Difference Between Primary Checking Account and Round-Ups® Account Connections

Primary checking account

Round-Ups® accounts

Important information about your linked accounts 

There are two different types of accounts that you can link to your Acorns account. 

The first type is your primary checking account, which you link when you're setting up your Acorns account. This account is used as your funding source for investments and to pay your monthly subscription. 

The second type is your Round-Ups® accounts, which you can link so we can help you invest the spare change from your everyday purchases.

Here's a little more about each type.

Primary checking account

Your primary checking account is how you pay for your subscription, and where we transfer your Round-Ups® and other investments from. We’ll also use it to process any withdrawal requests.

This account is always going to be your investing funding source, unless you manually change it. What that means is all Acorns investments are transferred from this one checking account. If you want to change your primary checking account, you can follow the steps outlined here.

We recommend linking your personal checking account as your primary checking account. If you want to link a savings account instead, you can learn more here. 

Here's how to view your linked accounts. Your primary checking account is listed first with a green checkmark.

Round-Ups® accounts

The second way an account can be used is for monitoring Round-Ups® opportunities.

When you link your spending accounts — the credit and debit cards you use to shop — we’ll round your purchases on these cards up to the nearest dollar. 

We'll keep track of all that rounded-up spare change for you. Then, once your Round-Ups® reach at least $5, we'll transfer that amount into your Acorns Invest portfolio from the bank account you've chosen to link as your primary checking account. 

Even though we're keeping track of the spare change from your purchases on your linked debit or credit cards for your Round-Ups®, the money is not transferred from those cards.

If you want to see how many Round-Ups® you have, you can check in on your Round-Ups® in your Acorns account here. 

There's no limit to how many debit and/or credit cards you can link to the Round-Ups® feature, but you'll need to choose your bank or card issuer from the list of options — you can't link your Round-Up accounts manually with your account and routing numbers. Here's what to do if your bank or card issuer isn't listed for Round-Ups®.

Important information about your linked accounts

Round-Ups® can be a great way to invest your spare change in the background of life, but it's important to make sure you have enough money in your linked accounts to cover your investing. 

If you don't keep enough money in your primary checking account, you could incur overdraft fees with your bank.

If this is something you're concerned about, you could consider turning off automatic Round-Ups® and reviewing them manually instead. Here's more information on the difference between automatic and manual Round-Ups®.