• long running

[Hack] Save 2¢ Per Transaction at Self Serve Checkout @ Woolworths & Coles

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[Hack] Save 2¢ Per Transaction at Self Serve Checkout @ Woolworths & ColesAffiliate
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Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:00 woolworths.com.au (648 clicks)
Last edited 15/08/2025 - 12:21 by 1 other user
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Here’s a quirky little hack to cut a couple of cents off your weekly Woolworths or Coles shop.

At a self-serve checkout that accepts both cash and card, choose Split Payment.

Click to pay with card first then enter an amount that is 2 cents less then the total.

The remaining balance will show as 2c, which the system rounds down to $0.

Takes no extra time and an easy hack to stack with the other gift cards / rewards programs.

Groceries

Related Stores

Woolworths
Woolworths
Coles
Coles

Comments

  • bob98 on 15/08/2025 - 11:01
    +243

    thanks can retire this year now!

    • Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:04
      +79

      split your 10 item purchase into 10 different sales to save 20c
      100 items, 100 times saves $2
      I can keep going

      • Save 50 Cent on 15/08/2025 - 11:15
        +73

        Please go on.. i like where this is going.

      • TerryJustTerry on 15/08/2025 - 11:19
        +8

        What if i had 13069390305828 items ?

        • iDroid on 15/08/2025 - 12:30
          +35

          Then $261,387,806,116.56. Please report back when you finish.

          • dontpanic on 15/08/2025 - 14:20
            +1

            @iDroid: The outlay on the purchased items is killer though.

            BUT, if you turned around and returned everything straight away, you should be able to fund it - assuming they don't note the rounding.

            Might be easier to do in a BigW than Woolies, assuming the POS systems are the same.

            Oh, and you'd probably need a small army working for free to beat the human mortality time constraints.

            But otherwise, completely doable.

        • colossus on 15/08/2025 - 13:02
          +3

          You'll need a large shopping trolley, and some serious strength as even with an average item weight of 100g that's 1,306,939,030,582.8 KG. 😃

        • braddsey on 15/08/2025 - 12:17
          +19

          Yes - but this is to prevent them going to landfill or floating into the ocean.

        • gapa11302614 on 15/08/2025 - 12:24
          +2

          Hey hey this you get 5x more per item 😄

        • chkz84 on 15/08/2025 - 12:44
          +18

          I have seen a few elderly people in our suburb who collect cans and bottles from others' bins (with owners permission). Life isn't the same for everyone and those silver coins could mean having dinner or not having dinner for some people.

    • kungfuman on 15/08/2025 - 14:24
      +35

      meh don't think its worth it, thats my 2 cents.

      • Roddi on 15/08/2025 - 16:41
        +3

        Thanks Dad.

    • nightelves on 15/08/2025 - 14:29

      Don’t forget to thank OP when you do.

    • gelo41 on 15/08/2025 - 20:50

      I can finally save up for a house

  • A female dog on 15/08/2025 - 11:01
    +115

    Unemployment final boss

    • johnfuller on 15/08/2025 - 12:14

      dont think its the boss, i think its the cleaner

  • jv on 15/08/2025 - 11:05
    +5

    Save 2c at Woolworths at Self Serve Checkout

    So 0.0067% off my $300 shopping bill?

    • Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:05
      +37

      Or 2% off a $1 purchase.

      inflation reducing deal

      • MorriJ on 15/08/2025 - 12:05
        +3

        It's only 1.96078431% as you can't get 2c off a $1 purchase; it's 2c off a $1.02 purchase.

        • phun on 15/08/2025 - 13:00
          +7

          No it's 2c off a $1 purchase

        • Meeb on 15/08/2025 - 14:18
          +3

          Why not? Total amount due: $1. Split Payment - card: $0.98. Remaining 2c is rounded off to 0. So it should be possible to get 2c off a $1 purchase.

          • MorriJ on 15/08/2025 - 14:35
            +4

            @Meeb: I stand corrected, thanks for correcting me @phun @Meeb

    • nightelves on 15/08/2025 - 11:07
      +3

      Don’t spend it all at once jv.

    • King Steuart on 15/08/2025 - 11:09
      +1

      $300 Woolworths grocery bill is the least ozbargain thing you could do

      • dontpanic on 15/08/2025 - 14:31

        I'm pretty sure I bought about $300 worth of toilet paper during this deal:

        https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/192255

        Lasted me all the way through the Covid shortages too.

        • King Steuart on 15/08/2025 - 15:08

          Did this code work

        • AdModnar on 15/08/2025 - 19:28

          for just you?
          how many rolls, n how many sheets per roll.
          ways exist to make a 200 sheet roll last over 3 months for one person. That's 2 squares per day

      • Oz em on 15/08/2025 - 17:36

        Unless you buy in bulk the half price or less specials.

        • King Steuart on 15/08/2025 - 18:37

          How often do you do this with the 2c hack?

    • EatSleepOzBargainRpt on 15/08/2025 - 11:10

      Almost as good as the latest ShopBack deal! /s

    • BROKENKEYBOARD on 15/08/2025 - 19:38

      Purchase every item individually for max savings.

  • DingoBilly on 15/08/2025 - 11:06
    +44

    Assuming this adds about 30 seconds to the total time.

    That means you're saving 4c a minute, or $2.40 an hour.

    Getting paid/saving at a rate of $2.40 an hour is abysmal…

    It's cute but a waste of time.

    • Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:07
      +17

      takes like 5 extra seconds tbh

      • Gorby on 15/08/2025 - 12:30
        +10

        So $14.40/hr

        • brisdaz on 15/08/2025 - 22:49

          Remember it's tax free and if you're on the highest marginal rate of 40 odd percent that's ~$25/hr after tax!

          Meh i'm not sure if my maths is exactly correct but it's in the ball park.

    • surfingedge on 15/08/2025 - 11:23
      +8

      That only works if you would be using that hour to earn more than $2.40

      • Smol Cat on 15/08/2025 - 12:38
        +11

        Oh so you value your free time off at $0/hr then? Ok.

        If anything I value my free time higher than even my salary rate / hr coz it’s so scarce and valuable.

        • Jaspa7 on 15/08/2025 - 14:28
          -1

          er.. I think that was his point

        • Ryven on 15/08/2025 - 15:12
          +5

          I value my free time at my full salary, including weekend penalties, taxes and super contributions. My friends love asking me for help moving.

    • End3vour on 15/08/2025 - 11:25

      All the little things add up.

      • marcozmitch on 15/08/2025 - 14:10
        +3

        Not really. They tell that story to make people think being frugal down to this level is life changing.
        It isn't.
        A similar sentiment to,"if you watch the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves…"

      • ankti231 on 15/08/2025 - 16:48
        +1

        The very little things add up very slowly

    • furyou on 15/08/2025 - 11:35
      +5

      Yeah but I'm not getting paid for that. Instead of sitting on my **** for 30 seconds and getting paid zero now I earn 2c!!!!!

      • Davelovesdealz on 15/08/2025 - 12:41
        +1

        What tax bracket we talking? If top then its 4.80 an hour….

    • squaredonut on 15/08/2025 - 14:34

      What if I can automate it?

  • countmein on 15/08/2025 - 11:08
    +2

    What

  • cerealsmok3r on 15/08/2025 - 11:08
    +1

    @Emphasise youre inspiring others now

  • Ezekiel2320 on 15/08/2025 - 11:09
    +43

    Haha I used to do that when I worked there.

    Now I save a lot more money by shopping at Aldi instead

    • Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:11
      +3

      tbh might work at Aldi aswell

    • beefsandwich on 15/08/2025 - 13:33
      +6

      Now I save a lot more money by shopping at Aldi instead

      Post it as a long running 'hack'

      • Ezekiel2320 on 15/08/2025 - 13:35
        -2

        Meh at this point anyone doing their regular shop at Colesworths is too stupid to be helped

        • khrome on 15/08/2025 - 14:29
          -2

          Totally agree but there's a lot of them out there unfortunately.

        • CaptainJack on 15/08/2025 - 17:49

          Or well enough off not to care.

        • Ironic fear on 15/08/2025 - 21:59

          Lots of smaller towns don't have an aldi or even both Coles and Woolies.

  • ak47wong on 15/08/2025 - 11:09
    +3

    You could have kept this to yourself and made $85,789.90 but now they'll probably fix the system.

  • timhn on 15/08/2025 - 11:11
    +12

    Seriously, are we really that low?

    • Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:11
      +94

      you must be new here

    • jackthefrost on 15/08/2025 - 11:21
      +9

      Hand over your ozbargain badge

    • DingoBlue on 15/08/2025 - 13:02

      We’re very tight and the “hack” element is a multiplying factor.

    • wetsandwich on 15/08/2025 - 14:11

      It actually gets much worse than this, unfortunately.

  • joelmuzz on 15/08/2025 - 11:12
    +4

    If you buy the small chillies one at a time they can round down to huge percentage savings.

    • wetsandwich on 15/08/2025 - 14:12

      Now they don't sell them loose at all, only $3 or more for a plastic packet of them. I scan that packet manually as whatever chillis I can find in the system though, fk paying $3 for literally 10 cents worth.

  • dwarves on 15/08/2025 - 11:12
    +26

    Reminiscent of a Townsville bloke who in the first days of supermarket rounding was banned from his local Coles for buying small mushrooms individually because they would come in at 2c and were thus free

    • antonenus on 15/08/2025 - 12:04
      +14

      Hate the game not the player.

  • Emphasise on 15/08/2025 - 11:13
    +6

    Shameless plug but I made a reel about this some time ago 🤣

    https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5HifqRB2TU/

  • test8888 on 15/08/2025 - 11:13

    never succeeded at Coles still had to pay 2c, did u?

    • Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:15

      I did it a while back at coles but always shop at Woolworths now so have verified recently. If so i'll edit post

    • surfingedge on 15/08/2025 - 11:28
      +11

      It works at Coles but when it asks you to pay 2c you have to press Cash. At ww you don't need to press Cash.

      Alternatively you can insert any coin (or even note) and you will get the same amount back (but it won't be the same coin/note that you put in :p )

      According to someone else on ozb, it doesn't work at target because target won't allow you to enter a card/gift card split payment amount which is 2c less than the amount remaining to pay.

      • test8888 on 15/08/2025 - 12:25

        hah good work, will try out

      • truetypezk on 15/08/2025 - 23:19

        Yep, it says something like "rounding tender not allowed" and calls for staff intervention. You can give it a try to confirm. I haven't been doing it at Target for quite a while :) Maybe they have realised it is too much programming just for 2c and changed it lol.

    • Thebuckstopshere on 15/08/2025 - 21:55
      +1

      In the mid-2010s when I was a diligent practitioner of this hack, this would crash the Coles tills. Woolworths was unaffected. I never posted it here because the hack was so powerful it effectively mounted to checkout terrorism at scale.

      Pay the total minus 2 cents on card.
      2 cents outstanding.
      Push the Cash button.
      Insert any coin or note (e.g $5 note)
      It would come up with change owing $4.98 and then freeze. I think it printed a receipt too at this stage.
      Manually attract operators attention. They act confused and have to open the machine to get your money out, before powering it off and putting up the out of order sign.

      • truetypezk on 15/08/2025 - 23:22

        Guess what, Woolies had a very similar problem around similar time, but the magic number was 3c there.
        How I found out? I must had a brain fog and punched the wrong number so it went down to 3 instead of 2 :)
        It was a highly repeatable hack, guaranteed to work every single time.

  • leon on 15/08/2025 - 11:14
    +1

    .. you have to ignore the checkout attendant glaring at you over your shoulder.

    • Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:15
      +12

      they already stare at me doing split payment between many gift cards

      • hayfeverman on 15/08/2025 - 21:14
        +1

        And doing 5x ING 0.01 transactions

    • furyou on 15/08/2025 - 11:36

      you're lucky, you actually have a checkout attendant?
      We've got someone out near the exit, Good luck calling them when you have an issue

    • truetypezk on 15/08/2025 - 23:29

      I actually deliberately do this when doing point crunches on a large number of rewards cards (usually more than 10 in one go is likely to attract some unwanted attention). This gives you a pretty good/innocent/silly/low-life excuse for a large number of split transactions. Just in case some busybodies reprint my transactions and report my rewards cards to be closed.
      When I told them I am trying to save 2c on each items they were like WTF are you out of your mind lol. I don't want them to know that I am getting $10 for each transaction to avoid potential jealousy.

  • Bad Company on 15/08/2025 - 11:15

    Nice one!

    What if you try 3 cents? Does it round up to 5 cents?

    • Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:16
      +16

      Yep, giving them a 2c advantage

    • DingoBlue on 15/08/2025 - 13:03

      I seem to recall that they always round down, so as not to overcharge. I certainly could be wrong though.

    • truetypezk on 15/08/2025 - 23:30

      Feel free to try, you can always do another 1c on card.

  • Burger R on 15/08/2025 - 11:15

    I noticed that when I once tried to split payment using Ing card to meet the 5 monthly spent leaving 1 cent in the transaction and the machine display thank you.

  • momptdeals on 15/08/2025 - 11:15
    +5

    Better start weighing single spinach leaves and checking out individually. Probably rounds down to $0.00

    • EatSleepOzBargainRpt on 15/08/2025 - 11:21

      This deal is probably post worthy, if OP’s deal made front page.

    • truetypezk on 15/08/2025 - 23:35

      No, each type of fruit/vegetable has a preset reasonable minimum weight. If you go too light the machine will just display an error and potentially call an attendant over.
      For large fruits such as apple/pears/mid size+ oranges, usually 1 is enough. For smaller fruits such as grapes and cherries, 3 is a relatively safe bet. As for spinach leaves-I've never tried that. If you really want to edge out on 2c you would have to experiment a little bit.

  • Hinee on 15/08/2025 - 11:16
    +21

    Now this is the content I come to OzBargain for.

  • currentfad on 15/08/2025 - 11:16
    -1

    Stfu now they're gonna patch it!!!!

  • PeeDee on 15/08/2025 - 11:20

    Move this to a forum pls xD

  • Cluster on 15/08/2025 - 11:23
    +15

    I'm old enough to remember being sent separately through checkouts by my parents to buy an item worth, let's say, 72 cents, as the 1c and 2c coins were phased out and all prices were rounded to the nearest 5. 72 cents became 70 cents.

    Parents were Ozbargainers before the site existed.

    • Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:25
      +11

      with inflation, that 2c saved in 92 is 5c today

      • nightelves on 15/08/2025 - 14:32
        +1

        Could have bought 1/10 of a bitcoin back then.

  • starbearer on 15/08/2025 - 11:24
    +10

    My self-respect prevents me from doing this, but I do respect the hustle.

    • Churna on 15/08/2025 - 11:25
      +12

      will somebody please think of the shareholders!

  • Jessie Ryder on 15/08/2025 - 11:25
    -2

    Oh no, I accidentally left 3cents and it rounded up, I'm now out 2cents

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