Just bought something from Aldi today. I tried to avoid the credit card surcharge by using my debit card in my eWallet. When I looked at the receipt, the surcharge was still there, so I asked the cashier for an explanation. He couldn't answer and got the store manager to talk to me. The explanation was that because I tapped and paid, so the surcharge still applied. If I were to insert my debit card, then there wouldn't be any surcharge. Was his explanation really correct?
HSBC Global Everyday… Why avoid the surcharge when you can profit from it instead? :-)
That's what I do. 2% cashback is too good and convenient.
1.5% profit yea babyy
Makes more sense to use a CC if you have a mortgage right?
2% casback vs save on 6% interest using an offset?
Don't think so. 5k @2% is $100. $5k at 6% is $300 but that's per annum. Better to use HSBC.
@Autonomic: ^ This. Offset is 6% p.a. - assuming maximum 45 day credit card repayment, you get around $0.75 saved on a $100 shop. With HSBC, you get an instant $2.
@virajsen: Would a single person really spend more then $2500 per month in paypass transactions?
A couple could spend $5000
Or a proper drug user/dealer.
I wouldn't know. Do yours not offer Square?
No way, old old people use cash now. Getting card benefits is the OzBargainer way.
I was in Target the other day when their POS machines wouldn't accept card payments so probably best to have both card + cash.
That’s weird nowadays, I haven’t carried a wallet for years and I can count on one hand how many times I couldn’t pay.
@[Deactivated]: True although for me when it rarely happens I just accept it and go somewhere else. I’ve got a St George card that does cardless withdraws if I’m desperate.
@bobwokeup: Funnily enough, if it were not for OzB, I wouldn't have even thought twice about the 'cash movement'. Also, not being able to pay for items in store by card (especially where the store isn't available locally any longer as they've closed heaps) or hearing from your neighbour that his bank doesn't allow cash withdrawals on a Sat makes you reconsider options.
@[Deactivated]: Well it rarely happens to me and funnily enough I’ve never had to withdraw cash. Since covid it’s been even better as lots of places aren’t accepting cash at all.
@[Deactivated]: I walked past a Subway a few days ago that was card-only.
I can think of a few restaurants that are card-only.
The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart is card-only, including the gift shop at the entrance/exit.
@singingwolf: Yeah I’ve used my watch with no internet before when I didn’t have my phone. I thought it was always like that?!
@singingwolf: Ah cool, did not know that. Actually it was a long time before I even tried my watch when I didn’t have my phone, so it was probably fixed in that time.
That's the time when you can blame the internet. When there's no internet / got hacked then the POS dies. note: work in retail
I tried but it seem every cash I tried had broken NFC chips. None, I mean absolutely NONE of it would work..
I'm going back to using my phone - that works every time.
When you tap, you're using the 'credit' facility even though not using your credit card.
So when I go, I (as you've said), insert my savings card and select saving. If I use the tap facility, I will be charged the surcharge.
The language that terminal machines use is confusing. The "Credit" option can have nothing to do with a credit account. The best way to think of it is tapping your card, phone, watch or pressing "credit" means Mastercard or Visa process the transaction. This is true for both credit cards and debit cards.
Inserting your card and pressing "Savings" means EFTPOS processes the transaction - which is free. It also doesn't take 2 days to process.
Banks usually direct you to use the Mastercard or Visa system as there are built in insurance should something be disputed. At ALDI, always insert your card and press savings (or whatever option sounds like EFTPOS Savings).
When I conjure up my VISA debit card on Apple Pay there is a toggle that defaults to "VISA" but can be slid over to "eftpos SAV". Would the "eftpos SAV" option avoid the surcharge?
Yes.
If you choose “eftpos SAV” on Apple Pay for your debit card and then tap that debit card, you will force the merchant to process the payment through the eftpos network. That also means you will need to pay for any surcharges through the eftpos network, rather than the Visa network. For ALDI, that means you will pay no surcharge, as ALDI does not surcharge payments processed through the eftpos network.
Sweet, will have to do this next time. Inserting card and remembering the PIN that I literally only ever use at Aldi takes too much time.
Oh wow never heard of such an option, and looking it up I discovered it’s maybe only for certain “dual network” VISA cards (which I don’t have).
This list should be a good indication of which financial institutions support eftpos on Apple Pay. If you have a debit card from one of these financial institutions and cannot see the eftpos option, removing and re-adding the debit card to Apple Pay should see the eftpos option appear.
Btw, I would not rely on this list being 100% accurate, because I know their list for Samsung Pay is out of date.
I can tell you from experience that ING does not support eftpos when you add their Visa debit card to Apple Pay. I believe the same applies to HSBC’s Visa debit card.
Yes, to avoid the surcharge, you need to insert your card and select savings.
or cheque
Cheque? Who the hell has a cheque account?
We do - an offset mortgage with a cheque account. We have a cheque book but I can't remember the last time I wrote one out.
Cheque (CHQ) is still an option on all EFTPOS machines, so they are obviously still out there. At Aldi, I always insert my card and choose CHQ, so never pay their ridiculous fee.
Unfortunately, it is more complicated than just insert or swipe your card.
ALDI charges a 0.5% surcharge for any payments routed through the Visa or Mastercard networks. Whether ALDI routes your payment through the Visa or Mastercard networks depends on a number of factors. For example:
If you present a card that only supports Visa or Mastercard (e.g. a Visa / Mastercard credit card), you will pay the surcharge.
If you tap a physical dual-network card on the NFC reader of the EFTPOS terminal, it should default to Visa/Mastercard (and hence attract the surcharge).
If you insert or swipe a card on an ALDI EFTPOS terminal, you can choose between eftpos (SAV), eftpos (CHQ) and Visa/Mastercard (CR). If - for example - you present a physical dual-network card and you choose SAV or CHQ, your payment will not attract the 0.5% surcharge. If you choose CR, you will get a warning message saying you will have to pay a 0.5% surcharge. You have to press Yes in order to proceed paying using Visa or Mastercard, so you cannot say you were not warned!
If you tap a card saved to a mobile wallet, the network the payment will be routed through will depend on what you chose on your device… assuming you could choose in the first place. For example, if you have a Westpac Debit Mastercard added to Apple Pay, you can choose on Apple Pay between eftpos and Mastercard before you tap your device against the EFTPOS terminal. If you have an ING debit card added to Apple Pay, all payments will go through the Visa network, because ING only supports Visa payments via Apple Pay.
Also some 'tap' cards transactions are routed via EFTPOS , as I'm pretty sure current ubank card doesn't attract surcharge when I tap vs insert.
The original version of this comment references that, but I scrapped it, because I don’t think ALDI has implemented either Least Cost Routing (LCR) or Merchant Choice Routing (MCR).
My understanding is that the routing of your payment when you tap a physical dual-network card is dictated by the merchant, not the card issuer. For example:
Coles Group businesses apply LCR to physical dual-network Visa debit cards. That means if you tap a physical dual-network Visa debit card at an EFTPOS terminal at Coles, the payment will be routed through the network with the lowest fees to Coles, which could be either eftpos or Visa (and therefore making tapping a physical HSBC debit card a dicey proposition if you want that 2% cashback).
My local car mechanic and health food store apply MCR to physical dual-network cards (and I can tell, because the EFTPOS terminal screen says Merchant Choice Routing on it). The problem is that MCR is quite opaque for the cardholder (e.g. NAB’s options for MCR include defaulting to Visa/Mastercard, defaulting to eftpos, or choosing the network based on a limit predetermined by the merchant).
My local Aldi has implemented LCR on tap (my last shop on Wednesday I tapped and it shows up as EFTPOS). No surcharge
However for extra confusion I got the HSBC 2% cashback which should only happen on Visa tap…
All verified on HSBC app as I was curious to see what would happen
I remembered your comment so transferred some money to try it out, still had a surcharge on my ubank tap 😣
@WookieMonster. Thanks for taking the time to explain. Much appreciated. I am just wondering how would a normal person know about those details.
(Are you working on one of those charging systems?)
The normal people just pay the fee for the convenience of leaving their wallet at home. The OzBargain people spend the time to figure it out.
@Baysew: Oh my !
It's like that guy that had to ask TWICE why people showered before going to bed/in the morning ?
I know this from a lot of trial and error at ALDI. For example, during the 10% off Westfield eftpos gift card deal a few months ago, I alternated between using eftpos cards and Mastercards and sussed out how Commonwealth Bank (ALDI’s EFTPOS payments provider) handled the surcharge. There has also been a lot of prior discussion on this website about how ALDI handles the 0.5% surcharge (as you have already been told by now).
I do not work in the financial services industry.
Btw, I forgot to mention a weird edge case.
If you have a Samsung device that is old enough to support MST and present it near the magstripe reader on ALDI’s EFTPOS terminal, the EFTPOS terminal will treat it as though you swiped a physical card. That means you will need to choose between SAV, CHQ and CR, plus enter the PIN, but you will have to respect the choice of networks you made on Samsung Wallet (assuming you could make a choice in the first place). For example:
If you have a NAB debit card, you can choose between Visa and eftpos on Samsung Wallet. Once you have chosen the payment network and authenticated the usage of the card on your device, your choice between SAV, CHQ and CR on ALDI’s EFTPOS terminal needs to correspond with the payment network you chose on Samsung Wallet. This is because ALDI’s EFTPOS terminals do not check the available networks when reading data from your card (unlike Woolworths or Coles or BIG W or Officeworks, to name a few examples).
ubank does not support eftpos on Samsung Wallet (at least not for me), so in this case, the only network option that would work via MST would be CR.
Westpac declines all payments made via MST from Samsung Wallet, and I suspect it has something to do with cash deposits in their branches requiring you to swipe or insert a physical card.
It is a weird edge case, but someone is bound to bring it up…
hsbc tap and go
This is the best answer.
Just to clarify for those who don't know, HSBC have an everyday global account where you earn 2% cashback if you tap any transaction less than $100.
I'd assume many would exceed $100 in their grocery visits though
do they have option of split payment? divvy it
@capslock janitor: From what @daanish and I have gathered, the only type of split payments known to be possible at ALDI's regular checkouts are:
I do not know whether you can redeem more than 1x ALDI gift card in one transaction. Additionally, I do not know whether split payments are possible ALDI self checkouts, as those are marked as card only (which sounds like Visa/Mastercard/eftpos card only to me).
@WookieMonster: To add to this - I asked at my local Aldi yesterday if it was possible to use an ALDI gift card + a second ALDI gift card in the case that your first doesn't have sufficient balance and the register staff said that she's fairly confident that would work. I did not have any gift cards on me to test this though. She did also suggest that you might be able to use up to 5 gift cards in one transaction but that wasn't said with much confidence so I would have a back-up if you intended to test this theory.
Using the HSBC tap n go no longer incurs the surcharge https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/763744#:~:text=ALDI%20%2D%…
hsbc tap incurred me surcharge tonight
Sometimes the simplest things in life take a while to make sense.
If I were to insert my debit card, then there wouldn't be any surcharge. Was his explanation really correct?
Correct, but not complete.
After inserting, you must choose savings/cheque.
If you choose debit/credit, you will pay surcharge.
Bet you were popular in line arguing over 35c
Cash is king.
The king of physically holding an asset earning you nothing.
Other people's money you pay back at a later date for no fee/interest > your own money earning a return of some kind up until point of spend > cash you walk around with in your wallet for weeks
For those that are with Macquarie Bank there is no way to avoid the surcharge
If you insert your card and select SAV, you definitely will not get surcharged.
If you tap your card, you may or may not get surcharged. It depends if it shows up as EFTPOS or Visa/Mastercard tap
If you tap an eWallet (eg. Google/Apple Pay) you will get surcharged.
'If you tap an eWallet (eg. Google/Apple Pay) you will get surcharged.' - that's partially incorrect.
If your card support eftpos/visa - you can select which network you want the POS to use.
I can choose EFTPOS with my westpac card in Apple Pay - never got charged a surcharge.
Inserting/swiping and selecting savings should avoid it.
I had other businesses tell me to avoid it, use insert and select savings.
Apparently when you tap the machine recognises it as a visa, MC, amex card and doesn't know the difference between credit and savings so it will charge you as default.
If you tap a 'debit' card from Visa or MasterCard, then it goes through the credit card processing system (e.g., Paywave) and the fees apply.
A regular NAB bank account is free.
No minimum deposit or any tricks.
When you put the debit card in your phone wallet you can elect to pay by debit or credit, in the wallet.
So obviously you select debit.
Then you phone tap in Aldi and feel like a king in a peasants world
Was his explanation really correct?
Yes
Yes this is correct. When you use tap and go the transaction is handled by mastercard/visa.
If you insert the card into the terminal and select savings its a debit card transaction.
iPhone: open wallet with double click. Select Eftpos for your card. Tap. No surcharge
have to do every time ?
There are all sort of insertions!
On some after you withdraw, you loose interest!
Ill insert my card next time, i had ING debit for payment and still was charged. I was aware of it but didnt bothered. Thanks
I tried to avoid the credit card surcharge by using my debit card in my eWallet
Does this 'debit' card have a Visa/Mastercard logo on it?
Most tap transactions are treated as credit cards because of this 'feature'.
Insert the card, press CHQ/SAV next time or pay cash.
Yes he's correct
does Aldi engage PWC for their tax obligations
My HSBC Global debit card with 2% cashback on paywave used to be charged 0.5%, but this year something changed and I haven't been charged the 0.5% for months. I still get the cashback.
just checked a receipt from April, still credit surcharged my HSBC. GooglePay
When you present a physical HSBC Visa debit card to an ALDI EFTPOS terminal, it is possible for the payment to be routed through eftpos or Visa. (When you tap a physical HSBC Visa debit card, the problem is that you are leaving it up to Commonwealth Bank to choose whether the payment gets routed through eftpos or Visa. I don't think anyone has figured out how Commonwealth Bank decides which payment network to route a payment through.)
When you present your HSBC Visa debit card stored on Google Wallet to an ALDI EFTPOS terminal, the only supported payment network is Visa. AFAIK, HSBC does not support eftpos payments from Apple Pay nor Google Wallet. That means that when you tap your HSBC Visa debit card from Google Wallet, you are forcing all payments to be processed through Visa, which means that ALDI will apply the 0.5% surcharge to you.
Dont most place factors in the surcharge as the final price? Says it was $10 and the surcharge is 1%, they would have entered in $10.10 as the total cost.
The self-serve checkouts at aldi dont charge the surcharge for tap & go with a devit card.
Got charged for my ubank tap today 🙃
Oh no! Scrap that then :(
OK, so here's something I know 100% and it has changed recently in regards to tapping. The key thing is that if you use Visa or Mastercard, you will be charged a surcharge. EFTPOS is fee free.
If you insert and select EFTPOS, you won't be charged a surcharge. Recently, if you tap a dual mode card (that is a card that says EFTPOS on it) then it will use EFTPOS and you won't be charged a fee. I can you tell you that INGs card works correctly but so should heaps of others.
Note that I said card, not phone. It won't work on Google Pay as this isn't dual mode, it's just Visa/Mastercard (normally) and on an iPhone you have to select EFTPOS in the little menu thing.
Tested this today. Always cop the surcharge as I was lazy and prefer the self check out. Inserted the card, chose saving. No surcharge. Thanks everyone.
This is actually something that people who work in the card industry would know in an instant, where essentially if payment was routed through the local eftpos network, no charge. However charges would apply if it is routed through MC/Visa.
How does the cardholder know?
- If you want to be 100% certain, always insert and choose chq/saving to force routing through eftpos
- if the aldi terminal has been enabled with LCR and you use a physical card with both eftpos and MC/Visa, then it is quite likely it will be processed through eftpos
- With ewallet on your phone. AFAIK, only Bendigo has offered "forced" saving using Apple Pay. Ewallets aren't the same as cards unfortunately.
- In the past, things are generally routed through MC/Visa when a contactless option is used
- The Aldi attendant was generally correct and they would have been trained as such to avoid confusing people.
I buy a bunch of prepaid EFTPOS cards at 5-10% off when on discount and use them at Aldi = no surcharge
If I run out, 2% HSBC cash back would be option 2
Could I do cash out at Woolies/coles with Apple Wallet tap + eftpos?
Yes, as long as your dual-network card stored on Apple Pay has the option to pay using eftpos.
You may get a staff member who insists you need a physical card to do cashout (and I have heard this a lot at Coles), but that is largely due to tapping a card traditionally being associated with a "credit" network.
Awesome! I'm with ubank and this will come in handy as NAB ATMs are so limited.
For those who don't know you don't need to make a purchase for cash out using self checkout
Easy - don't shop at Aldi.
very limited choice but you can purchase everything under $1. then if you dare at the counter ask to paid one item at a time with your card. you won't trigger surcharge
Why aren't you using cash like a proper OzB'er?