What to do if your Child Tax Credit didn’t hit your bank account on July 15

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) —  For the first time, more than half a million families in Colorado are slated to receive monthly advance child tax credit checks beginning Thursday, July 15.

According to the White House, for every child between the ages of 6 to 17-years-old, eligible families will get up to $250 each month. For every child under 6-years-old, eligible families will get up to $300 each month. More than 580,000 families in Colorado are expected to get a check in July and then once a month through December. You can check to see if you're eligible here.

But for families who don’t see the money in their account immediately, it can cause a panic. By 3 p.m. Thursday, Courtney Bendickson in Colorado Springs hadn’t gotten the credit.

“I know when they sent the stimulus checks out, they made it very clear that those were being sent in batches, and to just be patient,” said Bendickson. “But I haven’t seen that with this. So I think people are seeing the hard date of the 15th and the 15th comes and they don’t see it, people just panic.”

A spokesperson for the Internal Revenue Service office in Denver told Newschannel 13 that people should wait at least a week before worrying. She says it's possible the check could be coming in the mail if direct deposit information isn’t set up correctly. It’s also possible the money will still arrive electronically in the coming days. 

“I knew a couple of women that are trying to go back to work and they need to use it for daycare and they’ve already committed to daycare,” said Bendickson. “And now they don’t know if they’re getting the money.“

The IRS also wants families to know that the website usually updates only once daily and it usually happens overnight. Although tempting, the IRS says there’s no need to sit at your computer hitting the 'refresh' button repeatedly.