There may be several situations where you want to buy someone a gift card but you want to use a personal check to do it. You’ve probably asked the question to yourself; can I buy a gift card with a personal check?
The answer to this question is yes, you can buy a gift card using a personal check, but only in select brick and mortar stores that support this method of payment like Walgreens and Target. Some online retailers also allow purchases using electronic checks (eChecks).
Which stores can you buy gift cards with a personal check?
From our extensive research, you can buy gift cards with a personal check at the following stores in the US:
- Walmart
- Walgreens
- Target
- CVS
- Costco
- Sams Club
- BJs Wholesale
- Trader Joes
- Wegmans
- Publix
- Save Mart Supermarkets
- Kroger
- Albertsons
- Baker’s
- City Market
- Fry’s Food Stores
- Giant Eagle
- Hannaford
- Harris Teeter
- Dillons
- Food 4 Less
- Food Lion
- Fred Meyer
- H-E-B
- Jewel-Osco
- King Soopers
- Safeway
- Save-A-Lot
- Marcs
- WinCo Foods
- Winn-Dixie
- Meijer
- QFC
- ShopRite
- Smith’s Food and Drug
- Tops Friendly Markets
- Ralphs
- Save Mart Supermarkets
- Shaw’s
- Rite Aid
- Best Buy
- Micro Center
- Books-A-Million
- Barnes & Noble
- Sephora
- Ulta Beauty
- JOANN Fabric & Craft
- Hobby Lobby
- Burlington
- Kmart
- Dillard’s
- JCPenney
- Kohl’s
- Ross Dress for Less
- Sears
- T.J.Maxx
- Macy’s
- Marshalls
- Neiman Marcus
- Nordstrom
- Dollar Tree
- Family Dollar
- Big Lots
- Dollar General
- Ace Hardware
- Menards
- Pacific Sales (inside of Best Buy and at individual showrooms)
- Valu Home Centers
- The Home Depot
- Lowe’s
Please visit each website for their own terms and conditions of personal check use
Bear in mind that checks are becoming a very outdated technology to use for making payments and are being phased out for easier, more secure and convenient technologies.
Although we will do our best to keep this list updated, the list of stores that accepts personal checks to purchase gift cards could diminish over time and we don’t give any guarantees about the ones currently on the list either.
Which retailers allow you to buy gift cards using your checking account with an electronic check (eChecks)?
If you prefer, you can use eChecks to pay for purchasing gift cards online and even in store too. (though, at this point, you’d probably use your debit card or credit cards!)
But if a situation arises where you need to use an electronic check, these are the retailers that allow for the use of eChecks to purchase gift cards:
CardCash – For Discount Gift Cards
CardCash is a great marketplace for gift cards which allows you to choose from a massive range of retailers and actually grab a big discount on each card.
And it’s even better news if you want to use your checking account to pay since CardCash allows for this when purchasing their discount gift cards online (but there is a catch which you may not like – more on this in the step by step process)
Though CardCash does let you integrate and link your PayPal account – which you can connect to your checking account – to purchase their wide range of gift cards.
This makes using checking much easier on CardCash as you’re already pre-approved by Paypal.
If you want to use your checking bank account on CardCash directly, it is a bit more of a convoluted process to set up and requires a few steps.
But you’ll be happy to go through these steps if your heart is set on paying using your checking bank account. This is how you do it:
- Create an account on cardcash.com
- Before you can use check as a method to buy a gift card, you have to make at least three transactions on CardCash using a DIFFERENT method of payment (this is the catch – ask a friend or family member to do this)
- Then send the following things to CardCash: a copy of your driver’s license
- The email address which is linked with your checking account
- A request in writing for ACH access to their compliance department (the email was [email protected] on our last check).
- Wait for CardCash to review your ACH application.
- You will then be able to buy discounted gift cards straight from your checking account (if you’re approved)
By shopping for gift cards on CardCash, you can save as much as 35% off the face value of a gift card. You can also use CardCash to sell gift cards at a discount or trade them for gift cards to other stores.
Walmart
At Walmart, you can purchase gift cards for just about anything, not just its own store.
You’ll have prepaid credit card, Visa gift cards, American Express (and other prepaid cards) restaurants and other large retailers to choose from on their website at your disposal too.
You’ll be pleased to know that cash, debit and credit card isn’t the only payment method they accept to buy a gift card online.
But like CardCash, you will be required to jump through some hoops in order to use your checking account.
The way to make this work is to use the following steps:
- Sign-up for a Walmart MoneyCard in order to make a purchase (this is the catch)
- Before you can shop on the Walmart site, you must load your MoneyCard with the balance you want to use to buy gift cards using your eCheck or checking account.
- Download the Walmart MoneyCard app
- Log into the app
- Go to “Add Money”
- Go to “Deposit a Check.”
- Follow the rest of the instructions on the app
Congrats! You’re now set up to use eChecks to buy gift cards online using your checking account.
Do bear in mind that to buy gift cards using the checking account method is only available to you if you’re a Walmart MoneyCard Preferred card holder.
Amazon
Amazon is an online retailer that unsurprisingly accepts eChecks for gift card payments and purchases.
The company lets you add your checking account as a payment method.
- Enable your checking account for ACH (Automated Clearing House – which is an electronic funds transfer system)
- Enter your routing number
- Enter your account information.
- Upload your driver’s license number for verification
Once you’ve followed the above steps, you can buy all types of different gift cards that Amazon sells, including their own gift card, Apple, Google, Playstation, various restaurants, Visa and Mastercard gift cards and other popular gift cards (including prepaid card options).
PayPal eChecks
When most people think of electronic checks, they think of Paypal eChecks. Most online retailers (and even some bricks and mortar stores) accept Paypal payments.
You can connect your checking account to Paypal and use it on sites which allow purchasing via eCheck.
They actually have a special site for gift cards at paypal-gifts.com where you can search for a huge selection of gift cards from a whole bunch of popular retailers.
Once you’ve made your choice, simply use your Paypal account to pay via eCheck. Now, normally using Paypal eChecks to pay an individual would mean a delay of a few days. But when using Paypal’s own site , you skip this delay and the transaction is instant (while still being funded from your checking account)
Why might you want to use a personal check to buy a gift card?
There are many situations where you might want to use a personal check for buying a gift card.
- Maybe you’ve forgotten your debit card or credit cards
- Lost your debit card or credit cards and are awaiting new cards from your bank
- You prefer to make a purchase offline and shopping in store
- You are old school and don’t trust or understand new digital technology
- You don’t like to use you card online or in store
- Your cards may have fees for using them (this is rare – find a bank that doesn’t charge a fee)
Though checks are being phased out, some members of the public still like to use them when they can to purchase their gift cards or other goods.
What else do you need when buying gift cards with a personal check?
While you can buy a gift card with a personal check, there are conditions that are required at most stored that accept checks including:
- Maybe obvious, but you must have money in the checking account
- You usually need to show a photo ID with you that matches the name on the check for verification
- Some stores will wait for the check to clear before activating your gift card – though this is rare and most stores will immediately cash the check and debit your bank balance. You should be able to use your gift card as soon as you have it in your hand in this case.
