Walgreens enables cash bill payments at stores

Walgreens is expanding its financial services portfolio.

The drugstore giant is partnering with the PayNearMe retail network, enabling customers to facilitate cash payments at nearly 9,000 Walgreens stores across the country. Users of PayNearMe make payments at checkout by individual biller or merchant. To provide this joint service with Walgreens, PayNearMe is expanding upon an existing partnership with financial technology provider Green Dot. 

In January 2021, Walgreens rolled out an  initiative to launch new financial products and services. The initiative also includes a co-branded credit card and a prepaid debit card issued with Synchrony and Mastercard. In addition, Walgreens partners with global payments technology InComm Payments to provide its customers with digital bank accounts at MetaBank. The accounts include a Mastercard debit card shoppers can use in-store and online and allow them to earn cash rewards on all purchases as part of the myWalgreens customer loyalty program.

Meanwhile, discount giant Walmart has also teamed up with PayNearMe to let customers make cash bill payments to utility companies and other billers at more than 4,600 select Walmart stores. Walmart is additionally collaborating with InComm Payments to make the payment tech provider’s Vanilla Direct financial network available nationwide at more than 4,700 stores. Customers have access to more than 15,000 billers and account providers participating in the Vanilla Direct network.

Other retailers including 7-Eleven also offer in-store cash bill payment via PayNearMe. PayNearMe expects to launch additional retailers to its network.

“Approximately 78% of the U.S. population lives within five miles of a Walgreens or Duane Reade store,” said Michael Kaplan, chief revenue officer and GM of PayNearMe. “With Walgreens in our retail network, our clients can now offer their cash-preferred customers even more convenience by allowing them to pay their bills in the same location where they shop.”

“In the last 12 months alone, PayNearMe has increased its retail footprint by nearly 50%. That means our clients can now offer even more convenience to their customers who prefer or need to use cash to pay bills or make other non-commerce transactions,” Kaplan said. “They can simply walk into one of thousands of retail locations across the country, show a cashier the scannable code on their smartphone, pay with cash and collect a receipt that confirms the transaction is complete.”

“The Green Dot Network, which features more than 90,000 cash reload locations, is a valuable asset to partners as they focus on empowering customers with more seamless, secure, convenient access to their money,” said Brandon Thompson, executive VP of retail, tax, direct and paycard at Green Dot. “Now with PayNearMe, Walgreens customers can easily pay their bills using cash at any of Walgreens’ nearly 9,000 stores nationwide.”

Based in Deerfield, Ill., Walgreens operates nearly 9,000 retail locations across America, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.