If you’re anyone like us trying to locate a grocery store where you can save few bucks on your online shopping, Aldi is most likely your best bet as they now accept SNAP EBT payment in some of their stores.
SNAP is an acronym for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, while EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer. SNAP is a federal pilot program designed to help lower-income earners have accessibility to foods at affordable prices.
Does Aldi Take EBT?
Aldi does take EBT in their stores. Aldi is the first grocery store to start accepting EBT SNAP benefits as an online payment method via Instacart for curbside pickup and grocery delivery.
Enter your EBT information during Instacart checkout and your EBT will be accepted as the payment method.
On top of that, Aldi offers one of the smartest payment methods for food stamp benefits and EBT cards as well as several other payment options like MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and Visa.
With EBT payment coming to stay, we can even hope many other retail stores will join in the acceptance of this payment option in the future.
How to use EBT at Aldi
To get started with using an EBT card via Instacart, you need to set up an Instacart profile. Once you’re done with setting up your profile, you’ll need to enter your EBT food card details as a payment method.
After that, you’ll also need to enter the appropriate information to set up another form of payment for nonfood items – a requirement you need to follow according to SNAP.
Next, you fill in your Zip code to find Aldi’s participating stores, and then you can start to shop on Aldi’s EBT SNAP-eligible products. The best part about using EBT payment is that you can choose a delivery or pickup store for your items and you can also specify how much of your SNAP benefits you want Instacart to allocate to your order.
Which State is EBT Accepted for Aldi?
Fortunately, all Aldi locations accept SNAP/EBT and as of the time of this writing, Aldi Instacart has expanded SNAP online EBT to over 1,500 stores. This expansion covers the following districts:
- Columbia
- Alabama
- Delaware
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Nebraska
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Vermont
- West Virginia, and
- Wisconsin
How Do Aidi’s EBT Payments Work?
First, you should know Aldi accepts several payment methods including Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), Visa MasterCard, Discover, and contactless payments options like Google Pay and Apple Pay.
As for Aldi’s EBT payment, it works in a very distinct way from how other stores like Amazon and Wal-Mart EBT payments work. In that, Aldi’s EBT payment works with Instacart and, as such, you need to link your EBT card to your Instacart account before you can be able to use the store’s EBT payment.
Once your EBT card is added to your Instacart account, you can go ahead and start using your EBT card at Aldi’s SNAP EBT participating stores.
Who Is Eligible For EBT Payment?
To qualify for SNAP benefits, there are several requirements you must meet and these include income limits, resources, and applying in the state in which you currently live. There are also other things to consider such as your status and, by this; you need to know there are different requirements for students and non-students.
For example, for a household to become eligible for the SNAP benefits, such a household must be able to prove that its net income is at or below the poverty line.
When considering such a household asset, for it to qualify, the household’s asset must be below $3,500 and that is in addition to the fact that such a household must not have an elderly or disable member in the family.
Most importantly, your state agency has the jurisdiction to determine your eligibility, and where you’re found eligible, you’ll get all the benefits accruable to the program back to when you submitted your application.
What Can You Buy With EBT At Aldi?
With your EBT cards, you can pay for several EBT-eligible items being sold at Aldi. These eligible items include fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, cereals, breads, seeds, and plants that produce edible food, non-alcoholic beverages, and other snack foods.
What Can’t You Buy With EBT At Aldi?
Although using your SNAP benefits at Aldi’s stores will allow you to shop on lots of highly nutritious foods, there are some limitations to some foods. You can’t use your EBT card to buy items like live animal (except shellfish) or foods that are hot at the point of sale.
EBT doesn’t cover alcohol or nonfood items like pet foods, cosmetics, hygiene items, cleaning supplies, other household supplies, baby formula, and paper products.
Additionally, you can’t buy any items like vitamins, medicines, or supplements with EBT.
Can You Buy Eligible/Non-eligible EBT Items in the Same Transaction?
You can take advantage of Aldi’s multiple payment options to pay for non-SNAP EBT eligible items. In that case, you can use cash or a debit card to pay for non-SNAP products at Aldi.
As for whether you can buy eligible/non-eligible EBT items in the same transaction, yes you can do that. If, for instance, you already added to the cart an item not covered by SNAP, by the time Aldi’s cashier calculates your total s/he will let you know what you can pay with your EBT and what to balance with an alternative payment method.
So all you’ll do is to pay the balance with an alternative payment option where you have the money. And fortunately, Aldi is the right choice when it comes to choosing a retail store with multiple payment options.
Can You Use Aldi’s Coupons with EBT?
You can use Aldi’s coupons and promo codes when using EBT SNAP online. In fact, you should make sure you use all your coupons and promo codes before using SNAP benefits with your order.
Can I Use My EBT Card at Aldi?
Aldi is one of the grocery stores out there that accept EBT and, it’s, in fact, the first-ever to start accepting it online. While there are many items you can buy at Aldi with your EBT card, there are restrictions to some foods including alcohol and foods that have supplement Facts Label.
You need to check with your state agency to find out your eligibility for SNAP benefits. When you’re ready to start using EBT SNAP, add it to your Instacart account and then you’ll be good to go with using the card.
