How to Track Your $1,400 Third Stimulus Check

President Biden finally signed the American Rescue Plan into law on Thursday, and while we’ve at least a few months to wait until the new monthly child tax credit checks start going out, people are already receiving the third round of stimulus payments.

That’s good news because the money is sorely needed. But if you’re not one of the lucky ones whose account has already gotten a boost you don’t have to spend the next days logging in to your online banking every hour to see if it’s hit.

The IRS has a tool — Get My Payment — that will let you know when your stimmy is going to hit.

All you need is your Social Security or Individual Tax Identification Number, birthday, street address, and ZIP code, the latter two as of your last tax return. Once you provide that, you’ll see the date the IRS scheduled your payment to be deposited along with the last four digits of the bank account it will be deposited to, if applicable.

There’s also an additional link that lets you check on the status of the first two payments, referred to as EIP 1 and EIP 2, which you might need to know for tax filing purposes, namely to confirm that you didn’t receive the money that you can claim as a recovery rebate credit if you were owed it and didn’t receive it. The same is true for if you are owed it now after having a kid, adopting one, or finalizing a foster placement.

The vast majority of the payments will be by direct deposit, but if you don’t have it set up with the IRS you will receive a check or a prepaid debit card. If you received a prepaid debit card for one or both of the previous economic impact payments, it will not be reloaded.

When you remember the myriad problems that plagued the distribution of the first stimulus payments last spring, it’s encouraging to see how quickly the IRS is getting money out the door this time around and how easy it is to know when you’ll finally get your hands on your payment.