After you file

mesquitebean · ‎June 3, 2022

@airoberts702 wrote:
so thanks for teling me what i already knew smart guy

No one trying to help you in the user forum can know what you already know or don't know. I wouldn't discourage folks from trying to help you, however, or you will be successful in doing so. You should encourage all the responses you can get, and you can simply ignore what you don't need.

"doesn't even have enough numbers in it to be an account."

One size does not fit all. Account numbers can have a small number of digits or a lengthy number, depending on the bank. But you may have already known that.

Here are some possible causes for a deposit going to a completely unknown bank routing number and account number:

Some people who used a paid product choose to pay their TurboTax fees out of their Federal refund, which involves a third-party bank in the chain of events. And the IRS uses the routing and account number at the third-party bank. That usually uses a Green Dot bank or an affiliated bank. That process is handled by a company SBTPG, and if you used that service to pay any fees, the contact info for SBTPG was provided in a comment above. If you used them, SBTPG also has a refund lookup tool on their website at the link provided in the earlier comment.
NOTE: If you used Free Edition and had NO fees (no PLUS or anything), then this would not apply to you.
Some people choose to get their refunds into a new Credit Karma Money Spend Account and Credit Karma Visa Debit Card. If a filer chose that option, that uses MVB bank and thus the routing number for MVB Bank. Some users have said they ended up with that Credit Karma account without realizing it.
User input error; i.e., typo. If a wrong bank account is entered, and the deposit is refused by a bank, the funds should go back to the IRS, who would issue a check in the mail.
Less commonly, it can end up in one's brokerage cash account (if applicable), which uses an underlying bank account for their cash deposits.

If you know the routing number it went to, then you can use a search engine to find out the name of the bank that belongs to. If you tell us the name of the bank, it might be a clue in knowing what happened to your refund. This is a public Internet forum, so do NOT post the routing number and account number in this public forum.

You said you had difficulty trying to reach someone at the IRS. The IRS is not easy to reach. I have found that for me it was best to call just before closing time--about 6:50-6:55 PM and go through the steps below. I figured a lot of folks would not call that close to closing, and that if I was one of the last to get into the queue, they would finish off all the people who were in the queue at closing time. I still had to wait about 25-30 minutes.

IRS: 800-829-1040 (7AM-7 PM local time) Monday-Friday

When calling the IRS do not choose the first choice re: "Refund", or it will send you to an automated phone line.

First choose your language. Then listen to each menu before making the selection.
Then press 2 for "personal income tax".
Then press 1 for "form, tax history, or payment".
Then press 3 "for all other questions."
Then press 2 "for all other questions."
It may then ask for your SSN, but do not enter it. Just wait. If it asks for SSN a second time, still do not enter it.
Then it will get "tired", and you'll get another menu. Choose 2 for "personal".
Then in the next menu choose 4 for "all other inquiries", and it should transfer you to an agent but expect a long wait.
I usually use a speakerphone so I can work on something else while waiting.