Paying in large amount of £50 notes to bank

Brie

VWPolecat said:

Having cash in teapots etc is not completely daft . The money we have in banks could become inaccessible in the event of Mr Putin chopping a few undersea cables or using an EMP weapon. Even a long strike by our own BT or power workers could upset things.   I suppose a robbery of the teapot is more likely but we live in crazy times.  

So much of this appears to be scaremongering.  And then I was made aware of a major IT issue in Canada a couple of weeks back where 25% of the country was without internet.  The result was no online transactions including paying by cards in shops, no emergency calls, no traffic lights, no public transport.  One of my brother's major concern was he had trouble getting into a concert as the ticketing system couldn't view the etickets for entry!  Even worse though is that this is the second such incident they've had in 15 months.

sheramber

But the tills are electronic so they are out of use so no buying  anything.Cash is not any help.

Se1Lad

Keeping say £200 in cash at home for emergencies is different to keeping £10,000 at home 

huw01

As many posters have said this is cash hoarding at home behaviour is more common that you might think with people of a certain age. We have to remember that  pre the 1970 / 1980's bank accounts weren't held by everybody. Many employers would pay in cash and thus it never re-entered the banking system.

In the late 90's out great aunty passed away and I had to help my father empty her house. She had one of those detailed wills that left my father and his sisters named objects or pieces of furniture, "I leave to my nephew my tallboy and all of it's contents". This big ugly piece of furniture contained all sorts, but tucked away in a hanky box was £4000. I'm sure my aunties also benefitted in this way !!!

TheLabFather

3 years ago given £10k by elderly relative in cash to help with house purchase (he gifted it us and he never trusted banks).

Went to HSBC and was greeted with “you can’t pay that much in, where’s it from?”. Asked how much I can pay in, I got back “we can’t tell you”. She handed it back under counter and said “be careful out there it’s a lot of money” !!!

In the end went to self service pay in machines where I think the limit was £2000 in cash and paid in over a week. Plus the odd £200 paid in at Post Office each day.

WillPS

TheLabFather said:

3 years ago given £10k by elderly relative in cash to help with house purchase (he gifted it us and he never trusted banks).

Went to HSBC and was greeted with “you can’t pay that much in, where’s it from?”. Asked how much I can pay in, I got back “we can’t tell you”. She handed it back under counter and said “be careful out there it’s a lot of money” !!!

In the end went to self service pay in machines where I think the limit was £2000 in cash and paid in over a week. Plus the odd £200 paid in at Post Office each day.

Another edge case where having 17 different current accounts would perhaps be useful.

Ergates

Bluemax220 said:

Thanks for all the advice. There seems to be a consistent thread of paying in little and often rather than all at once.

To address the other comment regarding dates of issue, I do believe that the £50 notes may have been changed in 2012 - the discrepancy may be the that the bands the money is in are the original ones.

Anyway, thank you some much for your advice and support.

... and yes, I am telling my mother to hoard less cash at home!

That is essentially the only way to do it.   Anything that would let you pay in large amount of cash in one go would be used by money launderers like a flash.

Ergates

gt94sss2 said:

Bluemax220 said:

So, what to do? The bank basically have said that they cannot/will not help as they cannot authenticate the origin of the money and it contravenes their policies. When I asked when these policies were brought in (and if they pre-dated 1995), they said they did not know, although that was unlikely.

If you want to pay it in to HSBC, many of their branches have machines in them which you can deposit money using an ATM card.

Putting in a couple of thousand at a time should be fine and you don't have to deal with staff.

Similarly, you can pay money into HSBC accounts at Post Offices - who again should be willing to accept a couple of thousand people in a deposit..

As others have said, you won't lose any value as the Bank of England will change them to the new design if you are stuck with them

That might allow you to pay it in - but then the bank's AML system just flags the account and it gets frozen.   Now you're worse off than you were before as you don't have access to the money at all.

Ergates

VWPolecat said:

Having cash in teapots etc is not completely daft . The money we have in banks could become inaccessible in the event of Mr Putin chopping a few undersea cables or using an EMP weapon. Even a long strike by our own BT or power workers could upset things.   I suppose a robbery of the teapot is more likely but we live in crazy times.  

Any of those would constitute an active of war.  If Russia starts a war with us then a) £50 aren't going to be much use either and b) we'll have bigger things to worry about than not being able to use a bank card.

Ergates

Daliah said:

jon81uk said:

Are you sure it would be as low as £32?
1% interest would be £320 a year.

True, though many of the High Street banks offered (are still offering?) as little as 0.1% to their loyal customers. In 2020, consumer magazine Which? found 110 accounts paying 0.1%. 

Like there are people who keep cash under their mattress, there are people who keep cash in those 0.1% savings accounts. Or worse, in current accounts at 0%.

Back in 1992 up until the financial crisis in 2008, bank interest rates on savings were significantly higher.