Debit card charges now passed on by Coles etc

[Tortoise]

I may have missed a giant announcement while I was out bush, but I was taken back to find that my bank charges for December increased 10-fold. A trip to the bank revealed that some businesses, including Coles and United petrol, are apparently now diverting any debit card transaction (pay wave, insert/swipe and select 'credit') via the EFTPOS system. We now pay the extra charge instead of the business.

As far as I can tell, Woollies hasn't followed suit yet, though they may soon.

While I accept that user pays is generally a fair system, I think we should have a way of knowing what charges we will be up for before we choose how to pay. This has significant implications for how I manage my money.

Has anyone worked out how to know whether a business has changed their policy on this, before looking at your bank statement? I imagine plenty of cashier staff may not be aware of the situation.

Ta for your thoughts.

[Neo]

I still use cash. So much easier..?
I always go for BP fuel, they have a sticker on the bowser for card charges, no Diners at all, no charge for Visa or Mastercard.

[Eremophila]

https://www.newideafood.com.au/the-secr ... know-about

[Joynz]

From that article it sounds like it’s not all transactions.

Rather, it seems to be (if the article is correct) related to the type of card the customer has and whether the account charges for excess eftpos transactions. So if you tap and it’s treated as an eftpos transaction and you are over your free limit on eftpos transactions on your bank account then you will be charged by your bank.

[Tortoise]

Thanks for that. I'm apparently one of the few people who still have limited free eftpos transactions. But as it's an offset loan account, I don't really want to change it. It sounds, though, that my bank may have got it wrong. They said that even if I insert the card, and select 'credit', it'll still be diverted to the EFTPOS system. I noticed, though, that 'credit' is no longer an option - 'debit' comes up instead. I'll check that out.