MSE News: Old fivers must be spent or banked by next Friday

molerat

Bank of England paper £5 notes will cease to be accepted. Scottish and Northern Irish paper £5 notes are still acceptable in their respective areas. A pity journalists cannot write accurate headlines.

EssexExile

teddysmum wrote: »

The plastic note had been folded and sprung back into folded mode, once free of the till's spring, so I can't see these 'economical' notes lasting very long as the fold lines will make the plastic brittle, resulting in splits.

Other countries have been using plastic money for decades, I suspect they've folded them & unfolded them before & know what happens.

KxMx

I paid in some to an account a few weeks ago.

Thought that was that, but got an old one in my change last week, so will be paying that in tomorrow.

[Deleted User]

teddysmum wrote: »

I can't see these 'economical' notes lasting very long as the fold lines will make the plastic brittle, resulting in splits.

There are no claims made about the notes being indestructible, they just last far far longer than paper notes and so are indeed "economical"
They are also nothing new; they have a proven track record in other countries .

bigadaj

Zanderman wrote: »

I can't imagine the BoE haven't taken that risk into account. They will have chosen the type of plastic accordingly to minimise or eliminate that risk.

Edited to add: If you want to know more about the material and the rationale behind it look at the BoE info pages here:
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/polymer/Pages/why_polymer.aspx
and here:
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/polymer/Pages/factsheets.aspx

Note that they don't call them 'plastic' but 'polymer' (though, iirc from A level physics, plastics are polymers...)

I'd hope that would be from your chemistry, so not wholly iirc.

Marvel1

I have an old £5, will use it later to get rid.

isasmurf

eskbanker wrote: »

Since the article states:wouldn't it have been a better use of journalists at a consumer website to make some enquiries of the banks as to what their stance will be and publish that, rather than stating in a headline that the old notes 'must be [spent or] banked by next Friday'?!

It appears, from this BBC article , that the Post Office will continue to exchange them, and banks will accept them from their own customers. It also explains that Scottish paper notes are not being withdrawn.

Biggles

I read the heading quickly and was surprised to see that old fivers must be 'bent or spanked' before Friday.

Now that would make cash more interesting!

Cloth_of_Gold

You can exchange the old five pound notes free of charge at the Bank of England, by post or in person, indefinitely.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/Pages/about/exchanges.aspx

eskbanker

isasmurf wrote: »

It appears, from this BBC article , that the Post Office will continue to exchange them, and banks will accept them from their own customers. It also explains that Scottish paper notes are not being withdrawn.

Yes, the BBC piece was more like what I'd have expected from MSE - admittedly the former has more resources at their disposal but when researching an article on this subject it shouldn't have been beyond the MSE team to contact some banks' press offices to get useful information that the BBC obtained, such as:

A spokesman for RBS said: "After the note goes out of circulation, customers will still be able to bring in their old £5 notes for exchange at one of our branches. Non-customers will be directed to their own bank."

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesman said: "We'll continue to accept them from our customers, either exchanging them for the new polymer note, or depositing it into their account, whichever they prefer."