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If you need to pay a bill or buy something with a check and you don’t have a checking account, a money order is a good solution. For starters, a money order is cheap and easy to obtain — you can pick one up at your local Walmart.
Read: How to Guard Your Wealth From a Potential Banking Crisis With Gold
How Much Does a Walmart Money Order Cost?
While the exact charge varies by store, it’s no more than $1 at your local Walmart, and that’s a very competitive fee. The U.S. Postal Service, by comparison, charges $1.75 for money orders up to $500, and $2.40 for money orders between $500 and $1,000.
Find out more about money orders from Walmart so you can decide if it’s a good place for you to get a money order.
What Is a Walmart Money Order?
A Walmart money order is essentially a prepaid check or bank certificate. To get a money order, you pay the amount that you need to send at Walmart, plus a small fee. Then you’ll be issued the money order, which you will fill in to include your name and the name of the recipient.
One of the main benefits of a money order is that it’s paid in advance, meaning a money order can’t bounce like a personal check can. Money orders are issued with numbers, so they are traceable. You usually can cancel and reissue a money order if it’s lost or stolen, as long as you have saved the stub that contains all the required information.
Walmart Money Order Payments
Credit cards are not accepted as payment for a money order at Walmart. If you need to purchase a money order, you will need cash or a debit card.
Once you have your Walmart money order, remember that it is as good as cash. Walmart advises you to complete all fields, such as your name and the name of the recipient, as soon as you buy it.
Walmart MoneyCenter Services
Walmart is not a bank; however, it can issue money orders because they are prepaid financial instruments. If a money order isn’t sufficient for your needs, the Walmart MoneyCenter offers many ways to transfer money. In fact, Walmart MoneyCenters offer a host of financial services, including the following:
- Credit cards, Walmart MoneyCards, Bluebird cards and Netspend Visa with Rapid Reload
- Money transfers via MoneyGram transfer or MoneyGram money order, bill pay and check cashing
- Money transfers via Western Union and Walmart2Walmart Powered by Ria
- Check printing
- Bill pay
Does Walmart Cash Money Orders?
Walmart cashes money orders that were issued at Walmart, for a fee. You can also cash a money order at banks, check-cashing services and certain retailers, including grocery stores. Wherever you cash a money order, you’ll need ID to prove you are the lawful recipient.
Walmart also offers check-cashing services on a variety of financial instruments, which can be helpful if you are expecting a payment greater than the $1,000 money order limit. Walmart will cash any of the following:
- MoneyGram money orders purchased at Walmart
- Cashier’s checks
- Tax checks
- Payroll checks
- Government checks
- Insurance settlement checks
- 401(k) or other retirement distribution checks
- Two-party personal checks
- Pre-printed checks
Walmart has a check-cashing limit of $5,000, but it is raised to $7,500 from January through April to allow larger tax refunds to be cashed. For a two-party personal check, the limit is $200 and the maximum fee is $6. The fee to cash checks and money orders of $1,000 or less is a maximum of $4; for larger amounts, it is a maximum of $8. You can get the amount in cash or loaded onto a Walmart MoneyCard, which costs $1 to purchase initially but has no fee to reload subsequent times.
Jami Farkas contributed to the reporting for this article.
Information is accurate as of April 11, 2023.
Editorial Note: This content is not provided by any entity covered in this article. Any opinions, analyses, reviews, ratings or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author alone and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any entity named in this article.