Walmart Lets People Pick Up Tax Refunds In Cash In Stores


Happy first day of tax season! Today is the first day that you can file your federal income tax return. Most Americans have to file a tax return, but a substantial number of people still don’t have bank accounts and conduct life in cash. Walmart wants to keep people in that situation away from check-cashing stores…and keep them in Walmart with a great big wad of cash in their wallets.

The new program is called Direct2Cash, and is designed for people who have e-mail accounts but not bank accounts. How it works is that the customer visits a tax preparer that takes part in the program. When their refund has been processed, they receive a code by e-mail. They take the code to Walmart, produce ID to prove their identity, and receive their tax refund in cash, minus a fee of $7 or less.


“When you consider that fees for a refund check can sometimes be more than $70 for processing and cashing, that’s a definite savings,” Wally World says in their announcement. That’s true, but the customer still has to use a tax preparer that takes part in Walmart’s program, while most Americans with straightforward taxes don’t really need to use a tax preparer in the first place.


While the boast that using this service can save customers substantial amounts in check-cashing fees may be true, they’ll have to pay a tax preparer. People who earn less than $53,000 per year and senior citizens can get their taxes prepared for free, and the only expense remains cashing the check or having a bank account to receive an electronic deposit.


More Refund, Less Hassle with Walmart Direct2Cash [Walmart]




by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

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