Irish retailers report no issues on day one of rounding

Scheme aims to reduce dramatically the number of 1c and 2c coins in circulation

As coin rounding is rolled out across the country, this video explains how the consumer will be affected. Video: Central Bank of Ireland

None of the State’s leading retailers who have started rounding cash change to the nearest five cent have reported issues among customers on day one of the scheme.

The rounding applies only to cash payments, with the total amount of any bill being rounded up or down to the nearest five cent mark.

The scheme aims to reduce dramatically the number of one and two cent coins in circulation.

It is being done on a voluntary basis and one cent and two cent coins will remain legal tender.

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"We are currently trialling rounding in one of our Dublin stores, in line with the recommendations of the national rounding convention," a Tesco spokeswoman said.

“Customer response during the trial has been positive,” she added.

‘No issues’

A spokeswoman for Marks and Spencer said it had rolled out rounding in all of its stores from today and there had been "no issues".

Lidl said it had yet to start rounding cash transactions.

“At present we continue to provide our customers with their exact change from all cash transactions,” a spokeswoman said.

“We are currently assessing the situation and will communicate with customers when we plan to bring a rounding policy to stores.”

Both Supervalu and Spar said it was too early to fully gauge the impact of the rounding policy, but said that customers had not raised any concerns so far.

Aldi said it had been rounding all relevant transactions "in favour of customers" for the last several weeks.

The retailer said it was not planning to introduce any immediate changes to this practice.

Dunnes Stores declined to comment.

Conor Pope

Conor Pope

Conor Pope is Consumer Affairs Correspondent, Pricewatch Editor