swap old bank notes

Salbo1970

I have £80 in "paper" £20 notes and need to swap them for the newer ones. I can't believe how difficult this is now! In the past I've walked into a High Street bank branch and they've swapped them happily, even if I didn't hold an account with them. Now I can only find the following options:

1. Return them to a bank: Hardly any bank branches around as they've been closing down at a rate of knots. Where you can find a bank branch, they will only allow you to pay the "old" notes into your personal bank account. Which you can't do if you don't have an account with them. Also consider  that a lot of accounts (mine included) are now online only, so there isn't a bank branch to go to.
2. Swap them at a Post Office: There's only a handful of post offices over the entire UK that offer this service, my nearest being 30 miles away.
3. Pay them into a Post Office account: No good if you don't have an account with them.
3. Post them to the Bank of England in London: You'd have to insure the package you're posting due to the value of the contents, also it can take three months to get the money back.
4. Take the notes to the Bank of England in London and exchange in person: Difficult to get to, also they warn you could have a three-hour wait as they get busy.

Is it really this difficult??? If anyone has any alternatives, if I've missed anything, I'd be very grateful. Otherwise it's pretty disgusting when you consider the Bank of England stated in July last year that 395 million paper banknotes remain in circulation, in denominations of £5 to £50 notes - how is it fair that there isn't a simple, easy, "accessible to all" way for these to be cashed in when needed? TIA

Voyager2002

Open an account at the bank branch that is closest to you. And think about using it, to encourage them not to close it.

wmb194

Salbo1970 said:

I have £80 in "paper" £20 notes and need to swap them for the newer ones. I can't believe how difficult this is now! In the past I've walked into a High Street bank branch and they've swapped them 9happily, even if I didn't hold an account with them. Now I can only find the following options:

1. Return them to a bank: Hardly any bank branches around as they've been closing down at a rate of knots. Where you can find a bank branch, they will only allow you to pay the "old" notes into your personal bank account. Which you can't do if you don't have an account with them. Also consider  that a lot of accounts (mine included) are now online only, so there isn't a bank branch to go to.
2. Swap them at a Post Office: There's only a handful of post offices over the entire UK that offer this service, my nearest being 30 miles away.
3. Pay them into a Post Office account: No good if you don't have an account with them.
3. Post them to the Bank of England in London: You'd have to insure the package you're posting due to the value of the contents, also it can take three months to get the money back.
4. Take the notes to the Bank of England in London and exchange in person: Difficult to get to, also they warn you could have a three-hour wait as they get busy.

Is it really this difficult??? If anyone has any alternatives, if I've missed anything, I'd be very grateful. Otherwise it's pretty disgusting when you consider the Bank of England stated in July last year that 395 million paper banknotes remain in circulation, in denominations of £5 to £50 notes - how is it fair that there isn't a simple, easy, "accessible to all" way for these to be cashed in when needed? TIA

Open an account with one of the banks which has a branch local to you. It's good to have backup accounts anyway.

Brie

Can't you pay them in to your bank account via the post office?

born_again

Given these came into circulation in 2020.
The time to change them was 4 years ago & long before they were withdrawn from circulation in Sept 2022.

Ballard

This won’t help the OP, but I was given about £3,000 of old notes about 10 years ago and changed them at the Bank of England in a few minutes. Perhaps the long queues are only when a set of notes has just gone out of circulation.

In my case there was no queue. I just had to show the doorman some of the notes and he let me in and pointed my in the right direction. I had to fill out a form and left with brand new £50s, which I promptly paid into one of my accounts.

MSE_James

For what it's worth I posted some notes (about £50 or £60) to the Bank of England last year and the money was in my bank account quite quickly. It all worked smoothly.

flaneurs_lobster

When you visit The Bank, don't forget they have a very interesting museum attached (free admission). 

Includes the history of banknotes with many examples, including no doubt those you should have exchanged years ago.

Salbo1970

Brie said:

Can't you pay them in to your bank account via the post office?

That's an interesting one - I doubt it, as you're not depositing it into a Post Office account. But it's certainly worth asking  

MattMattMattUK

Salbo1970 said:

Brie said:

Can't you pay them in to your bank account via the post office?

That's an interesting one - I doubt it, as you're not depositing it into a Post Office account. But it's certainly worth asking  

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/everydaybanking

eskbanker

MattMattMattUK said:

Salbo1970 said:

Brie said:

Can't you pay them in to your bank account via the post office?

That's an interesting one - I doubt it, as you're not depositing it into a Post Office account. But it's certainly worth asking  

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/everydaybanking

I don't think that anyone is disputing that you can deposit cash to most bank accounts via POs, but surely the question is whether this includes old notes that have been withdrawn from circulation, which that page doesn't seem to address?