Rounding of cash transactions
Introduction
Rounding was introduced for cash transactions in Ireland in 2015. Rounding means that the total amount of a bill will be rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cent.
It applies only to cash payments and does not apply to bills paid electronically, for example, by debit card, credit card or by store card.
Rounding aims to reduce the need for 1 and 2 cent coins which cost more to produce than they are worth. However, 1 and 2 cent coins will continue to be legal tender.
Rounding is voluntary for retailers and customers. The retailer can apply rounding automatically without asking you but you can choose not to have rounding applied and use exact change.
Rules
If a bill total is being paid in cash and the number of cent does not end in zero or 5, the amount of change paid will be rounded to the nearest 5 or 10 cent:
- 1 or 2 is rounded down to zero
- 3 or 4 is rounded up to 5
- 6 or 7 is rounded down to 5
- 8 or 9 is rounded up to 10
Examples
A bill total of:
- €10.21 or €10.22 would be rounded to €10.20
- €10.23 up to €10.27 would be rounded to €10.25
- €10.28 or €10.29 would be rounded to €10.30
For 3 individual items priced at €2.99, €4.49 and €8.18, the prices will be added together and the total bill (€15.66) would be rounded down to €15.65.