Supermarket Sleuths: The surcharge marking up your Aldi bargain buys

I've been an Aldi shopper since the discount supermarket first opened in Australia and have always been impressed with how much I can save by shopping there.

I don't just do large weekly and fortnightly shops there, I'll often pop in for one or two items as I walk home from work.

Over the weekend I was really excited to see one of their famed smartwatches left by someone at the checkout. I thought they'd sold out!

I grabbed it immediately and at $29.99 was thrilled at nabbing the bargain find.

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I paid for it using my debit credit card, and as I was walking out of the store I glanced at the receipt and got a bit of a shock.

Instead of being charged $29.99, I had been charged $30.14.

At first I thought it was a mistake, but when I looked closer I saw why I had been charged more than the marked price.

Aldi had added on a credit card surcharge of 0.50 per cent, which added an extra 14 cents to my total.

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Then I thought it may have been because I spent under a certain amount, but at Aldi that's never been the case.

I had forgotten the discount retailer has the credit card surcharge for all purchases.

The Aldi website explains that while the supermarket does accept credit cards, including Visa and MasterCard as payment methods for customers, "there are very high costs associated with accepting these cards.

"Rather than Aldi inflating prices across the board to compensate for the credit card acceptance costs (like most of the retailers do) Aldi instead allows customers to make the choice as to the payment method they prefer.

"This allows customers who choose the lower cost method of payment, to receive the direct benefit by way of lower prices."

This means that to pay only the marked prices at Aldi, you need to pay with cash or a debit card only.

9Honey contacted Aldi Australia for comment and the supermarket directed customers to its payment FAQ pages.

Now, I don't have a credit car per se. I have a credit debit card. It's a debit card with a credit facility.

But by using the credit facility, I had incurred the surcharge.

All I had to do was choose cheque or savings and enter a PIN to avoid the surcharge, and I'll never forget to do this again.

Sure enough, when I popped into Coles this week for bread and crumpets, I used my debit credit card and paid the marked prices only.

But, as Aldi explains, that's because Coles, Woolies and IGA likely absorb the cost with higher prices.

Suffice to say, lesson learned. I can only imagine how much money I have been wasting by using a credit facility at Aldi having forgotten this charge existed. Never again.