MSE News: Old £1 coins already unusable in many parking and self-service machines 29 September 2017 at 5:11PM edited 2 October 2017 at 11:35AM in Shop but don't drop 10 replies 4.1K views

Former_MSE_Callum

Many parking and self-service machines across the country have stopped accepting the old £1 coin - even though it is still legal tender until the middle of next month...

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'Old £1 coins already unusable in many parking and self-service machines'

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soolin

I keep spending mine only to get loads every time I go shopping. Got3 in my change from WH Smiths this morning.

zerog

Many TfL machines which have the notice are still taking old pound coins. They are still giving them out in change, which they really shouldn't be if they don't want to take them in.

Although, a few TfL machines, which don't have the notice, have been rejecting old pounds since June/July.

SHERE machines (found at Southern stations as well as at Paddington/Ealing Broadway**) still accept old £5 notes and I suspect they will continue to accept old £1 coins well after October, as they still don't accept the new £1! But Southern seems to have removed some of these machines rather than fixing them to accept the new coin.

**GWR stuck a piece of paper over the coin slot which says CARDS ONLY, but if you put coins in I think it would still take them.


If you are worried about getting more in change, just go to the bank and get £100 of new pounds, so you'll always have the exact number of whole pounds you need for the next 2 weeks



Legal tender is irrelevant to which coins a machine wishes to accept.

unforeseen

Why would they modify/buy new machines to take both? They changed the machines to take the new coins. First people moan within days of new coins coming out that they can not use them in some machines. Now they moan because within 15 days of the coins going out of circulation people now moan because the machines have been modified for the new coins and won't accept the old ones

You just cannot win with some people.

robin58

unforeseen wrote: »

Why would they modify/buy new machines to take both? They changed the machines to take the new coins. First people moan within days of new coins coming out that they can not use them in some machines. Now they moan because within 15 days of the coins going out of circulation people now moan because the machines have been modified for the new coins and won't accept the old ones

You just cannot win with some people.

Fair point but the old coins are still legal tender.

Most coin machines especially the newer ones only need slight modifications and an update to the software to acknowledge the type of coin inserted. They should still take the old coin.

To stick a piece of paper over a slot is pee poor way to give a customer a option on how to pay if they don't have a bank or credit card.

unforeseen

As there is no legal requirement for the machines to take all legal coins, why go for an interim solution?

Gordon_the_Moron

Why go for an interim solution?

Easy, it's basic good customer service to accept all legal tender (within reason - asking someone to accept a payment of £50000 in £1 isn't!!!)

As long as a machine has a coin slot wide enough for the new £1 coin (I think they're slightly thicker than any other coin in circulation) it should only need a software update to accept the new coins. It would be just as easy to change them to accept both as one and not the other, then disable acceptance of the old ones on the 15th.

A self service machine should be no different to a manned till, you'd expect them to accept both until the 15th right?!?

unforeseen

But you can cut your modification costs in half by switching off the old pound coin validation at the same time that you enable/upgrade for the new coin validation.

Otherwise you have a second engineer cost/visit after the 15th to disable the old one.

Coin validator software tends not to be sophisticated enough to switch on/off validation for a specific coin on a set date.

beefturnmail

2 weeks away and I'm still frequently getting the old £1 coins in change. At what point will shops stop giving them out in change - if I'm given one at 11:55pm on 14 October can I refuse it?

I'm sure when e.g. the old fivers went out of circulation, they became pretty rare well before the withdrawal date?

bods

My local council swimming pools are still yet to change their lockers to accept the new coins. They seem in no hurry at all. I'm going to have to keep hold of at least one old one for some time I expect.

mrsk

Sainsbury's trolleys only take the old coins.