Woolworths is reducing my financial security

David Heath
Monday, 10 May 2010 22:25

Opinion and Analysis

Commencing in the past few days, all stores in the Woolworths group have banned the use of debit Visa and Mastercard transactions. This will lead to an increase in transaction fraud and greater costs to the consumer.

Originally announced on April 1st, Woolworths' decision to ban the use of the 'credit' option for EFTPOS transaction card holders with a debit card has been enacted.

For those unfamiliar, the debit Visa or Mastercard allows a credit-card style transaction to be conducted against a savings or cheque account. A Woolworths representative claimed that the savings for the company would be 'in the millions.'

Woolworths also claimed that the change would affect only one percent of customers. However given the rapid rise in popularity of such cards and the extensive advertising for them, that figure seems like a very large understatement.

However, this seems to show the company is prepared to wear a lot of pain just to save 6.6c per transaction.

I experienced the problem on Saturday just gone when the EFTPOS terminal at my nearest Woolworths supermarket (for the first time in my experience) didn't show the 'credit' option. This left me in something of a quandary.

Readers will know that I'm the Security Editor for iTWire and hopefully that means I have a reasonable grasp of personal security.

With that in mind, one of the primary reasons I have used my credit-union sourced card as a debit Visa is that I have never had to enter my PIN for a retailer-based transaction. Any time, in fact EVERY time I use my PIN in a public place is one more opportunity for someone else to know that code.

I would MUCH rather have the transaction approved electronically and subject to verification by my signature.