Woolworths should reverse its clumsy intervention into the payments system to prevent any further inconvenience and confusion for scheme debit users. “Woolworths announced on April Fool’s Day that it would force all Visa Debit and MasterCard Debit cardholders to use the EFTPOS system when shopping at Woolworths group stores, such as its supermarkets, BIG W, Dan Murphy’s and Dick Smith,” says Abacus CEO Louise Petschler.
Abacus is the umbrella organisation representing credit unions and building societies. “As the customer backlash builds, Woolworths is responding to complaints from customers with a standard message that entirely omits the fact that Woolworths earns sizeable revenues by forcing them to use the EFTPOS system.
Woolworths is not being open with its customers about its true motive for removing customer choice at the checkout. If Woolworths is successful in increasing its revenue by increasing costs for scheme debit card issuers, scheme debit cardholders may face higher transaction fees or higher account keeping fees. Woolworths should put its customers first and stop dictating to them about how they pay at the checkout,” Petschler said.