What Is a Bank Account Number?

A bank account number is a unique string of numbers, and sometimes letters and other characters, that identify a particular bank account and grant access to it. This often is one of the ♎most important account numbers people have for transacting business.

How a Bank Account Number Works

A bank checking account’s number is located at the bottom of the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:paper check. You’ll see three sets of numbers in a computer-readable font at the bottom o🐬f the check:

• The first set of numbers on the left is the nine-digit bank routing number.
• The middle numbers are your account number.
• The third number set is the number of the check.

Payroll processing offices use checking account numbers to set up 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:direct deposit payments for employees.

Protecting Bank Account Numbers

Bank account numbers are vulnerable to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:identity theft and fraud. This is why you have to answer questions about your mother’s maiden name when you try to make routine changes to an account like your bank account. The means of making it difficult for hackers to steal account numbers have, in recent years, taken the form of password managers along with 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:multifactor authent💦ication, or MFA, 💮systems.

Businesses now often employ a hard-to-hack master password to unlock an electronic vault of customers’ bank account numbers and other sensitive data. Consumers are becoming accustomed to multifactor authentication, which adds another step before granting access to a bank account, such as requiring a fingerprint, voice activation, or a time-sensitive code sent to the cellphone number on record.

These are just some of the means of protecting users’ bank account numbers in an increasingly vulne🅰rable online environment.

Account Number vs. Routing Number

On a paper check, the nine-digit routing number identifies specific financial institutions within the United States. The number identifies the check as having been issued by a federal- or state-chartered bank that maintains an account with the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Federal Reserve.

This system dates back to 1910 and was developed initially as a way to help bank clerks sort through piles of checks and assign them to the correct drawer. Today, electronic services use them in much the same way for 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:wire transfers, to draw a payment from a depos🐈it at the correct institution.

The individual’s bank account number works together with the routing number to identify the rig꧒ജht account holder at the right institution.

How to Locate Your Bank Account Number

You can find your bank account number on your monthly 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:bank statement, or by visiting a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:branch of your bank.

If you are using a checking account, the account number is al꧑so printed on your paper checks. You can find it printed between the bank’s routing number and the check number, as shown below.

The Bottom Line

A bank account number is a unique identifier for each account at a bank or other financial institution that you have. Along with the routing number, the bank uses this number to make payments and accept deposits. Due to increased identity theft and fraud, it is important to actively protect your bank account number and other banking information.