Can Bank/bs Refuse Legal Tender Against A Debt? Refused To Accept 93p

Valli

interestrateripoff wrote: »

5p - for any amount not exceeding £5
So should they have accepted the 5p then?

2p - for any amount not exceeding 20p
So they could have accepted 20p of the 2p and refused the last 2p?


1p - for any amount not exceeding 20p
All of the 1p should have been accepted?


Yes I'm overpaying the mortgage, and yes I am paying more substantial amounts than this off.

Only the 2p were NOT legal tender (which was the title of your post) BUT many banks now have 'change handling' policies where they will only accept correctly bagged amounts of change and no more than a certain number of bags. It's a 'time' thing!
Furthermore your mortgage might have T&C's about overpayments ie wanting whole pounds or something.
But well done on the overpayments! Wish I could make some!

Occasionally someone 'hits the headlines' for trying to pay bus fares or similar in change and bus drivers refuse to take it! So 'coin of the realm', 'cash' and 'legal tender' are actually different things!

alfiesmum

Valli wrote: »

Occasionally someone 'hits the headlines' for trying to pay bus fares or similar in change and bus drivers refuse to take it! So 'coin of the realm', 'cash' and 'legal tender' are actually different things!

Do you remember when there were spates of people getting on the bus with postage stamps to pay their fare too?:rotfl::rotfl:All this 'legal tender' talk reminded me of that!

A_Nice_Englishman

Personally, I would spend the loose change on my everyday shopping, note how much this came to each month and overpay my mortgage accordingly. Going to the building society branch with lots of small coins seems like a waste of time for both parties.

GregH

When i count up my mortgage pig, i bag it all up correctly in the right bags, always with some left over. I then round it up and take it to my local shop who will exchange it for cash.
It means i don't have to face the building society, where i've had issue's trying to pay in change, and the shop doesn't have to pay to buy change from the bank!

ailuro2

I would not waste time on 93p, tbh.

Use the time you spent arguing doing an bit of homework on your next pricey purchase. The money you save on that could be way more than 93p.

Pick your moneysaving battles - this isn't one of them.;)

You might pay 3 pence in a whole year on interest on that 93p, but could earn £40 using Quidco for you next round of home insurance.

tyllwyd

My feeling is that if the bank/bs did accept lots of loose change in that way, it would cost them more than, say, 93p in paying for someone's time in sorting it out, so by doing that you are pushing up the bank's overheads and ultimately making them less profitable - which will get passed back onto the customers making us all pay more for our mortgages or whatever. There has to a limit on what service it is practicable for them to offer for free.

If it went to court, I can't really see a judge being all that sympathetic over an issue regarding 93p in change. Surely they would be more annoyed that you were wasting everyone's time (and pushing up the costs of the hearing) complaining about such a piddling amount.

Jonesy_Bonesy

Can't believe I've just wasted 3 minutes of my life reading this :mad:

It is not a battle worth fighting.

DVardysShadow

Oh grief does someone have to tell you how to do this?

Put £1.00 into the building society. Write an IOU to yourself on behalf of the pavement for 7p. When the pavement has paid your 7p, put the IOU back on the pavement. Sorted.

tyllwyd

interestrateripoff wrote: »

I'm going to write to the building society in question as I want the letters ....

I couldn't help thinking about this some more ... so you plan to write to the building society (and I assume keep copies of the letters in your file). So two pieces of paper, plus printer ink & wear & tear on your printer, electricity - total cost maybe 10p? plus an envelope, maybe another 5p? Cost of a second class stamp (or going to bank to hand deliver, if you need to drive) - 30p. So overall, it might cost 45p to send that letter & keep a copy.

All in all, a lot more than the interest you will pay on that 93p while you wait to save up enough change so that you can pay the bank in coins that they will accept.

theoretica

I haven't looked this up but I think legal tender only comes into play if you might be sued for non payment- the example often given is a meal already eaten in a restaurant, but a shop may refuse a 20p sale in 2ps as they can't then sue you for not paying... So next time try shrapnel legal tender for a payment you owe rather than overpayment.