It's legal tender

[iwoulddoanything]

I'm sure by the title, you can guess where I live

Every day, without fail, I get asked for English notes back in change (manage a large store but often have to jump on tills). Or if I'm in England (actually where I'm from btw), they won't accept my money. I just don't get it. It is legal tender but people still refuse it (when I pay) or don't want it in change (when they're visiting Scotland ). It actually has sterling written on it when English notes don't as far as I'm aware. I just don't get it. And people wonder why Scottish people are fed up of being part of a union which seems our money (the exact same as 'english' money) as less than, or a phrase I hear every few weeks, 'monopoly' money. AIBU?

@BenjaminH not a tax dodger but find that I spend more on card than I would cash. I've proven this for myself with experiments. Don't tell me to take cash out once I cross the borders/ that's not the point.

Shops can use the same process as they use with English notes to determine if it is fake or not

No, they really can't!

This is interesting. I live just outside Liverpool and it’s always been the case that people regard Scottish notes as coming via the drug dealers so if anyone ever received one in change they would usually ask to swop it.
I don’t know why this is the case but it’s definitely an issue here, not with the shops so much but with the customers.

I had this on a bus when I was heavily pregnant. I had received the £5 Scottish note as change from the same bus driver the day before. He refused to accept it and (being a hormonal mess) I burst into tears (I'm talking about ugly crying) and the guy behind me paid for me the hurried away from the blubbering mess that was me.

I usually stop in Carlisle so I get cash out there when I go down south. I don't usually have issues with spending Scottish money in England, but why risk it?

I grew up in England and didn't see a Scottish bank note until I worked in a shop when I was 16 - I had to call the owner over to see whether we would take them because I had no way to know whether it was fake.

I don't understand why people get so upset that England doesn't take Scottish notes, they don't need to and they look funny.

I hadn't realised until timestheybeachangin provided a link that the three Scottish banks issue different notes - obviously the name on them changes, but the designs are completely different too

Maybe that adds to the confusion and reluctance to accept them?

They look funny @sewinginscotland ? How?

@iwoulddoanything They just look different from the English ones. It's less pronounced now they've introduced the plastic ones, to be fair, but they used to look like monopoly money.

I work in a large store in Glasgow. I can imagine the outrage if we started sniffily refusing English bank notes. Can you imagine, it would probably make the evening news 😁

Me at the till 'oh I can't take this note, it looks funny'

😳😳😳

Exactly @ssd

I don't really get the issue over this. With three issuing banks staff in England don't see and feel Scottish notes every day so they don't get the experience to easily spot fakes. So many places take any shortfall from the till (inc fake notes) from the cashier I don't blame them all all for not taking them.

I wouldn't accept them in Scotland if I was going to be heading back soon, as I'd be stuck with them. If I lived and worked there and didn't leave the country, I would, though.

@iwoulddoanything "not a tax dodger but find that I spend more on card than I would cash. I've proven this for myself with experiments. Don't tell me to take cash out once I cross the borders/ that's not the point."

I was being facetious I wasn't genuinely accusing you of being a tax dodger.

Okay if its a matter of tracking what you spend then use the GoHenry pre paid type cards to help you track what you spend.

or

I'm sorry, take cash out on the high street your on, if that's too much hard work then there is no helping you.

unless you don't want practical advice, and you just want to have a utterly pointless conversation about bleedin Scottish bank notes...

@BenjaminH we're part of a union that doesn't see our money as valid or valued as theirs. When I go to England for work meetings and updated training, we're in a remote location. If I need to use money at all I can't if it's BRITISH currency.

@iwoulddoanything

just the paper notes you can still use your bank account in England right?

Some alternative perspective; I used to work in retail in fairly high up management for a large scale well known department store. We stopped accepting them because we didn't have the facilities to bank the notes and it caused an admin headache to do so as they had to be banked (counted and sent out to whichever bank we used) separately to English sterling etc. It cost resources and time to deal with and cost money. It wasn't possible to accept it as you can only log it on the till under English pounds, which it isn't for banking purposes so of it was taken and then banked, that would have been rejected for bot being what it was declared as and the funds lost, as well as a till showing up as imbalanced at the end of a day, which was a company KPI and another admin headache!

The systems are more archaic than you'd assume and retail is not exactly doing well and pouring money into it's back of house.

When we went on holiday to England our Scottish notes were often refused as "they're easier to forge than English ones" which we diddn't believe.

A friend once ordered food at a self-service restaurant for his family and offered Scottish notes to pay for it. They were refused and he was asked to pay with a card. He didn't have one, so left the food and walked out.

It's weird though that if you have a shop in N Ireland you don't have to bank Scottish notes, or English notes, separately.

I haven't seen an English note here in years, I'm not too sure what they look like these days. When I was wee they were much more common.

The only time a shop in England has ever refused to accept a N Ireland note from me was when it was a Danske bank £5 note and it was plastic, before plastic notes were introduced elsewhere. I think it was the combination of saying Danske and being plastic that did it...

And you wonder why 45% of Scots (or maybe more) want independence?

I worked in retail for four years and we used to exact same process for all notes (Scotland, England and Northern Ireland) to determine if they were fake and for banking. So there is the technology out there and if Scottish shops have it then why not English shops? It’s not an excuse and to me it is an institutional problem which signifies our place in this union.

I know this post won’t be popular.

Another issue is, how do you know if it's a note currently in circulation if you don't see and use them regularly.

It can be perfectly genuine but had gone out of circulation years ago. Just like trying to spend a paper £5 note in England. It's genuine but won't be accepted.

Have you ever tried spending a NI note in Scotland?

We had a poster up in the back which showed out of circulation notes.

And you wonder why 45% of Scots (or maybe more) want independence?

45% of Scottish people want independence because some English shops don't accept their fivers? Is that true? It sounds like a pretty pathetic reason to me