MSE News: Got a £50 note? Check it's not about to be withdrawn

chattychappy

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

No your response is silly. Shops do not have accept anyone as a customer. You cannot force a shop to sell you something so going down it's up the the shops argument is silly.

You seem to be saying its up to the shop, and then saying that that argument is silly.

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

All large retailers will stop accepting these notes simply to minimise losses once the the time becomes that they can't bank them at all. They'll want their staff to know/be trained and get use to this now, not later once risk of serious loss kicks in if they take these notes.

When they choose to do that has nothing to do with the date they stop being legal tender. As we know, some shops never take £50s anyway. My bank has never stopped me (as a commercial customer) banking "old" notes. Banks will make their own decisions, as will shops. As I pointed out - I used some old £20s in Wetherspoons long after they were "withdrawn".

Money-Saving-King

chattychappy wrote: »

As I pointed out - I used some old £20s in Wetherspoons long after they were "withdrawn".

How old were the staff? Probably just poor training & you got lucky.

Kernel_Sanders

chattychappy wrote: »

Silly and misleading headline -

The content hasn't been copy edited either; why would you send a cheque to the Bank of England? And why would anybody only estimate what 63m x 50 equals?

fozmcfc

DaveF327 wrote: »

I'd like to see people try spending it before then anyway. Present a nice crisp £50 note in this country, and most shopkeepers / cashiers recoil in horror as if you've presented them with a sheet of used toilet paper.

I had a new style £50 note refused because the silly old bat had "never seen one before". Surely it's the retailer's responsibility to familiarise themselves with all legal tender and their security features (and train their staff in the same) before opening their doors to the public. Banks even issue posters to make people aware of new notes, but this wealth of knowledge seems to escape some of England's backwaters.

In a Dutch supermarket, a cashier accepted my €100 note for €30 worth of stuff without batting an eyelid, but over here, you're stuck with a £50 note for life - well, until the next casino visit!

This is absolutely spot on. Any £50 notes I get, I just generally deposit into the bank, or occasionally spend them on a trip to a casino. I've had them refused several times in shops, or see signs saying we don't accept £50 notes.

I can understand retailers not wanting to accept them for amounts under £10, but when spending £25 + no excuse. I see supermarket self checkouts don't accept them as well.

On my casino visits, they always ask do you want that in 50's or 20's. I've always asked for anything up to £1000 in £20 and £10, because I will just generally keep that sort of money in the house/on me, as it will be spent pretty quickly anyway.

Anything much above and I don't mind 50's cause it will go in the bank.

Also in my experience abroad 50 euro notes seem to be accepted when even spending 5 or 10 euro in a supermarket or used in bars/restaurants.

Money-Saving-King

fozmcfc wrote: »

This is absolutely spot on. Any £50 notes I get, I just generally deposit into the bank, or occasionally spend them on a trip to a casino. I've had them refused several times in shops, or see signs saying we don't accept £50 notes.

I can understand retailers not wanting to accept them for amounts under £10, but when spending £25 + no excuse. I see supermarket self checkouts don't accept them as well.

On my casino visits, they always ask do you want that in 50's or 20's. I've always asked for anything up to £1000 in £20 and £10, because I will just generally keep that sort of money in the house/on me, as it will be spent pretty quickly anyway.

Anything much above and I don't mind 50's cause it will go in the bank.

Also in my experience abroad 50 euro notes seem to be accepted when even spending 5 or 10 euro in a supermarket or used in bars/restaurants.

I remember once back in the 90's in my very first job we just opened and my first customer came to the till with the Sun costing back then 28p with a £50 note. Our floats were £52 in coins. I took £2.28 out and showed him the float and said this is going to be your change, he then found something more sensible!

RoxRoxBling

I don't even use £5 notes, let alone £50 notes!!
On the odd two occasions that I have used £50 notes, the first time a quick check with their machine and I was fine. The second time I felt like I was getting in trouble for robbing a bank! Not only did the women rub the note on paper, she also put it through the machine to check it's real, she also used a special pen on it, and finally, she called her manager to check it's real. I only went in to pay for petrol!!!

Former_MSE_Helen

Thanks Kernel Sanders, 'cheque' has now been replaced with 'note'.

paulc156

Having read the advice on here that you could exchange Houblon 50's at Post Offices and certain banks I've just this afternoon been told at the Post Office counter and then the Nat West counter and Barclays, that none will exchange the notes. Nat West and Barclays will but only if you have an account with them and you put the money through the account. Post Office simply stated that they don'e exchange notes of any kind. They'll accept them in payment but that's all.

So otherwise the advice given both on here and the BBC website is not really accurate. Nat West,Barclays and Post Offices will not simply exchange [up to £200 worth] Houblon 50's for alternative notes.

It's a pain in my case since my mother has a few thousands worth and the only way I'm going to be able to exchange them is by going up to the Bank of England which I'd hoped to avoid by doing it piecemeal at a bunch of P.O's and Banks.

Everynamestaken

paulc156 wrote: »

Having read the advice on here that you could exchange Houblon 50's at Post Offices and certain banks I've just this afternoon been told at the Post Office counter and then the Nat West counter and Barclays, that none will exchange the notes. Nat West and Barclays will but only if you have an account with them and you put the money through the account. Post Office simply stated that they don'e exchange notes of any kind. They'll accept them in payment but that's all.

So otherwise the advice given both on here and the BBC website is not really accurate. Nat West,Barclays and Post Offices will not simply exchange [up to £200 worth] Houblon 50's for alternative notes.

It's a pain in my case since my mother has a few thousands worth and the only way I'm going to be able to exchange them is by going up to the Bank of England which I'd hoped to avoid by doing it piecemeal at a bunch of P.O's and Banks.

If you have them at your disposal now, why not pay them into your bank before it gets slightly trickier?

paulc156

Everynamestaken wrote: »

If you have them at your disposal now, why not pay them into your bank before it gets slightly trickier?

Well they're not mine they belong to my mother. They date back to when my father had some of this cash which he never put in a bank etc etc. about 15-20 years ago. I wouldn't want to put them through my account since that would just pose the same problem, especially as I'm self employed. The reason i made the post is simply to state that the advice given here and at the BBC and BofE websites is basically misleading. The banks listed on this article and [Post Office]will not exchange up to £200 in notes for non customers or customers. They will insist on putting the notes into an account and then giving you new notes. So obviously you have to be a customer and secondly the notes are not a simple exchange. They won't do that.