Does the Navy Federal Routing Number Change by State?

Verified against Navy Federal's published wire instructions, September 21, 2026.

No. Navy Federal Credit Union uses one routing number everywhere: 256074974. It does not change by state, by branch, or by the type of account you hold. Whether you bank in San Diego or Norfolk, the nine digits are the same.

Why so many people search for it by state anyway

The habit comes from other banks. Several large national banks publish different routing numbers for different states — the number is tied to the state where you opened the account, so "Bank X routing number California" and "Bank X routing number Texas" return different answers. Search engines learn that pattern and start suggesting a state for every bank, including the ones that don't work that way.

Navy Federal is one of those. It holds a single federal credit union charter, and it publishes a single ABA number for ACH and wires. So the state-qualified search and the plain search have the same answer here.

The three details you actually need

• Routing (ABA) number: 256074974 — used for direct deposit, ACH debits and credits, domestic wires, and incoming international wires.
• SWIFT/BIC: NFCUUS33XXX — only for money coming from outside the United States.
• Navy Federal's address for wires: 820 Follin Lane SE, Vienna, VA 22180 — the bank's address, not your branch's and not your home address.

Navy Federal also asks members receiving an international wire to tell the sending institution to route it through a corresponding bank. Without that instruction, the transfer can stall partway.

What the number itself tells you

The first two digits, 25, are not random. Under the Federal Reserve's routing-number structure, digits 21 through 32 mark a thrift institution — a credit union or savings bank — and you subtract 20 to get the Federal Reserve district. 25 minus 20 is 5, the Fifth District, served by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. That fits: Navy Federal is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia.

The last digit is a check digit. Weight the nine digits 3, 7, 1, 3, 7, 1, 3, 7, 1, add the products, and a well-formed routing number totals a multiple of ten. For 256074974:

• 1st, 4th, 7th digits × 3 → 3×(2 + 0 + 9) = 33
• 2nd, 5th, 8th digits × 7 → 7×(5 + 7 + 7) = 133
• 3rd, 6th, 9th digits × 1 → 1×(6 + 4 + 4) = 14
• Total 33 + 133 + 14 = 180, which divides evenly by ten.

Change any single digit, or swap two adjacent ones, and the total stops landing on a multiple of ten. That is the whole job of the ninth digit: catching keystroke errors before a payment goes out.

The check digit proves the nine digits are internally consistent. It does not prove the number is assigned, active, or the one your bank uses today. Only your bank's own records can do that.

How to confirm it for your own account

1. Look at the bottom left of a Navy Federal check — the first nine digits of the MICR line.
2. Sign in to Navy Federal online banking or the mobile app and open the account's details; the routing number sits near the account number.
3. For a large transfer, call Navy Federal and read the number back before sending.

If any of those disagrees with what's published here, your own bank wins. Routing numbers do get reassigned when institutions merge.

Sources: Navy Federal Credit Union, "Wire Transfers" (routing/ABA number, SWIFT/BIC, bank address, incoming-wire instructions); Federal Reserve Regulation CC, Appendix A (routing-number structure and the thrift prefix).