Cashback / £5 notes

[DGRossetti]

Is it just me, or is it getting harder (again) to source £5 notes ?

Especially if you don't work or can't visit a bank during working hours ?

Apparently Sainsburys (or at least our local one) have stopped giving cashback. Which means you're stuck with cash machines that don't give fivers.

(It's really annoying when you're trying to pay for a takeaway !)

HSBC machines always seem to give me a healthy mix of notes, including £5s. I'm surprised about the no cash back thing at Sainsburys :(

Barclays cash machines often give me £5 notes

Very occasionally, I've had £5 notes from cash machines (none of the ones near me, of course).

However my experience is that they insist on multiples of £10 and not all cash machines tell you what denominations are available.

This is how the fiver famine started last time ...

(Note to self to treble check tomorrow that it's all Sainsburys that have stopped cashback. It's what I was told, but sometimes messages can be garbled in the passing on ...)

We got cash back from our local Sainsburys the other day. Needed £3 for school, got £10 cash back and asked for £5 in one pound coins and a £5 note if they could, got it no problem. Looked like there were plenty of fivers in the till too.

Had heard Sainsburys weren't doing cash back and was prepared to be refused, but they did it no problem. (We are in Somerset, but I guess people won't want to come this far just for cash back, they'll just use an ATM.)

As for cash machines, many years ago TSB did £5s, and you could get out e.g. £5, £15, £25 rather than multiples of 10s. Don't know if they still do that. I know Santander don't. I believe one reason is the £5 notes take up a lot of space for the quantity of money compared with other denominations so banks don't like to put them in as the machines need filled more often if they contain fivers rather than tenners being the lowest denomination. Helps the machines not run out of cash so quickly at weekends too as they don't usually get filled so often at the weekend.

For a reliable source of fivers you need to go to ATMs near colleges and universities. Broke students use em