IRS refund question please?

I filed my taxes last week (electronically) at H&R Block, but didn't choose the 'Instant refund' option. I was told by the tax guy that it should take about 8-15 business days. I checked the IRS website today for a status, and after putting in all my personal in, got the following message: "We have received your tax return and it is being processed. Unless we find mistakes or you owe other taxes, you should receive your refund by March 25, 2008." That date is exactly 13 business days from the day I filed. Do you think this is an exact or approximate date?... Like, do you think I could get my refund before the date quoted me? Is there anyone who's filed this way (or knows of anyone who filed this way) and can help with this question please? Thanks guys.

Public Comments

its possible to get sooner but I would not count on it
It's an approximate date. I filed the beginning of February and received my check in a little over a week. It shouldn't take until March 25th to get it.
It depends on whether you have a direct deposit straight from the IRS or if you have a "bank product" where your tax prep fees are withheld from your refund. A straight deposit from the IRS should be about 8-15 days, but if you have a bank product you would need to allow an additional 3-5 business days for the refund to reach your bank. In the case of a bank product, the IRS website tells you when it will be deposited in "their" bank not yours.
It's an estimated date. The IRS runs the ACH transmittals for tax refunds on Thursday evenings. How long it takes to make it into your bank account depends entirely upon your bank. If your bank processes them in real time around the clock it will usually be in your account sometime on Friday, often at the beginning of the banking day. If your bank batch processes at end-of-day (many still do) then it will be processed by your bank on Friday evening and will be in your account on Monday morning. If Monday falls on a holiday it will be Tuesday before you see your money. A few small community banks and credit unions are not on the Fedline system and/or process ACH transactions manually. In that case it often takes an additional 2 to 4 days or more for your refund to post to your account.
Congrats on being smart enough to refuse the 'instant refund' option, which is essentially a 'refund anticipation loan' and you would have been charged horrendous rates of interest just so you could get your refund faster than normal.