English Paper Currency Being Withdrawn

[cove]

I read that £20 and £50 paper notes in the UK are being withdrawn and will have no value in less than 3 months.
Plastic notes will be ok.

 

[Denali]

I read that £20 and £50 paper notes in the UK are being withdrawn and will have no value in less than 3 months.
Plastic notes will be ok.

I remember arriving in (I think) 2019 with old notes (£10?) that I couldnt change and I got these only months earlier from a airport currency exchange shopfront so dont get caught like I did

 

[FlyingFiona]

Ouch "English" paper currency...."notes in the UK."

(The three Scottish banks Clydesdale Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland are also withdrawing their £20 and £50 paper notes. Their notes are not "English paper currency," in fact they aren't even legal tender. They are widely accepted south of the border....but a shop keeper is not obliged to accept them. And vice-versa for English currency in Scotland.)

 

[Mwenenzi]

I still have some old old UK notes ! (but not many)

100 days left to use your paper £20 and £50 banknotes

The Bank of England will be withdrawing legal tender status of paper £20 and £50 banknotes after 30 September 2022.

www.bankofengland.co.uk

News release
The Bank of England will be withdrawing legal tender status of paper £20 and £50 banknotes after 30 September 2022.

After this date, paper £20 and £50 banknotes will no longer be legal tender. So we are encouraging anyone who still has these to use them or deposit them at their bank or a Post Office during these last 100 days.

It is also exactly one year since we issued the polymer £50 banknote featuring the scientist Alan Turing, on what would have been his 109th birthday. The Turing £50 completed our family of polymer notes, with all denominations (£5, £10, £20 and £50) now printed on polymer.


While the majority of paper £20 and £50 banknotes in circulation have been replaced with new polymer versions, there are still over £6 billion worth of paper £20 featuring the economist Adam Smith, and over £8 billion worth of paper £50 banknotes featuring the engineers Boulton and Watt, in circulation. That’s more than 300 million individual £20 banknotes, and 160 million paper £50 banknotes.
<snip>

 

[SYD]

I read that £20 and £50 paper notes in the UK are being withdrawn and will have no value in less than 3 months.
Plastic notes will be ok.

£20 are already pretty much out of circulation. I was expecting to have to take them to a bank but I managed to offload my remaining ones a couple of weeks ago. 1x into a Oyster card top up, 1x at Hadrians’s Wall (woman said, “oh, I haven’t seen one of these for awhile“) and the last one at a cafe when their EFTPOS died.

There actually wasn’t the need for much cash travelling around the UK. In fact some places had gone entirely cashless.

 

[Cossie]

Thanks, I’ll have to check the safe!

 

[AIRwin]

Thanks, I just told a friend about it and she ended up finding £770 which I then offered to exchange with her for my upcoming trip...

 

[VPS]

I gave my last paper 20 pound note to a friend who travelled recently and he kindly sent me a photo of his lunch that I paid for.

 

[AIRwin]

I gave my last paper 20 pound note to a friend who travelled recently and he kindly sent me a photo of his lunch that I paid for.

20 quid pro quo

 

[drron]

We have 240GBP in paper notes. First hotel will take care of that. We will have left by Sptember 30.

But brings up another question. Is it better to get some more GBP here or in the old dart.

 

[OATEK]

Just as covid hit we were about to depart for the UK & Europe. I had a bunch of paper notes when the wall came up, and I knew they were changing to polymer. So I went along to my usually currency exchange where they changed them to the new notes for me without blinking, and I hung on to them for 2 years until our visit in March this year.

 

[OZDUCK]

The last time we were in part of the UK - Northern Ireland 2017 - I managed to leave with about 6 Pence in my pocket. I definitely made sure that I had no Northern Ireland banknotes left over.

 

[SYD]

But brings up another question. Is it better to get some more GBP here or in the old dart.

I’d get it there. UK ATMs are generally fee free. Just comes down then to what bank/card you have to access cash.

As per my previous, a no (or low) Int Fee CC/DB card will be invaluable.

 

[AIRwin]

I managed to leave with about 6 Pence in my pocket.

Did you Sing a Song of 6 Pence? And was your pocket full of rye?

 

[Lynda2475]

But brings up another question. Is it better to get some more GBP here or in the old dart.

Doubtful you will actually need any cash, my last two trips (2018 and 2019) I was able to pay for absoluely everything with a card. I did take some cash out of an ATM completely fee free but never spent any of it; so have to check to see if any of it is paper, if so will have to make an effort to use it in August.

It should be cheaper to get the cash out of an ATM once in the UK using a card like Citi or Macquarie bank that dont charge any fees and uses the mastercard exchange rate. Changing money here in Aus will incurr an unecessary commission.

My goal is to not need any cash again this trip, so as to not have the hassle of worry about scottish vs english notes and coins.

For my last 4 overseas trips Ive boarded the plan with no foreign currency and had no issues.

 

[DC3]

We have 240GBP in paper notes. First hotel will take care of that.

Would that even cover a meal in the UK?

 

[drron]

Would that even cover a meal in the UK?

Not in some of the places we go!

 

[mrsterryn]

Oops time to check the safe

 

[mrsterryn]

Ok husband has some quick shopping to do when he lands 16th September with paper notes

 

[jastel]

This thread was done a couple of months back...but a good reminder.