'What's legal tender?' discussion

dori2o

signalman60 wrote: »

As I understand it, any legal notes (i.e. not forged ) issued by a U.K bank are equally valid when offered in settlement for the purchase of goods and services. The vendor cannot pick and choose.
The purchaser has completed his part of the contract by offering to pay in a U.K currency. If the vendor refuses to accept the payment the purchaser is within his rights to take the goods (or leave say a restaurant in which he has just had a meal) without paying .
If the vendor calls the police to report a theft, he will find that they will confirm that the purchaser is within his rights

To be honest I thought this was the same to, but only due to experience.

When I was 15 I used to getb the bus to school, and here in Manchester there is a childs fare on the buses which at that time was 25p. It was accepted that any high school student travelling on a bus to and from school could do so at the childs fare, even if they were 16.

So, I get on the bus one morning in my uniform, give the driver 25p, only for him to demand full fare £1.05. I refused, left him the 25p and sat on the bus.

The route of the bus went past the depot and the driver pulled in, much to the annoyance of the other peopleon the bus, dragged me into the office, where his superior gave him a right roasting, and gave me a free weeks pass for the inconvenience caused.

jumpycheese1

I work for a supermarket. If any customer gives me a Scottish note, I put onto one side of the till, away from the English banknotes, so I can't give back that note to other customers as part of change or cashback.

Also I had a customer giving me 2 of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_pounds_(British_coin) - the 1986 unimetallic ones. As I worked in a bank, I know I could accept them. Even a supervisor had to visit a bank to get clarification about these!

What is the situation about coins from Isle of Man and the Channel Islands? Also my colleague received a Gilraltar £10 note and that's not accepted here.

The only other note we will not accept is the Scottish £100 note as obviously, its too big. I once had a customer returning back from holiday - got all of his currency back into GBP at the travel agents all in £50 notes. He gave me one of these when buying 2 pints milk for 86p. Fortunately, I had plenty of change to give him his £49.18.

narty

• What if a shop refuses your cash? There's little you can do, shops don't have to sell you goods, whatever you offer for payment.

I'm not sure if this is correct. I thought that the shop has the right to refuse to enter a contract with you, but once the contract has been made the shopkeeper is obliged to accept your legal tender payment. If he refuses your legal tender payment in fulfilment of the contract then he has no legal right to stop you walking out of the shop with the goods. Of course I have never tested this, but would be interested to know if there is any truth in it.

moonrakerz

narty wrote: »

• What if a shop refuses your cash? There's little you can do, shops don't have to sell you goods, whatever you offer for payment.

I'm not sure if this is correct. I thought that the shop has the right to refuse to enter a contract with you, but once the contract has been made the shopkeeper is obliged to accept your legal tender payment. If he refuses your legal tender payment in fulfilment of the contract then he has no legal right to stop you walking out of the shop with the goods. Of course I have never tested this, but would be interested to know if there is any truth in it.

ArrrGGGHHHH !

A shop can ask for payment in beads if it wishes, you can offer payment in
blankets and beads if you wish ! You have to agree between you as to what the currency will be

"Legal Tender" is an arcane phrase which has NOTHING to do with the average transaction "over the counter".

"Legal Tender Guidelines

Legal tender has a very narrow and technical meaning in the settlement of debts. It means that a debtor cannot successfully be sued for non-payment if he pays into court in legal tender. It does not mean that any ordinary transaction has to take place in legal tender or only within the amount denominated by the legislation. Both parties are free to agree to accept any form of payment whether legal tender or otherwise according to their wishes. In order to comply with the very strict rules governing an actual legal tender it is necessary, for example, actually to offer the exact amount due because no change can be demanded"

See:

http://www.royalmint.com/corporate/policies/legal_tender_guidelines.aspx

pure_dead_dopey

I did make the mistake of spending quite a lot of money on a lovely cottage for our hols last summer in a village in North Norfolk. We spent a fortune eating and drinking in the village as well as the rent for the cottage. The whole holiday was spoiled by the local petshop owner accusing us of scamming her with Scottish notes when in fact nearly every other business had had no problem accepting them. Left a very bad taste in our mouths and would definitely not go back there, civility costs absolutely nothing. Might add I wrote a very uncomplimentary review which was posted on Trip Advisor for all the world to see..

StumpyPumpy

narty wrote: »

• What if a shop refuses your cash? There's little you can do, shops don't have to sell you goods, whatever you offer for payment.

I'm not sure if this is correct. I thought that the shop has the right to refuse to enter a contract with you, but once the contract has been made the shopkeeper is obliged to accept your legal tender payment. If he refuses your legal tender payment in fulfilment of the contract then he has no legal right to stop you walking out of the shop with the goods. Of course I have never tested this, but would be interested to know if there is any truth in it.

Isn't this theory a variant on Mark Twain's "Million Pound Note" argument? If it what you say were true, I could walk into a shop with my (admittedly made up in both senses) million pound note and buy a pint of milk. As it is highly unlikely that a grocers outside of Knightsbridge would be able to give me sufficient change they would refuse my cash and I could waltz out with the goods and never need to pay for anything ever again. I don't believe the real world works like that.

SP

jimbms

iomkeith wrote: »

Incidentally, especially during the Isle of Man TT Race period, many businesses here accept Euros... at a favourable exchange rate of course!

Fantastic another Manxman on here. On the subject do you remember last year a certain bar along the front got the euro/£ rate the wrong way round and it took them about 4hrs to discover why everyone was paying in euros

crystalmaze

WHY DONT THE ENGLISH ACCEPT SCOTTISH MONEY,ARE WE NOT A BRITISH NATION???
DO THEY THINK THEY ARE ABOVE US OR SOMETHING DOWN SOUTH???
IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT WE'VE GOT TO CHANGE OUR GRAND SCOTLAND DOSH IN TO ENGLISH MONEY IF GOING ABROAD E.T.C,BUT AT HOME???
HOWS THAT RIGHT.
NEVER MIND THESE STORIES I'M LISTENING ON THIS SITE,ARE WE SOME SORT OF MUGS UP HERE???
THAT WE SHUT UP AND ACCEPT IT???
IN THIS DAY AND AGE THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN SORTED OUT ALONG TIME AGO,BUT NOTHING SEEM TO BE HAPPENING,AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE.
IT'S TOTALLY BANG OUT OF ORDER THIS IS STILL GOING ON,AS IF OUR PROUD NATION (OIL RICH BY THE WAY) ARE SOME SORT OF SECOND CLASS CITIZENS.
HOPE THE NEW ELECTED LOVERS OF A GOVERMENT GET THEIR ACT IN GEAR AND SORT THIS OUT ONCE AND FOR ALL.

P.S MARTIN,AS YOU ARE GOOD AT WHAT YOU DO FOR THE PUNTERS
(PPI,got £2,596 of my own money back from Clydesdale Bank,Nice1 M8)
CAN YOU AND YOUR GUYS NOT ASK THE Q TO A GOVERMENT OFFICIAL WHY!!!
AND WHAT'S GOING TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS CRAZY OUTDATED ACT.

jimbms

crystalmaze: Do please try to be a little civilised and not post in caps.
You are not the only ones who get this, we in the Isle of Man cannot use our notes in Scotland so I ask you why is your country not civilised enough to accept our notes as they are £ sterling, as if our proud nation (the only country in the British isles not in debt by the way) are some sort of second class citizens, isn't it about time the Scottish government got their act together and accepted the notes of a fellow Celt nation, this is the sort of behavior we normally expect from the English.

Brian_The_Lion

jimbms wrote: »

crystalmaze: Do please try to be a little civilised and not post in caps.
You are not the only ones who get this, we in the Isle of Man cannot use our notes in Scotland so I ask you why is your country not civilised enough to accept our notes as they are £ sterling, as if our proud nation (the only country in the British isles not in debt by the way) are some sort of second class citizens, isn't it about time the Scottish government got their act together and accepted the notes of a fellow Celt nation, this is the sort of behavior we normally expect from the English.

Scotland are no different in this respect, and Im glad you have highlighted the problem. Im sick and tired of the blame lying at the door of the english. If something is unfamiliar to you, youre bound to treat it with some sort of caution. Although I am sad that you have problems with your native notes in scotland, im also pleased because it goes to prove that scotland is the same as england also when it comes to treating customers with "unusual currency"...

and can I also ask this question, not directed to you personally jimbms, if you know there is a possibility that your £200 in scottish notes might cause problems, why take it with you in the first place? Im certain there are more ATM's in england than anywhere else in the UK that you could take your money out of? Why create a problem when there doesnt have to be one?