If you live in Scotland order your English £s in advance

rannoch

A tale of woe ...

In preparation for a couple of days in England, and to give a present to someone while there, I tried to exchange Scottish bank notes for English bank notes.

Today, I tried to exchange Scottish bank notes in FIVE high street banks - Abbey (where I have an account), Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Bank of Scotland, and Alliance & Leicester. I live in Ayr.

Abbey asked to see proof that I had an account - bank card, but then said they had no English notes.
They advised me to go to the Barclays ATM where they issued English notes, draw out the amount I wanted, and then go back to Abbey and deposit the original Scottish notes.

I duly withdrew cash at Barclays only to find they were all Scottish notes. I then went to the teller, and told him the problem. Response was "have you an account with us", answer no - response sorry, and then after a couple of exchanges - don'ta have any English notes.

Next stop. Lloyds TSB. Same story - do you have an account with us". No. Sorry. I heard the cashier laughing as I left.

Then, Bank of Scotland. Do you have an account with us. Yes an ISA. Sorry it needs to be an account I can deposit your Scottish notes, and then withdraw in English notes.

Then Alliance and Leicester. Without looking the teller said she had no English notes.

Final stop was Thomas Cook Bureau de Change, no problem sir will it be OK with a couple of fifties.

I really wish that we didn't need banks. Impression - tellers completely unhelpful, and in some cases just lazy. Maybe they are on an "unhelpfulness bonus".

Message is, if you live in Scotland and intend to holiday in England - order your English notes in advance as its harder to get UK currency than it is to get Euros or Dollars.

MrsBartolozzi

Err is this a joke?
Scottish notes are legal tender in England, y'know?

jebervic

rannoch wrote: »

A tale of woe ...

In preparation for a couple of days in England, and to give a present to someone while there, I tried to exchange Scottish bank notes for English bank notes.

Today, I tried to exchange Scottish bank notes in FIVE high street banks - Abbey (where I have an account), Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Bank of Scotland, and Alliance & Leicester. I live in Ayr.

Abbey asked to see proof that I had an account - bank card, but then said they had no English notes.
They advised me to go to the Barclays ATM where they issued English notes, draw out the amount I wanted, and then go back to Abbey and deposit the original Scottish notes.

I duly withdrew cash at Barclays only to find they were all Scottish notes. I then went to the teller, and told him the problem. Response was "have you an account with us", answer no - response sorry, and then after a couple of exchanges - don'ta have any English notes.

Next stop. Lloyds TSB. Same story - do you have an account with us". No. Sorry. I heard the cashier laughing as I left.

Then, Bank of Scotland. Do you have an account with us. Yes an ISA. Sorry it needs to be an account I can deposit your Scottish notes, and then withdraw in English notes.

Then Alliance and Leicester. Without looking the teller said she had no English notes.

Final stop was Thomas Cook Bureau de Change, no problem sir will it be OK with a couple of fifties.

I really wish that we didn't need banks. Impression - tellers completely unhelpful, and in some cases just lazy. Maybe they are on an "unhelpfulness bonus".

Message is, if you live in Scotland and intend to holiday in England - order your English notes in advance as its harder to get UK currency than it is to get Euros or Dollars.

Why not wait until you get to England ?

rannoch

In theory.
They are usually not accepted.

rannoch

jebervic wrote: »

Why not wait until you get to England ?

In hindsight you are right. All this did was to get the blood pressure up.

mrcow

Why not just wait until you get to England and use the cashpoint?

We do have them here you know

silverchair

rannoch wrote: »

In theory.
They are usually not accepted.

They are usually queried by people who have never seen Scottish notes before, & most probably didnt even know that they existed. They are, however, accepted.

elainew

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

Err is this a joke?
Scottish notes are legal tender in England, y'know?

They actually arent legal tender in England and shops are well within their rights to refuse them.

vikingaero

elainew wrote: »

They actually arent legal tender in England and shops are well within their rights to refuse them.

Returning to Blighty from Scotland with Scottish notes can be a right Royal PITA especially south of Watford Gap. I've lost count of the times I've had to wait while the cashier calls her supervisor over the intercom to check on the Scottish note I'm proffering. And when this happens there will invariably be a long queue that suddenly builds up behind me. :rolleyes:

RichyRich

Technically, Scottish notes aren't legal tender even in Scotland (although "legal tender" is only a very technical legal definition meaning the form of currency that must be accepted in service of a debt payment ordered by a court).

In larger cities such as London and Manchester Scottish notes tend to be accepted without question. Start going to smaller cities and they begin to be questioned. Enter town territory and you will be told that they can't be accepted.

Bank of Scotland and RBS notes are more likely to be accepted than Clydesdale as those banks have branches in England - although English branches of RBS and BoS dispense Bank of England notes.

However, the recipient of the gift should be able to pay them into their own bank no problem. Alternatively, as others have suggested, draw out of an English ATM.

I really don't understand what benefit Scottish banks derive from publishing their own notes - surely it just costs them money to print them, so why they don't just use Bank of England notes is completely beyond me!

CarolynH

The RBS cash machine (landside) at Edinburgh airport always issues Bank of England notes for some reason. HTH