£50 notes. whats the problem?

scragend

bobblebob wrote: »

Are shops allowed to refuse to take a £50 note as payment? End of the day its legal tender and you're trying to make a payment. If they refuse surely thats their problem?

Legal tender is a commonly misunderstood concept.

From the Bank of England :-

"The term legal tender does not in itself govern the acceptability of banknotes in transactions. Whether or not notes have legal tender status, their acceptability as a means of payment is essentially a matter for agreement between the parties involved. Legal tender has a very narrow technical meaning in relation to the settlement of debt. If a debtor pays in legal tender the exact amount he owes under the terms of a contract, he has good defence in law if he is subsequently sued for non-payment of the debt. In ordinary everyday transactions, the term ‘legal tender’ has very little practical application."

choc_mouse

A take away I used to work for accepted £50 notes but once or twice a year we got fakes which we couldn't really tell when we received them. When it went to the bank, they'd say it was a fake, keep it and say sorry you're £50 out of pocket. That could be 50% of a bad day's trade or an employee's weekly wage. It seems reasonable for any business, whether big or small to check what they are receiving is genuine. It shouldn't take 15 minutes however, 1 minute at most, as they should have procedures/equipment in place to check them.

It is strange however that the 50 Euro note is used quite a lot. Maybe we should print £100, £200 and £500 notes so we aren't so afraid of using £50 notes

fawinds

choc_mouse wrote: »

A take away I used to work for accepted £50 notes but once or twice a year we got fakes which we couldn't really tell when we received them. When it went to the bank, they'd say it was a fake, keep it and say sorry you're £50 out of pocket. That could be 50% of a bad day's trade or an employee's weekly wage. It seems reasonable for any business, whether big or small to check what they are receiving is genuine. It shouldn't take 15 minutes however, 1 minute at most, as they should have procedures/equipment in place to check them.

It is strange however that the 50 Euro note is used quite a lot. Maybe we should print £100, £200 and £500 notes so we aren't so afraid of using £50 notes

I believe from experience that €50 and €20 are the most common seen notes at least in Spain. You see some €100, but rarely €200 and €500.

€500 noted are called Bin Ladens and they say everybody knows they exist but nobody has ever had them.

Indeed I find funny how they react to £50 notes in some places.