right there on the form and the "checking" box is checked. My whole family got the cards and now we ALL have to wait for the check. I will probably be homeless by then!!!

[Tina_Hazel_Park_ MI]

It seems to me at this point,it's not "if we are going to get the economic Stimulus Payment "direct deposited" to our emerald cards, but, "WHY not????" All this time this question could have been answered. I am sure the IRS is well aware of those who used H & R block to get tax refunds for 2007 "Direct Deposited!! AND we all know DD is cheaper than printing all those paper checks! So much for going Green! So far, NO one I know has gotten their'S.

[G H Magnolia]

I just got off the phone with the IRS. The 800-829-1040 number. He looked us up. We should be in the first group. Should have it tomorrow, dd, I thought or was hoping. Nope, no such luck. Will be in the mail by May 23. Doesn't know how much. No info on us yet. We didn't do Rapid Refund or anything like that. My husband is also having his pay checks deposited into that acct. Seems like direct deposit to me, has routing number and acct number just like a 'checking acct'. Guess they don't look at it that way. So, I need the money to be somewhere by June 1. So, I guess Monday, I'll be taking a loan on my 401K and have to pay it back out of my paychecks. There is no guarantee anyone will get any of it. As old as I am, you'd think I'd know better than to count my chickens before they hatch. I think everyone needs to wait on a check. I have not yet heard of ONE person get a payment yet on the Emerald Card.

H&R block made a $5k(yes $5000 mistake) on our taxes this year and thank God we bought the piece of mind insurance for $30. They had to send us a check for $800 and we sent it back to the IRS. So, actually they did us a favor, we got $800 more than we should have. However, the point is, I paid them good money to do MY taxes and I am the one who found the mistake by mistake. Good thing I'm good at my figures. The wrote my home owners taxes on the form 2 times. Not once.

Good luck to everyone and I guess just wait on the checks. It's gonna pay for about 2 months in gas for us. By the time we get the money, it might only last 1 month, the way the prices are rising in gas. Do I buy gas or food? Tough question.

[Rhonda]

Well, I called the IRS and was told that if you had your 2007 refund deposited on your emerald card then your stimilus payment would be deposited on the card also, I checked my and I had 1200. On my card that was not there on Monday when I checked it,

[G H Magnolia]

Do you mean it was there and then they took it back?

[LaTonia]

The answer is no. I called to check my balance on the emerald card and recieved a message saying if my refund was put on the emerald card then i will recieve a paper check. This information came from calling the number on the back of the card. I hope this help you

[Jack]

The reason for the complication is that THE ANSWER IS BOTH 'YES' and 'NO'. H&R Block didn't seem prepared enough to explain thorougly. Even their podcast seems unclear for the first third of it.

HERE IS THE ANSWER

After using an emerald card for your 2007 tax return you've been lumped into either group A or group B.

Group A: When I filed my 2007 tax return and used the emerald card, I chose to receive the payment early by getting a LOAN. They're calling that loan a 'bank product' & and a 'temporary account'. PAPER CHECK. I repeat; PAPER CHECK.

Group B: When I filed my 2007 tax return and used the emerald card, I chose to wait the full waiting period (about 15 days) to receive the refund. I did not get a loan so I could receive my refund early. DIRECT DEPOSIT. I repeat; DIRECT DEPOSIT.

[mrs h]

No I am sorry. I am actually g h hargrave above, I thought we fell into your categoy b. We didn't pay extra to get an early refund. However, we were lucky and got it in a week. However, the IRS says we are not getting direct deposit. It will be a check.