Tesco shoppers angry after supermarket ‘automatically’ rounds up their bills to nearest pound

Tesco shoppers have reported that bills are being ‘automatically’ rounded up to the nearest pound without customer’s permission. 

The ’rounding-up’ is part of a new charity scheme by the supermarket chain, however, many customers have reported that it has happened without their permission. 

Jodie Holtom reported the incident when she compared receipts with her partner’s. Despite buying the same item 10 minutes apart, one receipt totalled £7.20 and the other totalled £8. 

The extra money is donated to Tesco’s charity partners: Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK.

However, Jodie told The Mirror: “I know 80p isn’t a lot but times are hard at the moment.”

Another customer tweeted “I didn’t know about this ’round-up’… until I got in from shopping and saw it tagged on the bill.”

A third added that their elderly mother had not been asked and ‘didn’t even know about the scheme’ until they checked her receipts.

Staff are supposed to check shoppers agree to their grocery or petrol bill being rounded up, but it appears in some instances it has been automatically added. 

Tesco has apologised and will be providing feedback to the stores. 

In a tweet, a Tesco spokesperson said: “Customers will be asked if they would like to donate by one of our checkout colleagues when they pay for their shopping or on-screen if they are using a self-service till.

“We also have signs in our stores letting customers know about the campaign and how they can support it.

“The response to the campaign so far has been overwhelmingly positive with very few customers feeding back that they were not aware that they had made a donation.”

Tesco is running a charity scheme which will see the supermarket match the donations to give to their charity partners.

On Tesco’s website it says: “COVID-19 has seen the income of all three charities fall, which has a major impact on their ability to carry out research into cures and treatments and run support services for the millions affected by these conditions.

“If donations stop, their work stops.”

Find out more about Tesco’s charity work here.