to have been angry and embarrassed at the local independant supermarket

[blushingm]

i had £35in my purse - a £20 and a £10 which were scottish and a normal £5.

My shopping came to £20.15 so i handed over the £20

the girl on the checkout said - sorry we don't accept these. we take the scottish £10s but not the £20s

i tried telling her it was legal tender but she said company policy - she can't take it. there were loads of people there and it was the only money i had - everyone was staring

thankfully an older man 'swapped' my scottish £20 for an english £20........but still wtf!!

So annoying - I've found the coop a nightmare for taking scottish /Irish notes. Yanbu! Nice man swapping it for you though

She was only following orders I suppose. She probably didnt want a bollocking off her boss.

I get it all the time drives me mad I tend to store them now when come back from Scotland and put them in self service checkouts to avoid the hassle.

What a nightmare. What a bizarre policy taking Scottish £10 but not £20

i didn't think they could do that???
it's legal tender... can they actually refuse certain money??

how very bizarre

i'd have actually told her where to shove it and never gone back

i'd have done that yesterday but it's the closest shop - the others are 10 miles away

they'd get banked like any other note so what's the problem???

Scottish and N Irish notes are not legal tender.

I only know this because I checked in case anyone refused my Scottish notes over the weekend (went to Skegness) but I didnt have any problem.

I think it's up to the retailer to accept them or not.

not legal tender

coffee she checked with the manager - she said no too!

Yabu unless you are in Scotland they are not legal tender. See here

It may have been a counterfeiting issue, since they accepted the tenner. (And btw, Scottish money is "normal money" where I am. It's not legal tender though, it's a promissory note. Technically.

When you bank them in England or Wales the bank has to send them off for processing because they can't give them out again because they're not legal tender.

Can see why you'd be embarrassed, but £20 is a lot of money for a small independent shop to lose if the note turned out to be a forgery - staff who aren't familiar with Scottish notes wouldn't necessarily be able to identify forgeries. In this article where the same thing happened, the owner of the independent shop claims that they are legally allowed to refuse Scottish tender and the bank has told them it's okay to do so because of previous forgeries: www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/localnews/thornburynews/4818903.Teacher_plans_to_boycott_store_after_Scottish_money_is_refused/

It's quite commonplace for small shops to refuse to take £50 notes for the same reason, isn't it? I somehow ended up with a £50 note once and had real trouble trying to get local shops to accept it. Total pain though, I agree.

I used to work in a bank. It's because there are alot if fake Scottish £20 notes. They are easier to fake!

Annoying that they didn't tell you why.

The shop does not have to accept them - as MrsPresley pointed out.

However, they can accept them (and most places do), and they won't be rejected when the business passes them on to the back, so in a normal situation, no-one loses out.

They are often counterfeit though, I don't know if they are easier to forge than English notes, but it was very common to find someone trying to pass a fake Scottish note off as real in my shop. I think that this is why so many retailers say no - they just don't know how to/don't teach their staff to/ tell the difference.

We used to have that problem all the time in the north-east. There were loads of Scottish notes in circulation and it was hit and miss as to who would accept them. Right royal pain in the butt.

I always ask before using Scottish notes in England

Nicest was a guy in Cornwall, fudge shop in Tintagel who said "we're all Celts"

Weirdest was Reading festival beer tent when they accepted first time, refused later, checked with manager later on

As I understand it it's a promise to pay, the seller can refuse to enter into a contract if you cant pay by means they want

When I go to visit my sis its like going abroad, going to the bank to see if they can get me some of the local money

YANBU. That's really annoying, and my understanding too is that it is legal tender - they haven't had a referendum yet! I think Michael MacIntyre does a routine about this if you're the sort of person who likes to jump up, point at the telly and shout YES YES Michael that happened to meeeee!