If you are at Trader Joe’s and don’t have cash, credit, or debit card with you, you may be wondering if you can pay with a personal check. While it may seem obvious, there are plenty of shopping stores that don’t accept personal checks as payment. So, before you head to Trader Joe’s let’s see if they do or do not accept checks.
To help get you the direct answer, I contacted Trader Joe’s customer service department to find out if they accept checks in their stores.
Does Trader Joe’s Accept Checks? Trader Joe’s accepts both personal and business checks as a form of payment in their stores. There is no limit to how much you can spend with a check at Trader Joe’s either.
Does Trader Joe’s Charge A Fee For Using A Check?
According to the customer service representative, Trader Joe’s does not charge any fees if you decide to use a check to pay for your groceries. In fact, most grocery stores do not charge fees to use a check. This makes paying with check just as effective as using cash.
Does Trader Joe’s Cash Checks?
Now that you know you can use a check at Trader Joe’s you may be wondering if you can exchange a business or personal check for cash. In other words, does Trader Joe’s allow you to cash checks in their stores?
Unfortunately, Trader Joe’s does not allow customers to cash checks in their stores. So, you can not exchange a check for cash at any of their locations.
Why Can’t Trader Joe’s Cash Checks?
There are 2 main reasons why Trader Joe’s won’t let you cash checks in their stores. Something to note is that there are many grocery stores that don’t cash checks for these same reasons, so Trader Joe’s is one amongst many that do not do this.
- Limited Cash
- Fraudulent Checks
Limited Cash
To start, Trader Joe’s is not a bank, so they have very limited cash on hand. If they were handing out cash left and right to customers with checks, they would likely run out of cash. This means they wouldn’t be able to give customers any change for their purchases.
Fraudulent Checks
The second Issue is that some people might try to cancel the check once they get their cash. If a check is cancelled before Trader Joe’s can process it, that means they gave out cash for free. While there are ways to resolve this, it is not an issue Trader Joe’s should be dedicating their time and resources to solving. Instead, they just do not allow check cashing.
Final Thoughts: Paying With Check At Trader Joe’s
It is actually super advantageous to use a check at Trader Joe’s. Checks are not deposited immediately, which means you get to hold on to your money a little bit longer in your account.
This also means you can pay for your groceries even if you don’t currently have the funds in your account. As long as you can add funds to your associated account before the check is deposited, you will be fine.