Woolworths to stop credit option on debit card transactions
Posted by MattE on 18 Apr 2010 at 10:32 am | Tagged as: Business, General
It seems the cost of shopping at Woolworths supermarkets is about to get a little more expensive if you use a Visa or Mastercard debit card with news that the supermarket giant will no longer be allowing people to use the credit option when using debit cards.
As reported in Inside Retailing
“The only change for customers using Visa Debit and MasterCard Debit cards will soon be the need to press either the `cheque’ or `savings’ buttons to access their funds through the Australian-owned eftpos network, rather than the international credit card network,” Woolworths said.
How the terminal will differentiate between debit and credit cards is I guess some software magic.
So depending on your bank you will be charged anywhere from 20-80 cents per transaction.
So I wonder how long it will be before the banks, who say to use the credit card option when doing a transaction will have to start saying “With the exception of Woolworths” (and no doubt soon, all the other retail brands under the Woolworths umbrella).
On the other hand one could argue that it is still a lot cheaper than shopping at Aldi where a 1% fee is added to your checkout total.
Have an opinion? – Share it via comments.
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I think I will still be shopping at Aldi, because even after they add the 1%, it’s still cheaper for all the basics that Safeway or Coles couter parts.
Well guess what Woolworths…Get LOST and you have LOST ME AS A LONG TIME CUSTOMER.To save yourselves 6.6c/transactio you ARE GOING TO LOSE A LOT OF CUSTOMERS….
I hope you idiots at Woolworths loose thousands of customers over this. This is so typical of the arrogant care less about its customers attitude that Woolworths has because it is the largest supermarket chain in Australia. I for one have always preferred to shop at Coles and I am sure the smart people at Coles will slap Woolworths in the face over this and take all the customers that wont be going there anymore. How gullible do you think we are Woolworths? AS IF the savings will be passed on to customers as reduced prices…. They will go your profits and into the pockets of your shareholders and fat cat executives.
TIME TO VOTE WITH YOUR FEET PEOPLE AND SHOP AT COLES, ALDI or IGA. YOUR A PACK OF THIEVES WOOLWORTHS!!!!
i have a ANZ Visa Debit card and if i just want to get goods and no money i HAVE to press credit! Even if i want to get money out at an ATM i HAVE to press credit! because the card is TREATED as a normal credit card the only diff is that it is MY money! I am on a pesion and have to use every cent i get and i can’t get all my money out at an ATM the rest i use via the credit button! they have lost me and my whole family’s business!! i do most of my shopping at ALDI and it will NOT be cheaper doing it at wollies as they say cause 1% on a $200 trasaction is only 20c and the fees could be up to 80c so they say, that would mean at ALDI someone would have to spend $800 to get the 80c fee! the most i spend via my card at woolies is $19 so if i went to ALDI it would be NOWHERE near the 20c fee!
Good points on the 1% at Aldi, Leanne. However, if you have no money then you would not be able to gets goods at Aldi either…that is the point of the debit card. As you point out, it is your money, so if there is nothing in your account, then pushing credit will not help!
1%on a $200 buy is $2 Leanne.
If you can live with Aldi’s product lines and the fact that profits go overseas to Germany
And the long queues and the generally lacklustre experience…
Gofer it!!
Sam, I always laugh when people use the “all profits go overseas” line.
Lets look at Aldi food products. Most are made in Australia – generating jobs and value adding here. Say on a tin of peas, given a nominal value of $2.50. Profits on grocery lines is normally around 4%, so 10c profit, less tax then goes overseas.
From the $2.50 who gains? Well there is the fuel companies (production and transport) grower input costs (fertiliser, machinery, wages, seed etc) transport costs (x3 – from grower to factory, from factory to distribution centre and from there to supermarket, so truck running costs and drivers wages), wages and costs at distribution centre and once in the supermarket there are all the associated site costs.
Imported peas? Port charges, import taxes and fees, transport costs (x2 – from port to distribution centre and from there to supermarket, so truck running costs and drivers wages) wages and costs at distribution centre and once in the supermarket there are all the associated site costs. So maybe 40c goes offshore.
So don’t be fooled by overseas company ownership sucking huge $ values overseas!! Export of iron ore does enough of that for everyone!
But I agree, their product range is lacking and the shopping experience is, well, typically European and not much different to the USA either.
I must admit I do shop there for a small range of items purely on cost basis (items like dog food) but now rarely shop at Woolies (despite being a shareholder, these days frequently IGA more and more.