Rite Aid enables in-store cash bill payment

Rite Aid Corp. is launching a new financial service for customers at its stores.

The drugstore retailer is enabling consumers with access to the Kubra EZ-Pay Retail Cash Payments Network through their biller to pay their bills in cash at over 2,000 of its brick-and-mortar locations.

Rite Aid is the 19th retailer to join Kubra's Retail Cash Payments (RCP) Network, adding 2,257 new retail locations in 17 states across the country. Kubra offers its RCP Network in partnership with payments technology company InComm Payments.

How in-store cash payment at Rite Aid works

Customers receive a personalized and reusable barcode on their printed bill, or they can download the barcode to their mobile phone from their biller's website. When creating the barcode digitally, customers can use Kubra's dynamic map tool to choose the closest Rite Aid location. Their unique barcode contains all the information required to validate a cash payment.

Once a cash payment is made at a participating Rite Aid store location in the network, it is authenticated and authorized in real time. Customers have the option to receive text and email confirmations when their payment is successful.

"Our goal is to bring the most convenient and accessible bill payment option to cash-preferred customers that we can," said Rick Watkin, president and CEO of Kubra. "Adding Rite Aid to our payment network brings us another step closer to achieving this goal."

Walgreens enables cash bill payments at stores

Walgreens, one of Rite Aid’s chief rivals in the drugstore space, partnered with the PayNearMe retail network in March 2022 to enable customers to facilitate cash payments at nearly 9,000 Walgreens stores across the country. Users of PayNearMe make payments at checkout by individual biller or merchant. To provide this joint service with Walgreens, PayNearMe is expanding upon an existing partnership with financial technology provider Green Dot. 

In January 2021, Walgreens rolled out an initiative to launch new financial products and services. The initiative also includes a co-branded credit card and a prepaid debit card issued with Synchrony and Mastercard. In addition, Walgreens partners with InComm Payments (also a partner in Rite Aid’s Kubra offering) to provide its customers with digital bank accounts at MetaBank. The accounts include a Mastercard debit card shoppers can use in-store and online and allow them to earn cash rewards on all purchases as part of the myWalgreens customer loyalty program.