One of the rules for the advance is that you have to have the refund put on the credit karma card. If you want to have your refund put on your own existing bank account then skip the stuff about the advance. The IRS will not be accepting e-files until late January, so you cannot get the advance sooner.
The refund advance loans are not issued until the IRS accepts your e-file. The IRS will not be accepting e-files until sometime late in January.
https://turbotax.intuit.com/refund-advance/
And--you received an answer to your question plus some general information about the advance loans which might also help you or might help someone else who is reading posts in this forum.
To answer your question instead of beating around the bush, Apparently Turbo Tax has a marketing deal with credit karma for each individual that uses credit karma and with the ones that wants the advance this is the best way to force them to use credit karma if not you want get advance which is wrong to force ppl to use something they dont want to use but its all about business.
credit karma will also close your spend account if it has a neg balance to no fault of yourown. even after you call them and try to get it taken care of, they will also ignore 3 more calls after that and still not change your number until you demand a manager who will then tell you that basically you're screwed and to find another company to go thru if you want the advance, they will also tell you that if you want to keep all of your money since they didn't block a company from continually placing charges on your account tho you've told them there is a lawsuit and in litigation, turbo tax and credit k both are rip offs, I'm pissed beyond explanation, I have been a loyal customer for many years
There are options for getting your Refund early that use your bank account.
Difference Between Refund Advance and Refund Advance Loan.