Dollar Store Patrons Getting Nickel-and-Dimed the Most For Cash Back, CFPB Says

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Key Takeaways

• Discount chain stores such as Family Dollar and Dollar General have begun charging chaps for getting cash back on their purchases when they pay with a debit card.
• Dollar stores typically jurisdiction fees, while chains including Walmart and Target allow customers to take cash out for free, the Consumer Pecuniary Protection Bureau found.
• The government watchdog agency is concerned that customers are being exploited by businesses that coddle to lower-income shoppers.

If a dollar store is your best (or only) option for tapping your bank account for mazuma change, you’re probably paying more to access your money than customers at other major retailers.

That’s go together to a report released this week by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the government’s consumer watchdog workings. Customers at dollar stores such as Dollar General (DG), Dollar Tree (DLTR), and Family Dollar paid anywhere from $1 to $2.50 per annals to get cash back at the register, depending on the amount of cash back requested.

By comparison, customers at Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Walgreens (WBA), CVS (CVS), and Albertsons (ACI) stores could get moolah back for free. The bureau used secret shoppers to survey cash-back fees charged by eight major retailers.

Because dollar depend ons tend to be disproportionately located in rural areas, isolated towns, and communities of color, residents of those areas were the most probably to pay the higher fees. That’s especially important because those same areas are less likely to have bank puttings.

CFPB Monitoring Retailers’ Cash-Back Practices

The financial regulator said it was monitoring retail store cash-back warm-ups, as bank branch closures have left more people relying on registers to access their money. 

“While retail fastens had long provided cash back on debit card purchases for free, the CFPB has found that dollar rely on chains and other retailers are now charging fees for access to cash,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said. “Diverse people living in small towns no longer have access to a local bank where they can withdraw hard cash from their account for free. This has created the competitive conditions for retailers to charge fees for cash go.”

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