Notifications of Change (NOCs)
Understand NOCs to ensure accurate ACH payments and avoid future payroll delays.
Overview
When Check sends ACH payments on behalf of partners and employers, the Receiving Depository Financial Institution (RDFI) may return a Notification of Change (NOC).
A NOC is a courtesy notice provided by the RDFI, which means that the payment was processed successfully, but some piece of account information needs to be corrected before the next payment to avoid future delays or returns.
NACHA rules require that bank accounts flagged by NOCs be updated by Check within 6 banking days.
Why NOCs matter
Stakeholder | Why you should care |
Employers / Payroll admins | Prevent payroll delays, avoid NACHA fines, reduce support tickets, and maintain employee trust. |
Employees | Ensure funds continue to land in the right bank account on time. |
Partners | Maintain high payment‑success metrics and reduce manual support work. |
How an ACH payment becomes a NOC
- Payroll file sent – Check originates an ACH entry with the bank details provided by our partners.
- Payment posts – Funds are deposited or withdrawn from a bank account.
- Bank detects an issue – The RDFI sees outdated or incorrect data (e.g., routing number changed) and generates a NOC via the ACH network.
- Check receives the NOC and makes or suggests the required correction.
Most common NOC codes
From a sample of 5,000 recent NOC webhooks, 92 % were covered by just three codes.
NOC Code | Meaning | Count | % of Total |
C01 | Incorrect bank account number | 1,817 | 36.34 % |
C02 | Incorrect transit / routing number | 1,839 | 36.78 % |
C05 | Incorrect payment (transaction) code* | 979 | 19.58 % |
C03 | Incorrect account and routing number | 304 | 6.08 % |
C06 | Incorrect account number and transaction code | 46 | 0.92 % |
C07 | Incorrect routing #, account # and transaction code | 15 | 0.30 % |
C04, C08–C12 | Rare (< 0.1 %) | – | – |
*C05 tip: This usually means a checking account was mis‑coded as savings or vice‑versa. See FAQ.
How Check now handles NOCs 🚀
Our May 2025 release automates NOC handling.
Step | What happens |
1 | Check receives the NOC from our payments processor. |
2 | Check parses the corrected data (e.g., corrected_account_number, corrected_routing_number, corrected_transaction_code) out of the NOC |
3 | Check updates the bank account record in real‑time, and sets the last_noc_correction_at field to the time when we processed the NOC. |
4 | Check notifies partners of the change via the existing bank_account.updated webhook. |
5 | The bank account remains enabled — future payroll runs use the corrected info automatically, without any action required by the employee, employer, or partner. |
What employers & employees need know
- Deposits that triggered NOCs are successful.
- Employers and employees don’t need to do anything to handle NOCs in most cases. Check will apply the fix instantly.
- If Check cannot auto‑update (rare), we will disable the bank account and send a Zendesk ticket to the partner for review.
- Future paychecks will continue normally once the correction is on file.
Frequently Asked Questions
“Why does my bank say I have a checking account, but the NOC says it’s a savings account?”
Some fintech or credit‑union "checking" products are internally tagged as savings accounts for ACH purposes. If Check receive a C05 NOC indicating the account should be treated as savings, NACHA rules require we follow the bank’s classification.
“Will this delay my payroll?”
No. The original payment was posted. The correction prevents delays in future payments.
“Do I need to re-create by bank account, or re-submit payroll?”
No. The fix applies automatically. Your next payroll run will use the updated information.
“What happens if we ignore a NOC?”
Repeated failures to correct can result in returned payments and NACHA fines. Check handles NOCs automatically, so you stay compliant.
Full NOC code reference
Code | Description |
C01 | Incorrect bank account number |
C02 | Incorrect transit/routing number |
C03 | Incorrect routing number and bank account number |
C04 | Account name change |
C05 | Incorrect transaction code (checking ↔ savings, credit ↔ debit) |
C06 | Incorrect account number and transaction code |
C07 | Incorrect routing #, account # and transaction code |
C08 | Corrected foreign routing number |
C09 | Incorrect individual ID number |
C10 | Incorrect company name |
C11 | Incorrect company identification |
C12 | Incorrect company name and company ID |
Last updated on May 27, 2025