to feel uncomfortable using a £50 note

[Charliegirl1974]

DH was given a £50 note by BIL and passed it on to me to top up the electricity and do some shopping and my first reaction was that the local shop might be a bit funny about accepting it. He thinks money is money and I'm being a bit strange.

I've decided to go a bit out of my way to use it at the Post Office so there shouldn't be a problem but am I being weird? All I can think of is that I'm turning into those little old ladies who were afraid of £20 notes when I was a kid

Now my dad would often have 100 pound notes. He'd send me to the local shop to buy a paper and a 10p sweetie so he could 'break' it and get change. Don't remember it being an issue. Although in the 80s sending an 8 year old out with a 100quid note was probably more common than nowadays

A £50 note is legal tender, which means that you can use it as payment for court fine. No shop has to accept it if they don't want to.

It was in the local paper that a shop had a fake one so that's on my mind and no, I'm definitely not rich enough to turn down £50!

I'm surprised anyone still uses cash really apart from small purchases. Wouldn't want to carry lots of notes around.

you can always nip into your bank and swap it for some lower denominations.

YANBU I've never had one. The cash machine never gives you them so I wonder where all these people who use 50's often have got them from.

just read you're going to the PO.

Ignore me

I had one of these once from a relative

I immediately went to the bank and changed it

apart from anything else, I wouldn't want the amount of change I'd get, any money spent in cash is likely to be money for a pack of mints or something.

I can see why it would make you uncomfortable. I think people who prefer cash to cards (I like cards because I can see what has been spent much more easily) and people who withdraw £300 at a time probably get £50s.

Why would you feel strange? It's legal tender. How is it any different to paying with two twenties and a ten? In Ireland some ATM's only give out €50 notes!

In Euroland there are €500, €200, €100 notes as well as 50s 20s and 10s. The 500s are often refused but the 200 and 100s are usually accepted.
I don't think a £50 note is anything unusual!

I had a £50 note recently and was in B&m paying for items the lady at the till called the manager and spent 10 minutes on whether they could take it. While waiting a woman announced (loudly) to her partner that she can't believe people who have £50 notes shop in B&m I was it was a gift and all I had in my purse

I've used 200 and 500 euro notes before - was slightly worried that the shop workers might think I was a drug dealer or something!! Anyway, when using big notes you are best off going to a big shop that is more likely to take it - had a few shops tell me they couldn't take the notes.

However I've used 50 quid notes in the UK lots (when you exchange money you tend to get the bigger denomination notes) and never had a problem. Seems rather small to me considering how big the notes are in Euros!

I think the problem with using them in small shops tends to be that small shops don't keep a lot of money in the tills so if you're buying something pretty small, accepting a £50 will leave them short of change. The problem in bigger shops is often that people have no idea how to recognise a fake £50 note because they don't know what a real one looks like.

I've worked in a few shops and wasn't allowed to accept them, I'd have it changed at the bank if I was you.

There have been reports of fake £50 notes in my local area, so some small traders are refusing to take them. I would think you would be ok at the Post Office and as others have said you could also exchange it at a bank

I often used to use £50 notes because my husband was often paid in cash and he would pass it on to me for my 'housekeeping' (how old fashioned that sounds nowadays). I never had one refused, but I did stick to bigger shops. They were always checked, and often the cashier would call the superviser over to double check. Not because they think you're up to anything dodgy, just because £50 is a significant amount of money to lose.
When I was a collector I used to refuse £50 notes because I didn't have anything to check them with, and I couldn't afford to lose that amount of money. But it shouldn't be a problem if the shop has the right equipment to check them with.

Never seen a £50 note in my life!

Not sure about now but when I worked for a bank many moons ago they were considered the hardest of all notes to forge. They had extra features and as there were not that many in circulation easier to spot a duff one.

I don't think it leaves shops short of change unless you count fivers and tenners as 'change'. And if you count fivers as 'change' then tenners should be equally problematic for small shops.

The last time I tried to spend a £50 it was the 'old' design (just before they were removed from circulation). It was in a bar and the barmaid refused it, telling me it was fake because it didn't have a particular feature (which it wasn't supposed to as it was only on the new note). Then handed it back and told me I should take it to a corner shop and try my luck there. So she was wrong and amoral.

I took it to the post office and paid it into my account.

Just to add to a post above, my son works in retail, and he was trained to recognise and check all demoninations of notes. Quite a few people still use cash, even for large purchases.

The Barclays cashpoint in our town gives them out if you take more than £100 out. I pay my cleaner & ironing lady cash. I buy things like fruit, veg & flowers from market stalls and use cash at those.

I use notes equivalent to a £200 note in other countries and that feels "normal" there.

But yes, £50 in the UK feels strange 😂

50s are fine, pop into the bank on your way and get it changed if you are worried.

When I volunteered in a charity shop we didn't take them but I've since worked on the high street and we did. We could say no outright but we don't like to as it seems rude. However, I've occasionally asked people if they have something smaller if I know I don't have decent change for them!
People who try to "break" a 50 with a smallish spend can be dicks though. If they really have no other cash or won't pay by card they can wipe a change float out, if not much cash has been taken. I run tills with £50 floats and if you're then the only cash txn that day (and it does happen) it's a pain to cash up around and sort out as well.

So yeah, only spend them if you're actually spending at or near £50. Or risk getting shit tonnes of shrapnel back.

Nothing however, compares to getting people to take Scottish or Irish notes. I usually bank them but occasionally have to float them. If you are given them in a shop, they are clearly legal tender!

Pedantic mode: Actually Scottish and Irish notes are not legal tender, but legal tender doesn't mean what most people think it does.