How Your USAA Routing Number Works

But what if you don’t have a check handy? To help make things easier for you, we will help you understand your USAA routing number and how to find it.

If you have ever had to do any sort of online transaction, you have probably needed your USAA routing number. Thus, knowing this number is extremely important.

You have probably had to use these numbers before. For example, if you want to add your checking account to a credit card account to make payments, you will need your transit routing number.

If you work from home, like I do, you might have a lot of people paying you through services like PayPal or Venmo. In order to then transfer that money to your bank, you will need your routing number to link to your bank.

I track all of my online accounts with Personal Capital, but finding my routing number has been more challenging.

You might not know what all these numbers mean, but they are very important. But how and where do we find them? That’s what we’ll cover here.

What is USAA?

USAA is a financial services group based in San Antonio, Texas. They are a fortune 500 company founded in 1922.

USAA Federal Savings Bank provides a variety of banking services, including:

• Property, casualty, and life insurance
• Banking
• Investing and financial planning

If you’re a customer of USAA, you will need your USAA Bank routing number.

The routing number, also known as routing transit number (RTN) or American Bankers Association (ABA) number is used in a variety of online transactions. These include Automated Clearing House or ACH transfers, savings accounts, direct deposit, and electronic funds transfers.

But how do you know what your USAA routing number is? You will find the number below. You will need this number if you get paid via PayPal for surveys or do any job from home that pays by direct deposit.

Who is Eligible for USAA Federal Savings Bank?

Active, retired, and military veterans who were honorably discharged are eligible. This institution is one that focuses on serving the military, so it makes sense that not everyone is eligible.

Family members of the aforementioned groups are also eligible. This includes spouses, widows, and widowers. Children may also be eligible, but the military personnel must have joined USAA while living. If they did not and the parent dies while in active duty or otherwise, the child is not eligible.

Routing Number for USAA Checking Account

Many banks have several different routing numbers throughout the country. However, there is only one routing number for USAA Bank checking. Your local bank or credit union may have many routing numbers, but USAA only has one.

USAA’s routing number for checking accounts is 314074269.

This means that regardless of where you are in the country, this will always be your USAA Bank routing number. That is true even though USAA has customers all over the country. Routing numbers are based on where checks are printed rather than where customers live.

Which USAA Routing Number for Direct Deposit?

The routing number you will need to use for direct deposit is the same the one you use for USAA checking. Remember, USAA Federal Savings Bank’s ABA number is 314074269. Because USAA only has one routing number, you will always use that number for direct deposit.

Larger banks, such as Bank of America, have long lists with dozens of routing numbers. That is not the case for USAA.

What is a Routing Number?

The Purpose of Routing Numbers and Why We Need Them

Routing numbers might seem like just a funky string of numbers that don’t mean anything. But these numbers are actually quite important and serve a valuable purpose.

They help the bank understand where your check came from and prevent confusion between banks. These numbers are necessary to process bank transfers, funds transfers, and bill payments.

Whether you are exercising frugal living or spending extravagantly, you will need your USAA routing number at some point.

Also, the Federal Reserve Banks need these routing numbers to process fedwire funds transfers.

To better understand, let’s dive into how they originated, how they’re formed, and why we need them.

Origin of the Routing Number

Routing numbers have been around for quite a while; in fact, they’ve been around since 1910. The American Bankers Association (ABA) introduced these numbers to help avoid issues sorting, bundling, and shipping paper checks. They also aimed to make the process more secure.

These numbers are not unique to each account (that would be the account number). Instead, routing numbers are only specific to each bank. The ABA felt these numbers could help prevent a check from one bank being cashed at another bank with a similar name by mistake.

Per the routing number policy, banks can have up to five ABA RTNs. RTN stands for routing transit number – just a more technical term for routing number. USAA will need this number for bill payments and other transactions.

However, also note that some banks may have more than five of these numbers due to acquisitions and mergers. This has been an increasing trend in recent decades, so it’s likely we will see a lot of this.

How USAA Routing Numbers Are Formed

These numbers are not just a bunch of random digits. This nine digit code is actually formed in a specific way. Your USAA routing number is no exception.

The first four numbers are the routing symbol from the Federal Reserve. There are 12 Federal Reserve districts; these correspond to where the checks are printed. Where you live in the United States is not relevant in this case.

The next four digits represent the number the ABA assigns to your financial institution or bank. This is a unique identifier that is not assigned to any other organization.

The ninth and last digit is the check digit. This is determined by what is known as a checksum algorithm.

Routing numbers appear in two forms on checks; the standard form and the magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) form. The two are similar with only slight differences.