About 127 million $1,400 stimulus checks have been sent. What we know about those payments

Personal finance

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A second batch of $1,400 stimulus payments has been sent, bringing the total number of checks issued so far to about 127 million for a total of about $325 billion, according to the Treasury Department, IRS and Bureau of the Fiscal Service.

Additional tranches will be issued in the coming weeks, the agencies said. Those payments will mostly be by direct deposit.

This new batch included about 37 million direct payments totaling almost $83 billion.

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About 17 million of those payments were via direct deposit. Those checks, amounting to more than $38 billion, were deployed starting Friday, March 19.

In addition, 15 million paper checks were sent as part of the second batch, representing about $34 billion, as well as 5 million prepaid debit cards, worth about $11 billion.

Those paper checks and debit cards also started to go out on March 19 and will continue to be sent in the coming weeks.

Most people do not need to take action in order to get a stimulus payment, the agencies said.