Walgreens, like other drugstores, is primarily a place where you can pick up your prescriptions and buy a few other essential items but it also provides some financial services as well. Many of these services are provided through its partnership with the money-transmitting service Western Union, which also has partnerships with other drugstores and grocery stores.
You may wonder which financial services are available at this drugstore. For example, can you cash checks there, send money orders there, or pay your bills from other companies there? I decided to look up what financial services Walgreens provides to learn the answers to these questions. If it has a location near you, it might be more convenient to visit your local Walgreens than it would be to travel to a bank.
Does Walgreens Cash Payroll Checks?
Walgreens doesn’t cash payroll checks anymore. While this service typically isn’t available at other drugstores either, it is still available at several grocery stores such as WinCo and Kroger. You should know that you may have to pay additional fees to cash a payroll check or a government check at a grocery store.
Does Walgreens Sell Money Orders?
Walgreens does not sell money orders. Some customers may be surprised by this because CVS and Rite Aid sell money orders. Stand-alone Western Union branches sell them as well. But the Western Union kiosks in Walgreens’ drugstores don’t support as many financial services as the branch locations do. You can’t cash a money order at Walgreens either.
Can You Send or Receive Money at Walgreens?
It is possible to use the Western Union kiosks at Walgreens stores to send and receive money. These transfer services are different from money orders. Again, this service isn’t provided directly by the drugstore itself, it’s provided by Western Union.
Can You Reload Prepaid Debit Cards at Walgreens?
You can reload prepaid cards such as Cash App cards at Walgreens. If you plan to reload a prepaid card at this drugstore, though, you will need to show the employees your ID for security reasons. This store also has a maximum reload limit of $500. Additionally, many stores only allow you to reload prepaid cards with cash and don’t accept other forms of payment for card reloads.
Does Walgreens Provide Bill Payment Services?
It’s also possible to pay certain utility bills, such as water bills and electricity bills, at Walgreens. There are two ways to do this. In 2022, Walgreens entered into a partnership with the bill payment service PayNearMe to provide online bill payment. You can use this option by signing up for PayNearMe and scanning a code on your smartphone at the store when you pay with cash. The Western Union kiosks in Walgreens stores support online bill payment as well.
What Are Walgreens Alternatives That Provide Financial Services?
CVS sells money orders, unlike Walgreens, but neither drugstore cashes checks. CVS also charges fees to reload debit cards, which is normal, but you can reload some prepaid cards for free at Walgreens.
Walmart has in-store pharmacies as well as in-store money centers that provide several services. These money centers can cash checks and unlike most stores they also cash money orders.
Rite Aid is another drugstore that sells money orders, although like the other drugstores it doesn’t cash checks. It also has a partnership with the bill payment service KUBRA while many other stores have partnerships with Western Union or PayNearMe.
Conclusion
Walgreens provides several important financial services and you could visit this drugstore to accomplish several errands instead of traveling to a bank branch. This could be very useful to know for customers who don’t have traditional bank accounts or don’t have local bank accounts in the US. But this drugstore doesn’t provide as many financial services as the other major drugstore chains.