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

One of my uncles sends my children a Scottish £100 note each birthday. We pray we get the cashier who knows us (only because of these banknotes) when we go to pay them into the bank, or we get treated like we're trying to put a human kidney in the safe deposit box.

If someone tries to buy something for around £1 with a £50 note, I would assume it was a fake.

Too many fakes to take chances in a small shop and wiping out float.

I'd also be more suspicious in a charity shop etc as people think volunteers will just accept them, unlike larger stores who might call a manager to double check.

If someone tries to buy something for around £1 with a £50 note, I would assume it was a fake.

Yes, so did we. We used a note checker machine and it turned out it was legit but we still rejected it on the grounds of taking all our change.

They were a tourist couple from a far away country who'd got them when exchanging money. They wanted to break the note because nowhere would take them, so we directed them to the bank next door.

I live in a small tourist town and round here, if you go into a shop with a £50 note, you need at least 3 members of staff, the manager and a couple of nosy shoppers to work out if it's legit and even then the manager might refuse to take it.

Takes the mick that in Europe, you walk into a shop with a €100 note, no-one bats an eyelid.

ShatnersBassoon WOW - they have £100 notes in Scotland??!! I NEED one of those!!

I was just coming to to say that we have £100 in Scotland as well. They are great fun to spend

Ha!! I find this bizarre! €50 is the most commonly used denomination note in Ireland! Not sure about the rest of the euro zone

I don't understand why it would be weird? I use them all the time. No issues.

chocolatestrawberries - we are often paid in cash. I often take thousands of pounds into the bank, mixture of notes, 50s, 20s, 10s, lots of bags of coins. Am never, ever questioned about any of my deposits.

I sometimes keep some of the cash back and then transfer the equivalent into the business account from our current account. All the cash that comes through our business is declared and taxes are paid on it. It's sometimes handy to have the cash to hand, so I use it, but then transfer it.

Why do some people automatically assume that businesses getting paid in cash are trying to avoid paying tax? Some businesses do this, but not all.

Shops have to provide till receipts, legitimate businesses provide invoices. We are happy with any method of payment the customer chooses.

I'm in Australia and we don't blink an eye at using $50 or $100 notes, I've never even thought twice about it and never had one refused. And they're plastic so you can swim with one in your boardies.

My DDad often has £50 notes. A while ago I was at my parents' house and read him a letter printed in the local newspaper which claimed they were only used by criminals. I think he quite liked the idea that people might consider him notorious!

I have no idea where this idea came from though. In his case, it's all perfectly legitimate!

The bloke in the Post Office didn't bat an eyelid, just did something detector-y under the counter but I was expecting that as obviously there's no issue of float or not recognising a fake. My initial reaction was if I had to use it in a corner shop and lots of PPs have pointed out the issues with that.

I was a bit surprised to hear some cash machines have them as I've never had one out of a cash machine, even in Brighton and that's not exactly the arse end of nowhere. I did a quick Google and according to Wikipedia only 9 ATMs stock them, so that's my new thing I've learnt today (I knew about legal tender )

I was once in Brussels with a friend. He had a 500 EUR note to break and tried hard all weekend, but couldn't find anywhere that would take it. The banks were closed as we had arrived out of banking hours and we were flying out early on Monday. Even the hotel where we were staying wouldn't accept it. He was getting quite desperate, as well as embarrassed, since all weekend people were paying for his drinks, meals, etc. He would doubtless have been able to break it at the airport on the way home, but we were flying from different airports, so he wouldn't have been able to reimburse folk. In the end, late on the Sunday evening, a tiny one-man souvenir shop near the manneken pis was happy to given him change when buying half-a-dozen postcards, some stamps and a bad-taste corkscrew.

When I asked about it (AFTER my pal had got his change), the shopkeeper said, "This man must be honest; he has a Bible in his pocket."

My local corner shop had a notice up that they only accepted £5 and £10's, nothing bigger, and no scottish notes.
Ive never even seen a £50 in the flesh let alone owned one.

My nan has a thing about 50's, I swear she must ask for them in the bank. Whenever she gives me cash it's in 50's and I always feel very rich or like a drug dealer depending on how I'm dressed when I spend them

I work in my local shop and we accept £50s

We do have fake note detector things though

Only thing we don't accept are paper English fivers

Only thing we don't accept are paper English fivers

They're not legal tender anymore so nobody can accept them.

They're not legal tender anymore so nobody can accept them.

That's not what legal tender means. It just means that if you offer them in payment of a debt and the creditor refuses them, they can still sue you for the balance.

Anyone is free to accept them if they want to. The Bank of England in London will still take them at face value.

I work in a fairly high-end shop and we always have £50 notes in the till. I think I probably handle them at least 2-3 times a week. A lot of our customers are older and prefer to pay in cash, or are tourists so it's cheaper to pay cash than keep using their card.

I can understand small independents not wanting to risk forgeries, or shops where perhaps you'd struggle to spend more than £20 (newsagents or suchlike) but otherwise I think shops are shooting themselves in the foot not accepting legal currency!

malmi Sorry; but you're wrong.

Bank of England notes stop being legal tender when we announce that they are withdrawn.

For the most recent note withdrawals, we publicised the withdrawal date three months in advance. For the most recent paper £5 note, the period was longer: it stopped being legal on 5 May 2017.

That is taken from the Bank of England's article entitled 'What is legal tender?', which you can see here: edu.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/what-is-legal-tender/

So as I said, the paper £5 notes are no longer legal tender.

They won't accept Scottish money in Hastings where my daughter lives !

I often use £50 notes, never thought anything about it cashiers don't seem surprised at all

Pffft. I prefer £100 notes. All they buy is a couple of pizzas and a bottle of wine. You get £40 change.

I'm always surprised when this conversation comes up. Look how much other things cost. £100 is actually nothing these days (sadly)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Scotland_%C2%A3100_note

On each of our tils is a small notice telling us that if we accept English paper fivers our til will be shown as short and we will have to pay the shortage