Why I no longer use my debit card at Shoprite

Posted by Felix Okoli on Friday December 7, 2018 at 21:38:44:

For many Nigerians like me who love buying things at Shoprite, one of our most preferred means of making payment as long as things are n good order is by means of a debit card. Yes, I've had the experience of making payments with my debit card on a Shoprite POS machine when checking out with my cart. However, after I've had series of bad experiences using my debit card, I've decided that I'm no longer going to keep using it to making payment.

Some of the reasons why I've stopped using my card at Shoprite are as follows:

1. Poor Network connection: For a long while, I've noticed that it is much faster making payments with cash than with a card because at times, it takes a long time before the P.O.S. machine gets a good network to debit your account and receive a satisfactory feedback from your card provider. At times, I've seen shoppers who opted to make payments with their cards to go to a nearby ATM just to withdraw cash first before making payment. This delays the time of the buyer checking out as well as the time of those who are already on the queue behind him.

2. Wrong debits to my account: At times, it has happened that even after a POS machine claims that a transaction has failed, I've still received double debit alerts on my bank account which were not reversed and I still had to go to the bank to rectify it and I feel they may be other wrongful debits which I did not even notice and which must have added to my loss. It would have just been better to pay with cash.

3. It minimizes my spending limit: Another reason why I prefer paying with cash is that it allows me to limit how much I spend at Shoprite by the amount of cash in my hand so that I don't overspend. I've come to know that using your card all the time tends to make one spend more since he has more funds in his bank account than the cash he has at hand. At times, there is a tendency to believe that you have unlimited funds in your bank account and so may want to buy everything you want rather than limiting yourself to what you really need.