Change Your EFTPS Bank Account: Online, Phone, or Mail

To change your bank account in EFTPS, log into your profile at EFTPS.gov, select “Edit Financial Institution Information” under My Profile, and enter your new bank’s nine-digit routing number and your account number.¹ EFTPS treats each bank account as a separate enrollment, so a new four-digit PIN will arrive by mail in five to seven business days, and you cannot schedule payments from the new account until that PIN is in hand.² You can also make the change by phone or by mail, though both take longer.

What to Have Ready Before You Start

Missing any one of these will stall you partway through:

Your EIN (if you’re a business) or SSN (if you’re an individual)
Your current four-digit EFTPS PIN, which you received by mail when you first enrolled¹
Your internet password (online method only, separate from the PIN)
The new nine-digit routing number
The new account number, and whether the account is checking or savings

Pull the routing and account numbers from a voided check or an official bank statement. A single wrong digit will bounce the payment, and the IRS does not care why.

Changing Your Bank Account Online

The website is the fastest route. Log in at EFTPS.gov with your EIN or SSN, your current PIN, and your internet password. Under My Profile, choose “Edit Financial Institution Information.”¹ Enter the new routing number and account number (you’ll likely be asked to enter the account number twice), indicate checking or savings, review the entries, and certify. The system generates a confirmation number when the request goes through. Save it.

By default, EFTPS verifies the new account with your bank and then mails you a new PIN in five to seven business days.² EFTPS also offers a faster option: you can bypass bank verification and self-select a new PIN on the spot, which lets you schedule payments immediately. The tradeoff is that you accept full responsibility for the accuracy of what you entered. If anything is wrong, the payment will be returned and a deposit penalty can follow.³

Changing Your Bank Account by Phone

If the website isn’t an option, call 800-650-3345 (or 303-967-5916 from outside the U.S.). Follow the prompts to add new bank account information, then enter your EIN or SSN, your current PIN, and the new routing and account numbers on the keypad.³ The same PIN rule applies: a new PIN comes by mail, and the new account isn’t usable for scheduling until it arrives. Keep the old account open and funded in the meantime.

Changing Your Bank Account by Mail

The Confirmation/Update Form you received when you first enrolled doubles as the form for updating financial institution information. Fill in the new banking details, sign, and mail it to the address printed on the form.³ Between transit and manual processing, expect weeks, not days. Use this only if you have no access to phone or web and your next deposit is far enough out to absorb the delay.

If you no longer have the Confirmation/Update Form, businesses can use IRS Form 9779 for enrollment, though the form carries a 2011 revision date and the IRS steers filers toward online enrollment.⁴

After You Submit the Change

Whichever method you used, EFTPS assigns a separate PIN to each linked bank account. The new PIN arrives by mail in five to seven business days. Log in with the new PIN, your EIN or SSN, and your internet password to begin scheduling payments from the new account.⁵

Do not close the old account until at least one payment has cleared successfully from the new one. If something goes wrong during the transition, a typo in the routing number, a verification delay, a payment you forgot to reschedule, the old account is your safety net. Once a payment posts from the new account, you can contact EFTPS Customer Service to delete the old banking information and its associated PIN.³

Handling Payments You’ve Already Scheduled

This is where the switch trips people up. Changing your banking information does not redirect payments you already scheduled against the old account. You have two choices: leave the old account open and funded so those payments clear as scheduled, or cancel each pending payment and reschedule it using the new account’s PIN once it arrives.⁵

Cancellations have a hard deadline. A scheduled payment must be canceled by 11:59 PM ET at least two business days before its scheduled date. For a payment scheduled on a Monday, the cutoff is 11:59 PM ET the previous Thursday.⁵ Miss the window and the payment will pull from the old account regardless of any bank change you made.

Any new payment must be scheduled by 8:00 PM ET the day before the due date to count as timely.² Build that into your timing when a new PIN is still in the mail.

If You’ve Lost Your PIN

You cannot change your bank account without your current PIN, and there is no online reset. Call EFTPS at 1-800-555-4477. Have your EIN or SSN, your current bank routing and account numbers, and the amount and date of your most recent tax deposit ready for identity verification.¹

A replacement PIN is mailed to the IRS address of record, another five to seven business days. Stacked with a bank change, that’s two rounds of waiting for mail, so start early. In an emergency, the representative can help you make a payment by phone during the same call so you don’t miss a deposit deadline.

Penalties If the Transition Fails

A payment that bounces because your banking information was out of date is treated like any other failed deposit. The penalty under 26 U.S.C. § 6656 scales with how late the deposit ultimately lands:⁶

1 to 5 days late: 2% of the unpaid deposit
6 to 15 days late: 5% of the unpaid deposit
More than 15 days late: 10% of the unpaid deposit
More than 10 days after the first IRS notice, or upon a demand for immediate payment: 15% of the unpaid deposit

On a $50,000 payroll deposit, even the lowest tier is $1,000. The IRS can waive or reduce the penalty for reasonable cause, meaning the failure wasn’t due to willful neglect,⁷ but “I forgot to update my routing number” is not a strong argument. Make the change well before your next deposit is due, keep the old account funded until one payment clears from the new one, and treat the confirmation number as proof until the new PIN arrives.

A Note for Individual Taxpayers

EFTPS is phasing out individual access. As of October 17, 2025, individuals can no longer create new EFTPS enrollments, and the IRS will require existing individual users to transition away from EFTPS.gov later in 2026.² Individuals are directed to IRS Online Account or IRS Direct Pay instead.⁸ If you’re still enrolled and just need to update your bank account before the transition, the steps above apply. If you’re weighing whether to bother, moving to Direct Pay may be the better use of the same effort.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 966 – Electronic Federal Tax Payment System A Guide to Getting Started
2
Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). Electronic Federal Tax Payment System Home
3
Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service. International Electronic Federal Tax Payment/Deposit Instruction Booklet
4
Internal Revenue Service. Form 9779 – Electronic Federal Tax Payment System Business Enrollment
5
Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service. EFTPS Payment Instruction Booklet
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6656 – Failure to Make Deposit of Taxes
7
Internal Revenue Service. Failure to Deposit Penalty
8
Internal Revenue Service. EFTPS: The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System