Robinhood Can’t Link Bank Account – Best Ways To Get Connected

Robinhood is one of the largest mobile brokers in the world, and in our full Robinhood review, we found it to be pretty good app. So when it can’t link your bank account, that can be extremely frustrating.

If you are unable to link your account, you can’t join millions of other people buying and trading on the open market. This includes buying stocks, shares and crypto, amongst other things.

There are a number of common problems that can crop up when you are trying to link your bank account with Robinhood. We’re going to look at the most common reasons.

Robinhood can’t link bank account – What you can do

Some are down to errors and platform issues, while others are down to the way a user is trying to access the platform, and which type of accounts they are trying to connect.

Not every account type or bank is accepted by default on Robinhood, and it may be confusing for people initially if the app is just throwing an error code back at them.

Or, in some cases, saying their bank was unidentified… or worse yet, there is an error during the manual verification.

This guide will help you identify and solve these problems, getting your account linked and ready to use with Robinhood.

Type of account permitted

You can’t link every kind of bank account to your Robinhood account unfortunately. Robinhood doesn’t accept business accounts or trust accounts. If you are trying to connect with these kind of bank accounts, you will get a response telling you to try a different account.

You also can’t link an account if your account has been previously deactivated. This requires a re-activation process.

Number of linked accounts

Robinhood limits the number of bank accounts you can link to your trading account. Robinhood says this is for security purposes.

The same is true for multiple Robinhood accounts linked to a single bank account. If you are trying to link too many banks to one account, or too many accounts to one bank, you will likely be faced with a linking error.

Common errors

A common error message you might see is: “Error: Please disable the added/extra security placed on the account.” If you see this message, you will need to disable two-factor authentication on your bank account, as it’s preventing Robinhood from linking.

Another common error is E05. Most of the time this error has shown up, is when people are trying to link their bank account. While not always relating to smaller banks (sometimes large banks can still provide this error) usually it’s related to Robinhood having difficulty connecting automatically.

To solve this error, you will need to manually connect and verify your bank account. To do this, follow the step-by-step numbered guide under the “smaller banks” section below.

Smaller banks

If you are using a smaller, or local bank for your personal banking, there’s a chance it won’t be recognized by Robinhood.

If this is the case, you will need to manually verify your account. Robinhood provides a guide on how to do this, and the steps that you need to take are shown here as follows;

1. Tap account on the bottom right.
2. Tap transfers.
3. Tap linked accounts.
4. Tap add new account.
5. Scroll to the bottom and tap more banks.
6. Enter the name of your bank.
7. If you don’t see your bank, tap “I don’t see my bank.”
8. Select checking or savings.
9. Enter your routing and account number

After you’ve submitted your banking information, Robinhood will initiate two microdeposits which could take up to 48 hours to appear in your transactions list.

Once these appear, you can verify them in your Robinhood app by doing the following:

1. Tap account in the bottom right.
2. Tap transfers.
3. Tap linked accounts.
4. Tap verify.
5. Input the deposit amounts.
6. Complete verification.

These amounts are just for verifying your bank and will be withdrawn once they expire. If you don’t see two transactions, but only see one, then your bank could be combining the deposits. If this is the case, contact your bank to get the original amounts as you need them to verify your account.

If you don’t see the transactions after a few days, verify the information you provided was correct. If it is indeed correct, your bank may be blocking Robinhood access to deposit in your account.

If this is the case, you will need to call your bank to authorize the transactions.

Conclusion

Most of the time if you are having trouble linking your bank account to Robinhood, there is a way to fix it and get around the restriction.

However, in some cases, if you are connecting too many bank accounts to one Robinhood app, or vice-versa, you aren’t going to be able to continue.

Manually verifying your bank may take a few business days, but it’s the best way to get around any bank linking problems on the app – whether you have errors, or your bank is the local one that nobody’s ever heard of before. Following this guide will help you get connected and investing in no time.