Cashing Checks at Walmart: A Complete Guide

How to Cash a Check at Wal-Mart

Every Wal-Mart store offers check cashing as a customer service. In a larger store, you can cash a variety of check types at the Wal-Mart Money Center or at any register. At a smaller store, you can cash a check at any register.

Personal Identification Requirements

Because Wal-Mart does not have a registration system, you'll need to provide a valid photo ID issued within the U.S. each time you cash a check. Acceptable types of identification are:

• Driver's license or state-issued ID card
• Military ID card
• Tribal ID card
• U.S. passport

Store policy requires that you endorse the check at the time you present it for cashing.

Check Types and Limits

Wal-Mart will not cash high-risk checks, such as handwritten personal checks and third-party checks, but it will accept most types of low-risk checks. These include:

• Preprinted payroll checks
• Government benefit checks
• Tax refunds
• Certified cashier's checks
• Insurance settlements
• Retirement disbursements
• Money orders purchased at a Wal-Mart store

The per-day check-cashing limit from May through December is $5,000. To accommodate the tax refund season, the limit from January through April is $7,500.

How It Works

Some Wal-Marts use a service called Telecheck, while others use the Certegy Check Verification to authenticate all checks presented for cashing. When you present a check at the Money Center or a register, the cashier either feeds the check through a check verification reader or manually keys in the issuer's bank routing number -- a nine-digit number used to identify a financial institution -- the issuer's bank account number and the amount of the check. The reader then connects to the Telecheck or Certegy database and either approves or declines the transaction.

Tip

A decline means the Certegy database has collected negative information, such as previous bounced checks or a closed bank account, about the check issuer. Certegy does not have access to bank account balances.

Check-Cashing Fees

The fee you'll pay depends on the amount of the check. As of 2019, the fee for a check with a face value of $1,000 or less is up to $4. For checks more than $1,000, the maximum fee is $8.

Payment Options

The two options for getting your money are cash or loading funds onto a Wal-Mart MoneyCard, which is a reloadable prepaid debit card. If you load funds onto a MoneyCard, you'll still need to pay the check cashing fee, but you won't have to pay the standard $3 reload fee.

The MoneyCard works much like a bank-issued debit card, except the issuer is the Green Dot Corporation, and the card does not link to a bank account. You can use it to shop in person or online and pay bills at any location that accepts Visa.