Routing Number

How To Find your Bank Routing Number Online

Bank routing numbers are legacy tech that have been modified to remain relevant some hundred years after originally being introduced. Also known as an ABA Routing Transit Number (ABA RTN), the nine-digit number has an important part to play in financial transactions

A lot of financial transactions that you can do online will require your bank account’s routing number to go through. If you need to find your bank routing number, online sources listed below can help.

BANK ROUTING NUMBER

The bank routing number is a nine-digit number that is essentially an ID number for an individual bank. It is still found on checks and is also used in wire transfers, bill payments and direct deposits. There are almost 27,000 bank routing numbers in use, and every bank in the country has one or more of them. While there is a theoretical limit of five bank routing numbers per institution, mergers and takeovers means most larger banks have many more than that.

FIND YOUR BANK ROUTING NUMBER

There are several ways you can find your bank routing number if you need it.

  1. On a paper check, the bank routing number is the nine-digit number next to your account number. Some banks place it on the left of the number string, while others place it in the center.
  2. You can check your online account page for the bank routing number. Different banks put them in different places so there is no single place to suggest looking.
  3. You can contact the bank’s customer services and ask them.
  4. Check your banking app if you use one.
  5. Check your paper bank statement if you use them.
  6. You could search online or your bank’s routing number. There are websites that gather this information and list it. It’s often easier to find information on these websites than on the bank’s own site, but there’s no guarantee these third-party websites are up-to-date.

FIND YOUR BANK ROUTING NUMBER ONLINE

There are many online resources that can help you find your bank routing number. Large banks tend to have different routing numbers for their branches in different states.

Here are some of the major banks’ routing number web pages:

The American Bankers Association has a web query service that can also help. You first have to agree the terms and conditions by scrolling down the page in the center, then hit “I agree.” You can either find a bank routing number by name and city or find a bank by the routing number.

ABOUT THE BANK ROUTING NUMBER

The routing number was introduced by the American Bankers Association back in 1911. It was originally intended to identify the bank or institution that offered payment instruments such as checks. This was a major step to let banks across the United States coordinate transactions with each other.

Originally, the number not only identified a bank but let you look up where the bank was located. The idea was to make the sorting and shipping of checks fast and straightforward to keep financial institutions as efficient as possible. Even though are used much less often now, the bank routing number is still in use.

Each bank routing number is unique to a bank and to a state. Some of the links above will contain lists of states where each bank has a presence, and the corresponding bank routing number.

The bank routing number predominantly uses the MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) format. The number is printed onto a check using magnetic ink that is machine readable. This helps processing either by hand or by sorting machine. The first four digits are the Federal Reserve Routing Symbol.

The next four are the ABA Institution Identifier, and the final digit is the Check Digit. If you would like to know more about the bank routing number, Wikipedia’s routing transit number page has everything you need.

ANYTHING ELSE I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BANK ROUTING NUMBER?

The above is probably all you will ever need to know about your bank routing number. The only thing to bear in mind when setting up payments that require it is that the number can change. Just because you have always used the same bank routing number, doesn’t mean you will always use the same one.

Internal changes within a bank occasionally cause them to change a state’s bank routing number. They should notify you in advance so you can make any necessary changes, but it makes sense to check before setting up a new payment.

When your routing number changes, you should update existing payments to reflect the new bank routing number as soon as possible. While there is an extensive grace period when switching bank routing numbers, it makes sense to change it as soon as practicable.

Other than that, the bank routing number is just an extra string of digits to add to a form when making a deposit or setting up a payment.

Is there anything else you would like to know about your bank routing number? Ask us below if there is!