Notice to Visa Debit cardholders

Retail giant Woolworths has recently announced changes to the way VISA Debit Cards will operate in their group of stores*. From 15 April 2010, Members using VISA Debit Cards to pay for goods at Woolworths' checkout machines will no longer be able to use the Credit (Cr) option.

The VISA Debit Card can still be used at Woolworths’ stores by using the Savings (Sav) or Cheque (Chq) options on the checkout machines. This change ultimately means the VISA Debit Card will work over the EFTPOS network rather than through the VISA network, at Woolworths’ stores.

While First Option is disappointed by this change, Members do get 10 free EFTPOS transactions per month before being charged a small fee.

Please note that your VISA Debit Card is still fully functional and there are no problems with it. At stores other than those owned by Woolworths, your VISA Debit Card will work as normal when you press ‘Cr’, ‘Chq’ or ‘Sav’. Therefore, if you don’t need ‘cash out’ you can press ‘Cr’ for a fee free transaction.

While this change may cause some confusion at first, please remember that First Option Members can still use their VISA Debit Card to access the VISA network in most other stores and continue to enjoy low cost banking.