Shops refusing to take £50 notes

The Running Man · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:29

according to someone on radio 2 they arent obligated to take over 20p in pennies !?!

J.B · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:34

Thorpy said:
They looked cool so i said ok.

Does that mean they asked if you wanted the fifties or not, that should have been a clue.

PermaBanned · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:34

Burnsy2023 said:
Scottish notes aren't legal tender in England and Wales anyway, not that it matters, like I said legal tender doesn't mean what you think it does.

Even so, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information on the matter. How do we know what's actually right?

Ironic Namesake · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:37

Wouldn't really make sense for people to fake £50s as they are the notes shops pay the most attention to !

I think in coppers legal tender is up to 20P

But I believe shop can accept / refuse whatever they wish.

I've paid for stuff worth £5 before in my local shop using coppers (all bagged up of course!) and they accept it no problem

Burnsy2023 · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:37

Superewza said:
Even so, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information on the matter. How do we know what's actually right?

The Bank of England said:
Are Scottish & Northern Irish notes legal tender?
In short ‘No’ these notes are not legal tender; only Bank of England notes are legal tender but only in England and Wales.
The term legal tender does not in itself govern the acceptability of banknotes in transactions. Whether or not notes have legal tender status, their acceptability as a means of payment is essentially a matter for agreement between the parties involved. Legal tender has a very narrow technical meaning in relation to the settlement of debt. If a debtor pays in legal tender the exact amount he owes under the terms of a contract, he has good defence in law if he is subsequently sued for non-payment of the debt. In ordinary everyday transactions, the term ‘legal tender’ has very little practical application.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/faqs.htm#16

J.B · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:38

I always thought a shop could refuse your custom on any basis they like, they are not legally required to do anything. Im probably wrong though.

whitecrook · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:39

Thorpy said:
It's legal tender !

No it's not.

semi-pro waster · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:40

Superewza said:
Even so, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information on the matter. How do we know what's actually right?

Bank of England's take on the matter. Technically Scottish banknotes are promissory notes i.e. the issuing banks will pay the bearer on demand the sum that is on the face of the note. The difference usually doesn't matter as most will accept them as if they were legal tender but they are not officially legal tender.

//edit I'm way too slow with that link.

4p · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:42

whitecrook said:
No it's not.

Already established this :rolleyes:

Cold Fusion · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:43

I think any retailer has the right to refuse to service and when I did work in retail I did so on a few occasions when i felt the money given was not legitimate or the way in which it was used was suspicious.

I would definately eye a £50 note for a £1 sandwich with extreme caution, probably to the point of seeking managerial authorisation or refusing the sale.

Why?

Because if the bank note turns out to be fake you just gave back £49 in legal tender.

Cob · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:46

I hate taking English £50's as there's nothing to glow under the black light. Every other note, including the Norn Irish fifties have a hidden pattern.

It's a case of hoping that the magic pen hasn't dried up.

We get quite a few as our local Primark pay them out in wages. And as for change, very few shops outside the big supermarkets keep twenties in the tills, so handing one to a cashier with few tenners in their till will result in you being called a **** under their breath.

el_dazza · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:48

Burnsy2023 said:
Scottish notes aren't legal tender in England and Wales anyway, not that it matters, like I said legal tender doesn't mean what you think it does.

How bizarre. Every shop I've ever worked in has taken Scottish notes as long as they're from the Clydesdale Bank or Bank of Scotland, and Northern Irish notes as long as they're from Ulster Bank.

I wonder if places in the Eurozone have this trouble.. after all, they have 50, 100 and 500 euro notes. Why bother printing them if places aren't going to take them?

setter · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:49

I often get £50 notes in my wages, only place where i can hand them over without getting a dodgy look is my local pub.

Burnsy2023 · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:50

el_dazza said:
How bizarre. Every shop I've ever worked in has taken Scottish notes as long as they're from the Clydesdale Bank or Bank of Scotland, and Northern Irish notes as long as they're from Ulster Bank.

A shop can accept camels if they want to, but the don't have to.

semi-pro waster · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:52

el_dazza said:
How bizarre. Every shop I've ever worked in has taken Scottish notes as long as they're from the Clydesdale Bank or Bank of Scotland, and Northern Irish notes as long as they're from Ulster Bank.

They have the qualities of money in that they're widely accepted, act as a store of value and can be exchanged for goods or services but technically they're not legal tender - as mentioned it scarcely matters most of the time. It's only ever likely to be a problem if there was a doubt that the issuing banks were 'good' for the money and that doesn't seem terribly likely.

el_dazza · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:54

Burnsy2023 said:
A shop can accept camels if they want to, but the don't have to.

Actually, there was one instance..

It's an odd one. If it's fake and said shop found this out and forked over £49 change to you, they've lost out a lot more than if they'd happily taken a fake £20. That said, I've genuinely seen very few £50 notes in 4 years in retail but after checking them larger stores would probably take them. Did you really have to a buy a £1 sandwich with a 50

Cosimo · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:55

"andy" said:
id of given you the change in 20 pences

You wouldn’t have had that many.

PermaBanned · 7 Apr 2010 at 18:55

el_dazza said:
How bizarre. Every shop I've ever worked in has taken Scottish notes as long as they're from the Clydesdale Bank or Bank of Scotland, and Northern Irish notes as long as they're from Ulster Bank.

I wonder if places in the Eurozone have this trouble.. after all, they have 50, 100 and 500 euro notes. Why bother printing them if places aren't going to take them?

Nah, used 100 euro notes all the time when i was in Italy, very common over there.

Swi1ch · 7 Apr 2010 at 19:00

Burnsy2023 said:
A shop can accept camels if they want to, but the don't have to.

I was under the impression that you had to pay with money ('Coin of the Realm'). It's been a long time since I read about it but i'll try and find my source, but it explained that in order for the government/banks to make money (way back when anyway), they essentially 'lend' you the money that you own, and prohibitted actual exchange of goods for goods, services for services and a combination, so you and another party may have a good and service respectively or equal worth, but you would have to take money out, exchange that and pay tax on it.

Hotwired · 7 Apr 2010 at 19:01

Cob said:
And as for change, very few shops outside the big supermarkets keep twenties in the tills, so handing one to a cashier with few tenners in their till will result in you being called a **** under their breath.

True that.

It's a nuisance to the cashier who then has to apologise to later people that they don't have enough smaller notes in the till for cashback/change because some people insist on paying for a £1 butty with a £50 note.

Even if it is a supermarket they have a £50 or £100 limit in notes in the till in the morning and after sending off cash. Since the cashback limit is usually £50, asking for the max first thing in the morning is another good way to wind up a cashier.