Michigan Child Support Payments Can Now be Made at CVS Pharmacy Stores

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan’s successful partnership that allows parents to pay child support at popular retailers has expanded to include CVS Pharmacy® locations.

Children and families have benefitted from a new service that makes Michigan child support payments more convenient across the state and nationwide. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and its Michigan State Disbursement Unit last August launched a partnership with electronic cash transaction network PayNearMe® last year.

Since August, parents have been able to make their Michigan child support payments using cash at more than 550 locations in the state and 17,000 stores nationwide by visiting participating 7-Eleven® and Family Dollar® stores.

Now parents can also pay child support using cash at more than 250 CVS Pharmacy® locations in Michigan and more than 8,000 nationwide. To find the nearest payment location, parents can visit www.paynearme.com/paymybill.

As of the end of April, parents had completed 5,267 transactions at PayNearMe’s network of stores, paying more than $1.3 million in support to children and families.

“Children are receiving the support that they need and deserve more quickly as a result of the convenient payment options at the stores where they shop,” said Erin Frisch, director of the Office of Child Support within MDHHS. “Expansion of this service to CVS Pharmacy® is exciting because it creates more opportunities for payment that will benefit children and families.”

The process is simple. Parents can:

1. Visit the misdu.com website and select the “Cash Payment” option.
2. Enter requested account information on the PayNearMe® website.
3. Select whether they want the payment code sent to their phone or printed out.
4. Choose from the list of payment locations closest to them.
5. Visit the store and provide both the payment code and cash to the cashier.

Customers pay a $1.99 convenience fee and PayNearMe® payments can take up to three business days to post, just like other electronic payments made by a customer.

To better help parents provide for their children, MDHHS works collaboratively with local agencies, courts, county health and human services entities, employers and various state and federal agencies.

The Michigan State Disbursement Unit within the MDHHS Office of Child Support, known as MiSDU, is the state’s centralized payment processing center for collecting and distributing support payments.

While a majority of payments made to MiSDU are made by employers on behalf of their employees, a significant number of parents still pay support on their own. Customers can pay online, by phone or by mail using a credit card, check or money order.

Many customers pay by cash or money orders. Also, many customers have transportation or other challenges making it difficult for them to visit the local Friend of the Court office. With this new service these customers will now have a more convenient way to pay their child support with cash at a participating retail location near them or anywhere in the nation.

For more information about this and other payment options, or to make a payment online, visit www.misdu.com.

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