Finding your routing number can be frustrating if you don’t know where to look.
You may need to fill out your routing number to set up direct deposit at a new job, to order new personal checks or to electronically transfer money between bank accounts.
Here’s how to find your routing number fast.
Find Your Routing Number On Your Personal Check
The fastest and most reliable way to look up your routing number is looking at a personal check. Every personal check has both your account number and your routing number printed on the bottom.
Take a look at this image to see exactly where each number is located.
The first set of numbers on the bottom left-hand corner is your routing number and is highlighted in yellow in the image above.
The next set of digits is usually your account number. It is typically longer, as well, and is highlighted in orange in the image above.
These numbers have weird dots around them. These dots used to show special readers where to start and stop reading the applicable numbers.
The old system is called magnetic ink character recognition, or MICR for short.
Back before computers could read images, the ink that printed these numbers was magnetic. The magnetic ink was read by special machines to quickly gather this important information.
The final set of numbers on the bottom of a check, usually four digits, is your check number or serial number.
In some cases, the account number and check number will switch places. You’ll know which is your account number because it is almost always longer than your check number.
Here’s a guide about how to write a personal check in case you’ve never had to write one before.
Look On Your Bank’s Website
I don’t know about you, but I rarely use personal checks. I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t have any personal checks at all. In this case, you need to look elsewhere to find the information you need.
The next easiest place to locate your routing number is your bank’s website. Some banks list the information you need at the bottom of each page. Others require you to log in to online banking to find it.
To locate this information quickly, use your bank’s search feature on their website. This should bring you to the applicable pages that lists all of the options the bank has.
If your bank doesn’t have a page that lists these numbers, you can either use the next option or call the bank to ask what your routing number is.
Check Our List Of Bank Routing Numbers
If you bank with one of the major banks, we took the time to track down their routing numbers for you. Here’s our list.
When looking for the correct number, make sure to pick the number associated with where you opened your account.
After you open your account, this number shouldn’t change. This is true even if you move across the country from New York to Oregon.
Make sure to verify this information with your bank as it helps get your money where it’s going. If you use the wrong number your money may get delayed or lost.
Some banks may use different numbers for wire transactions, electronic funds transfers or if your account was acquired by the bank in a merger.
Chase Routing Numbers
Below are various Chase Bank routing numbers based on where you opened your account.
- Arizona – 122100024
- California – 322271627
- Colorado – 102001017
- Connecticut – 021100361
- Florida – 267084131
- Georgia – 061092387
- Idaho – 123271978
- Illinois – 071000013
- Indiana – 074000010
- Kentucky – 083000137
- Louisiana – 065400137
- Michigan – 072000326
- Nevada – 322271627
- New Jersey – 021202337
- Downstate New York – 021000021
- Upstate New York – 022300173
- Ohio – 044000037
- Oklahoma – 103000648
- Oregon – 325070760
- Texas – 111000614
- Utah – 124001545
- Washington – 325070760
- West Virginia – 051900366
- Wisconsin – 075000019
Citi Routing Numbers
Here are the Citi Bank routing numbers for their customers depending on where you opened your bank account.
- Northern California – 321171184
- Southern California – 322271724
- Connecticut – 221172610
- Delaware – 021272655
- Florida – 266086554
- Illinois – 271070801
- Maryland – 052002166
- Massachusetts – 221172610
- Nevada branches 27, 29, 30 & 56 in Las Vegas – 122401710
- All Other Nevada Branches – 322271724
- New Jersey – 021272655
- New York – 021000089
- Pennsylvania – 021272655
- Texas – 113193532
- Virginia – 254070116
- Washington DC – 254070116
US Bank Routing Numbers
US Bank routing numbers have many options, some for specific cities or areas of states. Check the below list closely to find the specific number you need.
- Arizona – 122105155
- Arkansas – 082000549
- Northern California – 121122676
- Southern California – 122235821
- Aspen, Colorado – 102101645
- All other Colorado areas – 102000021
- Idaho – 123103729
- Northern Illinois – 071904779
- Southern Illinois – 081202759
- Indiana – 074900783
- Council Bluffs, Iowa – 104000029
- All other Iowa areas – 073000545
- Kansas – 101000187
- Northern Kentucky – 042100175
- Western Kentucky – 083900363
- East Grand Forks, Minnesota – 091215927
- Moorhead, Minnesota – 091300023
- All other Minnesota areas – 091000022
- Western Missouri – 101200453
- All other Missouri areas – 081000210
- Montana – 092900383
- Nebraska – 104000029
- Nevada – 121201694
- New Mexico – 107002312
- North Dakota – 091300023
- Cleveland, Ohio – 041202582
- All other Ohio areas – 042000013
- Oregon – 123000220
- South Dakota – 091408501
- Tennessee – 064000059
- Utah – 124302150
- Washington – 125000105
- Wisconsin – 075000022
- Wyoming – 307070115
- All other states – 091000022
Bank of America Routing Numbers
Bank of America’s routing numbers are complex. They have different numbers in each state for electronic payments, paper checks and wire transfers.
Use this page on Bank of America’s site to reliably find the correct number you need.
Wells Fargo Routing Numbers
Wells Fargo routing numbers also use a more complicated system. Thankfully, they also have a handy tool on their website to look up the information you need.
My Bank Has Multiple Numbers – Which Do I Use?
Larger banks may have multiple routing numbers. In some cases, your state may have multiple sets of numbers for different areas or different purposes.
Technically, banks were limited to five numbers. Over time, banks merged together and many ended up having way more than five numbers.
If your bank has multiple options to choose from, you’ll need to find the right number to use. The numbers are assigned by where you opened your account.
If in doubt, call your bank to verify which one you need to use for your specific purpose.
Why Routing Numbers Matter
These identifying numbers are important because they direct money to your bank account, but they used to have another purpose, too.
Before modern day technology existed, checks were a great way to make payments when you didn’t want to carry cash. The routing numbers were used to send the physical checks to the issuing bank.
This had to happen so your bank could transfer the money to the bank of the person you wrote the check to.
Why Banks Have Multiple ABA Routing Numbers
Back when mail systems were slower and digital images didn’t exist, transporting a check to a bank could take a while. For that reason, multiple locations were set up to accept checks for processing.
Each set of numbers corresponded with a particular location and bank. The idea was having processing locations close to where you did business would result in the fastest check processing possible.
This wasn’t a completely manual process. The MICR ink, described earlier, allowed machines to read the magnetic information on checks and quickly batch them to be sent to the proper locations for faster processing.
If you’ve seen the movie, Catch Me If You Can, you’ll remember why banks have multiple processing locations.
In the movie, Frank Abagnale, Jr. used this system to fraudulently cash checks without getting caught.
He’d cash checks with processing locations that were far away from where he currently was. Due to the slower systems at the time, this created a great delay between him cashing the check and the recognition that it was a fake check.
Once the check came back as bad, he would have already moved on to a new area where he couldn’t be found.
Today’s system no longer relies on this outdated technology. Digital images have greatly sped up check processing so this is no longer possible to pull off.
How Routing Numbers Work
So what exactly do all of the 9 digits in a routing number mean? Believe it or not, they’re not random.
In fact, there is a strict format. There’s even a formula to check if the number is valid, which used to be important in the past.
Federal Reserve Routing Symbol (Digits 1 Through 4)
The first four digits are called a Federal Reserve Routing Symbol.
Of these four digits, the first two correspond to the specific federal reserve bank as follows:
- 00 – United States Government
- 01 – Boston
- 02 – New York
- 03 – Philadelphia
- 04 – Cleveland
- 05 – Richmond
- 06 – Atlanta
- 07 – Chicago
- 08 – St. Louis
- 09 – Minneapolis
- 10 – Kansas City
- 11 – Dallas
- 12 – San Francisco
- 80 – Traveler’s Checks
The third of four digits specify which of the Federal Reserve’s processing centers applies to the bank in question.
The final digit in this section represents the state the bank is located in within the Federal Reserve district.
ABA Institution Identifier (Digits 5 Through 8)
The next four digits are the ABA Institution Identifier. It is used to identify your bank.
Check Digit (Digit 9)
The last digit is a special digit used to verify the number is valid. This is often called a checksum.
There is a fancy formula to do this, but it’s pointless in today’s world where you can look up the information you need online.
That said, here’s how you calculate it.
You’ll need to apply the following formula to the first 8 of 9 numbers.
Multiply the first, fourth and seventh digits by 3.
Next, multiply the second, fifth and eighth digits by 7.
Finally, multiply the third and sixth digits by 1.
Add the results together.
If your number ends in 0, the 9th number should be 0 as well.
If your number ends in any other number, round up the result to the next multiple of 10. Then, subtract the original result from the rounded number to get the number your check digit should be.
An Example Of How Check Digits Work
Here’s a quick example of how check digits work using a US Bank routing number.
Let’s use this number – 091215927.
First, you multiply the numbers as required.
(0 x 3) + (9 x 7) + (1 x 1) + (2 x 3) + (1 x 7) + (5 x 1) + (9 x 3) + (2 x 7)
This gives you
0 + 63 + 1 + 6 + 7 + 5 + 27 + 14 = 123
Then, round that up to the nearest 10, which is 130.
Subtract 123 from 130 to get 7, which is the check digit. This means the number is valid.
Start Making Money
Now you know how to find your routing number quickly. This can come in handy when you’re earning extra money, especially when earning money online.
As a freelance writer, I get paid from multiple clients. Many clients pay by electronic bank transfer or wire transfer, so I have to look up my banking information multiple times each year.
In these cases, looking up your routing number is a great thing because it means you’re about to get paid. Start hustling so you can look up this information more often.
What questions do you have about how to find this important information? Let me know in the comments and I’d be happy to answer them.
Lance Cothern, CPA holds a CPA license in Indiana. He’s a personal finance, debt and credit expert that writes professionally for top-tier publications including U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, Investopedia, Credit Karma, Business Insider and more.
Additionally, his expertise has been featured on Yahoo, MSN, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, Kiplinger, Reuters, CNBC and more.
Lance is the founder of Money Manifesto. He started writing about money and helping people solve their financial problems in 2012. You can read more about him and find links to his other work and media mentions here.