Australia’s new $5 note not accepted at major supermarkets and outlets

THE rollout of the new $5 note isn’t going as smoothly as everyone hoped. All around the country, shops and vending machines are rejecting it.

IT looks unique and is equipped to stop counterfeiters but it’s clear there’s something up with the new $5 note.

Its distinctive transparent strip has caused major issues across the country, with automated note reader at shops, vending machines and pokies spitting out the cash.

Eden Vassallo and Taylah Ryan from Penrith were unable to feed the new $5 note into the Opal Top Up machine at Central Station. Picture: Daniel Aarons

Nick Aronis, president of the National Vending Association, told The Daily Telegraph it was a major source of irritation.

“The note reader starts to read the note and sees the clear strip, it identifies that as the end of the note and of course it can’t recognise it, so it spits it back out,” Mr Aronis said.

The new $5 note is not accepted everywhere. Have you had issues? Picture: AAP Image/Paul Miller

Woolworths has been forced to scramble to recalibrate devices at self-service check-outs while up to 100,000 vending machines have to be individually updated with new firmware to recognise the note — at a whopping cost of some $20 million.’

Kmart self-service check-outs are still rejecting the money and TAB betting terminals have signs offering to ­exchange the notes for betting vouchers, while pokie machines do not accept the note.

Woolworths have had to update its self service devices to accept the new note.

Transport NSW took three weeks to have its Opal card top up points in Sydney made compatible.

WHERE THE NEW $5 NOTE HAS BEEN REJECTED

* Poker machines

* Woolworths self-service

* Vending machines

* K-Mart self-service

* TAB betting terminals

“The cost to the industry is massive,” Mr Aronis said.

The new $5 note came into circulation on September 1 to much fanfare.

It contains several state-of-the-art security features, including a world-first top-to-bottom clear strip that will be consistent across every new denomination of note introduced over the next four years.

But Erin Turner, from consumer advocacy group Choice, said businesses had no excuse for being unable to accept the notes as the had been aware of the change for more than 12 months.

“This clearly seems to be a failure of planning and there is no reason why they shouldn’t be accepting the new $5 note,” Ms Turner said.

“They need to get their act together and fix it as quickly as possible.”

Originally published as Australia’s new $5 note not accepted at major supermarkets and outlets