How to set up direct deposit, including splitting a paycheck across accounts

What you need before you start

Direct deposit is an ACH credit: before each payday your employer sends a payroll file to its bank, which passes it through the ACH network to yours. [7] To route it, payroll needs the bank's routing number and your account number. Capital One lists routing number 031176110 for 360 Checking [4]; Ally lists 124003116, used with your Ally account number. [3] Your account number appears after you sign in to the bank's website or app. [1]

Have one more thing ready: a decision on how much goes where. Changing a split later means another form and another one-to-two-cycle wait, so decide before you submit.

Three ways to submit it

Most employers use one of three routes, and both banks support the paper and portal ones.

Splitting a paycheck: at payroll or at the bank

You can split pay in two places. At payroll, you list more than one account and a dollar amount or percentage for each; what is allowed depends on your employer's system. At the bank, you send the whole check to one account and let the bank divide it, which is easier to change because no payroll form is involved.

Each bank documents its own tools. Ally says its direct deposit forms can split a deposit between two Ally Bank accounts [2], and inside an Ally Savings Account you can split incoming money across buckets by percentage. [6] Capital One's Paycheck Percentage moves a percentage you choose from each paycheck's direct deposit into savings; it and Autopilot require both a Capital One checking and savings account and are set up in the Capital One Mobile app. [5][9] How early direct deposit interacts with these tools is covered in our early direct deposit explainer rather than repeated here.

Worked example: a 2,400 dollar paycheck, 300 to savings

A synthetic employee nets 2,400 dollars every other Friday and wants 300 dollars to go straight to savings. Option one: in the payroll portal, list savings for a fixed 300 dollars and checking for the remainder. Fixed amounts are easier to budget than percentages, because a raise or a smaller overtime check changes the percentage split but not the dollar one. Option two: send the full 2,400 dollars to the bank and let it split the money. Capital One's Paycheck Percentage works in percentages of each direct deposit [9], so 300 dollars would be 12.5 percent and would drift if the paycheck changes; Ally's direct deposit form can instead split the deposit between two Ally accounts. [2]

Timing: she submits the form two days before payday. Because both banks warn the switch can take up to two cycles [1][2], she expects the first paycheck, and possibly the second, at her old bank, and leaves at least one paycheck's worth of bills funded there. Nacha notes that when payday falls on a Friday, direct deposit funds are available by 9 a.m. that day in virtually all cases, and weekend or holiday paydays are typically paid the prior Friday [7], so she schedules autopays for the day after payday.

Checklist to confirm the switch worked

• Check your pay stub for the new bank's last four account digits on the next payroll run.
• Watch the new account on payday morning; if nothing appears, look at the old account before calling payroll.
• Ally's online banking agreement says that for direct deposits made at least once every 60 days from the same company, you can call or check online banking to see whether the deposit arrived. [8]
• After one full paycheck lands correctly, move autopays and bill payments, then close the old account.
• If you split pay, confirm each account received the right amount.
• Keep a copy of the signed form or a screenshot of the portal change.

Common mistakes

The usual errors are a transposed account number, choosing savings when you meant checking, or closing the old account before the switch takes effect. Government and benefit payers often use their own enrollment process; Capital One notes that regular periodic payments such as salary, pension and government benefits are eligible for its early paycheck feature, while certain non-payroll and tax payments are not. [1] When in doubt, ask the payer how it accepts banking changes rather than emailing account numbers.