You May Not Want to Ask for Cash Back at Kroger Anymore. Here’s Why…
If you’ve gotten into the habit of grabbing some quick cash back when you check out at Kroger, that habit is now costing you money. According to an article on Clark.com, Kroger has started charging customers a fee when they opt to withdraw any cash back amount of $1 or more.
Customers currently have the option to receive up to $300 through the PIN pad cashback process at Kroger when they use their debit card. There are still no fees for cashback amounts less than 99¢, but really – when was the last time you requested less than $1 cash back? Customers who request between $1 and $100 are being charged 50¢, while customers who request $100.01 to $300 are being charged as much as $3.50.
“This convenient service of providing up to $300 at the checkstand creates an easier and quicker way for our customers to gain access to more cash. We have a fee due to banks & other retailers raising ATM fees and limiting the amount of cashback. We want to offer our customers a convenient, low cost, way to get their money,” said the company via Twitter.
It appears that there’s no way around this new policy, even for members of Kroger’s store loyalty program. Despite deleting Tweets to the contrary, Kroger said through a spokesperson that using a Kroger Plus Card does not waive this fee.
Keep up with all the latest Kroger news and deals right here!
When did this start?
Won’t be long before other stores start doing the same thing.
I don’t know Kroger’s has been at war with Visa I think it is got some time at some of their acquired stores. I get the impression it isn’t going well.
Some other stores already do this. There is a prompt that if you take out cash, you’ll be charged a small fee.
Well this will be new standard at all stores.
This started at my Kroger several months ago. There are also hand written notes saying the max cash back is $40.
This is pretty crazy considering stores opted to offer cashback to avoid the fees when customers opted to run cards as credit. Offering cashback forces you to run via debit which is far cheaper for the stores.
My Dillon’s (a Kroger affiliate) has been doing this for several years now.
Thanks I’ll have to keep an eye on this I got cash back yesterday and I was not charged extra.
You’re welcome!
Whaaaat?? This is absurd. These corporations are sooooo greedy!!
I can’t remember the last time I got cash back at the market, let alone used cash at the market.
Same
We use Discover card at Aldi for cash back. And at Sam’s club we can take cash back up to $800 a month with their card.
I believe Kroger is just trying to get out of being a bank for customers. People will go there, buy something small and get lots of cash out instead of using an ATM and paying fees. This would be the same concept. If you don’t want to pay a fee, go find an ATM that doesn’t charge one. Otherwise, you’re paying for the convenience of getting your cash where you get your groceries, essentially making your grocery store also your bank. Those conveniences deserve to be paid for, in my opinion.
Agreed! And Kroger is charged a fee for debit and credit card transactions on their end. This will help offset their costs. It isn’t really about greed like someone else said…it’s more about them getting their costs back.
Stop ruining my schemes!!! 👺😂
I agree. There have been several times that I was too far away from my bank’s ATM and I needed cash. What did I do? I went to a grocery store and bought a pack of gum and got cash back! Even if Kroger charges $0.50, it’s still better than the $5.50 I get charged for going to an out of network ATM (The other bank usually charges me $3.50 and my bank charges $2 on top of it.) So, while I’ll miss the opportunity to get free access to my cash, I really can’t blame Kroger for trying to cover the fees that the banks are charging them.
$5.50??! You might want to change your bank, Ella! USAA gives you three free ATM withdrawals per month — totally reimbursing whatever fees the other bank’s ATMs charge. Their banking is free, and even the free account pays interest. Best customer service of any bank, ever, too — as long as you don’t need a local branch, you can do anything you need by telephone. They even give you postage-paid envelopes to mail in the deposit any paper checks that come your way. You don’t have to be military to bank with them either — it’s open to anyone.
I didn’t realize USAA was open to everyone now. I also get free checks.
I wonder when USAA opened up to everyone. For as long as I can remember only active & former military members and their eligible family members could open accounts with them. That’s awesome if anyone can now get an account!
USAA is not open to just anyone. Please google their terms.
Jennifer is correct. https://www.usaa.com/inet/wc/deposit_products_user_ineligible_complex_module
USAA refunds up to $15 a month. Not a set number of transactions but a dollar amount max.
Yeah I agree.
Except I can already go to any 7-11 and use their ATM’s for free. I just used the Kroger/King Soopers cashback as a convenience when I was also paying for a hundred or so dollars worth of groceries. Just another reason to head for Walmart.
Dollar Tree in my area has been charging $1 for years….
I think all Dollar Tree stores charge $1 for cash back.
Hmm. My local Kroger affiliate, Fry’s Food, announced this. BUT, they said that if we have a Fry’s loyalty card then the fee would be waived unless you wanted several hundred dollars back. Wonder if that has since changed or if Kroger is allowing each of its stores to establish their own policy.
Our affiliate in Colorado, King Soopers does not seem to care if you have a loyalty card. Checked out with it last night and, when I requested cash back as I paid for my $100 worth of groceries I was offered a $0.50 fee. Guess “loyalty” just doesn’t matter.
Thanks for letting us know.
You’re very welcome!
I had no idea!! I do this sometimes. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Linds!
I didn’t either, although I don’t get cash back at Kroger very often.
I’ve been using CVS and Publix for extra cash back for years. If it’s a trend to charge a fee, I’ll need to keep an eye on it. Thanks for letting us know! Clark Howard is awesome, too!
You’re very welcome, Irene!
I was agitated when I first read this, but then I thought about how far my bank is from our house (across town with a bunch of traffic lights and train tracks) and how close Kroger is (literally across the street from our subdivision). My time, gas spent, and mental sanity (especially during rush hour) is definitely worth the .50, especially if I can limit it to once or twice a month.
Agreed. 0.50 isn’t much compared to some ATM fees and other stores that charge a fee.
They make more than enough on groceries why charge a fee. It’s annoying how convenient it is to charge people to get there own money. Write a check instead.
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Actually profit margins at grocery stores are very very slim. Google it.
They actually don’t have a huge mark up on groceries. You would be surprised!
Because they are getting charged fees that they have been eating and the amount of people who get cash back is insane. I used to work at target and we would almost run out of money because so many people did it and we could only keep so much in the drawer because it puts you at a higher risk for being robbed. There are many reasons. It’s also cheaper than an ATM fee. It’s lasso amazing to see someone come in to buy a .99 pack of gum to get out 50.00. It’s insane
Originally getting cash back was a draw for the store, So that you would not run to your local ATM.
Stores wanted you to come in a hopefully make more than a bubble gum purchase, We all bought into this practice/convenience so banks have closed there branches and are now in the process of removing stand-alone ATM’s. So we will get dinged where ever we go to get our own money. That banks currently use to make a profit.
Dollar General and Dollar Tree in my area have been charging a fee for a long time now for cash back.
Yes, my Dollar General and Dollar Tree do as well. Thanks for sharing!
Just my thought. This seems reasonable to me. They aren’t a bank. If the fee bothers you, just go to your own bank. I know my Dollar General does this.
Agreed. I’d rather them do this than raise prices on grocery items. 🤷🏻♀️
I agree. I had rather pay the charge if I need cash than burn gas going to bank. I don’t think the charge is excessive either. I dont get cash back much but if i did .50 for $100 or under is quite fair in my opinion.
0.50 is more than reasonable!
Dollar General has done this for at least a year. maybe longer
They make 1.5-3% when you get cash back depending on the card you use. Guess that’s not enough for Kroger.
Interesting. Some here are acting like it cost the business some sort of fee? Personally I have an online bank. No physical bank. Sometimes I do get cash back when I need it, certainly not trying to scam anyone. Just taking out my own money. Who would have thought people look down on that?
My bank unfortunately has no branches in New Mexico so I usually just pop into Wal-Mart to grab something to get cash back since they haven’t started charging a fee yet. It’s not a scam at all. It’s a service that they’re offering their customers so I’m still going to do it until they start charging a fee as well, lol.
Right? It’s not scamming anyone if they offer a cash back service— even for a small fee. I used to do this in HI because my bank didn’t have any branches on our island.
I can see a lawsuit coming soon. There should be a pop up showing the charge. Prior to u doing the cashback..
At my Kroger, there is a pop up stating the fee for the cashback. You either click yes to authorize the cashback and fee or no to return to order payment.
I understood that there would be a pop like other stores, not hidden fees.
It was convenient, but at the end of the day Kroger (for me it’s Ralphs) is a grocery store, not a bank. Convenience comes at a cost and when people abuse conveniences it usually ruins it for everyone. I have over the years seen people routinely request hundreds of dollars back and that slows the line while the cashier calls over managers to refill their register. If you’re trying to avoid ATM fees, there are plenty of banking options that will reimburse you for the fees you incur from visiting a bank atm that is not connected to your banking institution. I have a seperate Ally bank card just for this reason.
I do this all the time at QFC and Fred Meyer. Our bank that was near us shut down so this is why I do it. Where does it show you are being charged? On the receipt?
As long as they warn you about the fee I don’t care. I just hope I haven’t been being charged in the past without knowing.
There are a lot of places tacking on extra charges. We ate at a restaurant in Boone NC and the 3% charge for using a credit card was added to our bill. We were not told about this ahead of time and I didn’t notice if there was a notice about this. Everybody wants you to go to paperless billing now days. I happen to like the paper copy in my hands to look at and I keep them. Noticed I was being charge .50 for opting not to go paperless. Kinda sucks!
It’s all about business costs. That paper for receipts costs money. The credit card transaction costs money.
What??? I will be on the lookout for this. Thanks for the heads up!
Wow! unbelievable. I guess they forgot about all the poor people that can’t afford to go with technology and still have to do everything the old fashioned way. Not everybody can afford smart phones or internet. Those people shouldn’t be penalized for still doing life the way they have always done it. They haven’t changed, technology has and there are a lot of people that can’t afford to change with it who are now suffering the penalties. smh
this is not a new fee- many stores have done this quite sometime – they are just passing along the fee that they are charged by Visa/Mastercard. You as a consumer have to be smart on how you want to use your plastic and retrieve your funds. As to a restaurant charging you the 3% fee that goes against the rules and regs of Mastercard & Visa. You can report that place to Visa/Mastercard and they will no longer be able to accept any plastic in the future.
I’ve seen this at Dollar Stores also.
Yup, this is nothing new….they’re just hopping on the same bandwagon many other stores have.
Hmmm… I am one of the few who still write paper checks and often write for $20 OVER for cash back, I wonder of this will be charged a fee?
Be careful with this. Checks are the most unsecure form of payment. Your routing number and full account number, right there in plain sight. Plus, your full name and likely your address. Not to mention possibly your drivers license number. I only say this because my husband was a recent victim of identity theft were tens of thousands of dollars were stolen straight from our bank account (after a month we were reimbursed by the bank). They only needed a few details of his life to do this. Our debit nor credit card was ever compromised.
It’s definitely greed. But possibly not by the store (Kroger in this case). The bank charges a fee for the debit withdrawal which is actually a convenience for the bank as those transactions (as opposed to written checks) are processed electronically. Some banks charge you in addition to charging the merchant. The greed as well as the remedy lies with the bank.
I don’t carry cash with as as all my purchases are used with my CC.
I don’t think it’s an unreasonable thing to do, they do it as a courtesy for clients and they aren’t a bank. They have to get the cash from the bank and then pass it on, it really is a lot of work and a big of responsibility for them. Think about the cash they must keep on hand to be able to do this? We don’t have a grocery store in Cali that would give you $300.00. I think we take things for granted now that we have debit cards for cash back.
I hate to say it, it’s cheaper than going to an ATM
Our Dollar Tree has been doing this for some time.
This has been happening for years at our Kroger in Indiana…exactly why we won’t shop there anymore. They won’t let us use our debit card as credit and thus charge our bank account $1 even if we’re not getting cash back b/c they won’t run it as credit. We even spoke to manager about this and he said there was nothing he could do. So they lost our business long ago.
I only WISH our Kroger looked like the one in the pic. No idea if they charge for cash back. Ours is the step-child store and the only one left in NE MO. Recently had a 2 day coupon sale on shrimp – the warehouse cancelled a **27 case order** from the manager and send NONE. Then corporate denied the manager’s request to issue rain checks. NO gas rewards. I used to shop here a lot but every sale = empty shelves. Makes me sad as Kroger was one of my favorite stores but I now drive 14 miles to other stores that offer sales that actually have the merchandise on the shelves when I get there.
my fred meyer has always done this…zero fee to take out a normal 60$ or less but a 3$ fee to take out up between 60 and 300. I don’t mind paying it at all if I need more cash, cheaper than most ATM fees and they are a grocery store and it’s convenient for me
For as much as, Kroger’s pushing scan your own groceries. Very few cashiers remain. Just give us the cash 💵 back. At no charge 🙂
My Kroger affiliate, Fred Meyers, no longer accepts internet printed coupons. It has changed the way I shop their!
wow – did they say why they will not accept internet printed coupons ? That is how I get the majority of my coupons. I want shop at any store that will not accept my coupons.
I have been getting cash back to pay my kids commissions but I request 1s. Our ATMs don’t have anything smaller than 20s so I’ll need to physically walk into the bank on Saturday mornings since I work the other days/times they’re open. This will be really inconvenient but I understand it I suppose. I do feel like Kroger nickels and dimes everything – I hate that they got rid of all the cashiers. Unfortunately, it’s also the most convenient grocery chain for us.
My beef isn’t with someone, Kroger in this case, making a business decision but rather trying to spin the factors in play. Offering cash back benefits EVERYONE. The store because it moves more of the transaction base to electronic and minimizes the cash they need to handle. Additionally, convenience for the customer provides additional incentive to shop there. The customer benefits due to the obvious convenience, part of the reason I haven’t paid an ATM fee in many years. What they’re NOT telling us is just how much the banks are actually charging them for the cash back and, as a result, how much of the new fee is pure profit. Aldi doesn’t charge, Wal-Mart and Sam’s likewise. Kroger annoys me in other ways as well (how many people ID a 65 year old for a bottle of wine? 🙁 ) , which is why I quit buying wine there years ago. So, I’ll just do what Clark always suggests and vote with my feet… and my ATM card!