Woolworths: the full story

Recent changes when using your Visa Debit card to pay for purchases at Woolworths’ checkouts.

You may notice a change in how you can use your Visa Debit card when paying for purchases at Woolworths and its affiliated company stores. Woolworths has turned off the credit (cr) button on its PINpad terminals for Visa Debit. This means that you have to press Savings (Sav) or Cheque (Chq) rather than Credit (Cr) when paying for items at the checkout.

Please note: There are no issues with your card; it is still fully functional.

Your Visa Debit card works normally when you press ‘Cr’ or ‘Chq’ or ‘Sav’ at merchants.

If you press ‘Sav’ or ‘Chq’, your purchases will be paid for via EFTPOS rather than through Visa. We bring your attention to our fees and charges structure associated with using EFTPOS, as there may be an additional expense incurred for excessive EFTPOS transactions.

This affects all Visa Debit cards used at Woolworths stores, not only those issued by Queenslanders Credit Union.

We encourage you to keep using the ‘Cr’ button when paying for purchases at any store which allows you to do so when using your Visa Debit card. By pressing the ‘Cr’ button, this will ensure you continue to receive benefits of Visa Debit such as Zero Liability Policy and fee-free transactions.

Queenslanders Credit Union has opted to measure industry and consumer responses to the action taken by Woolworths before undertaking any changes to its transaction fees or product pricing.

We will keep you updated on the situation as it develops and we learn more. For further clarification of the information provided please contact QConnect on 1800 753 377.


Full list of Woolworths companies

 The deactivation of the ‘Cr’ button for Visa Debit will occur within all stores in the Woolworths company group including:

  • BIG W
  • Woolworths Supermarkets
  • Safeway Supermarkets
  • Woolworths Liquor
  • BW
  • Dan Murphy
  • Dick Smith
  • Tandy
  • Woolworths Petrol
  • Safeway Petrol
  • Caltex Woolworths petrol outlets
  • Thomas Dux
  • ALH (bottle shops)