G.I. Bill students: Receiving more than one monetary benefit? Check your direct deposit on va.gov

Some students receive benefit payments to two banking accounts, but VA needs all students to consolidate their payments into one direct deposit account to help protect from fraud and to ensure VA pays Veterans on time, every time, without error. 

If you’re a G.I. Bill beneficiary who also receives other benefits, you need to ensure you have a single bank account selected for direct deposit by April 20.

If you received a notification via text message or email, please take action by April 20. If you do not receive a notification, you are not impacted. 

Always be cautious about communications asking you to update your information. Always go only to our official VA website at https://www.va.gov. We’ll never send you to another site to update your information. And never select a link from an email without checking it first. Hover your cursor or assistive device over any links without selecting them. Read or listen to the URL to make sure the link goes to the destination you’re expecting.

The easiest way to make this change is to logon to Change Your VA Direct Deposit Information | Veterans Affairs. When you get to the pay information, there will be a box for the bank account information of your education benefits, and a box for the bank account information for the other benefit you receive. You should update the bank account information to use the same account for all benefits. 

Changing payment information is an individual, self-serve process. Follow these steps:

1. Sign into VA.gov with a verified Login.gov or ID.me account.
2. Go to the Direct deposit information section of your VA.gov profile. 
3. Check their direct deposit information for all benefit payments to make sure the same account is listed for all.

• There will be a box with direct deposit information for education benefits and a box for the other benefit you receive.
• If the accounts in both boxes don’t match, you must update the information to be the same bank account for both VA benefits.
• If you currently receive G.I. Bill payments by check, you must add your direct deposit information in the education benefits section of your VA.gov profile.

The shift to a single payment account is part of the Digital G.I. Bill modernization effort. Once fully deployed, the platform will improve Veterans’ access to benefits, claims processing and customer service by providing direct, online, one-stop access to G.I. Bill benefits and information.