To not understand why English businesses won't accept Northern Irish banknotes

[bunsaremybesties]

I am from Northern Ireland, legally a part of the UK that uses sterling. I am currently on holiday in England. In a shop yesterday there were signs displayed saying "we cannot accept Scottish or Irish notes".

My problems with this are:
(a) the use of the phrase Irish notes - personally I don't really have a strong preference for calling myself either British or Irish, but to my ears, "Irish notes", due to the current real-life currencies used on the island of Ireland, would be euro notes, used in the Republic of Ireland. So of course a shop in England would not accept these, just as it would not accept American notes or Mexican notes. I would have thought Northern Irish notes would have been a more accurate description, as Northern Ireland uses the same currency as England.

(b) what is the reasoning for not accepting "Irish"/Northern Irish banknotes, when they're exactly the same currency as those used in England, Wales and Scotland? While in Northern Ireland we do print our own banknotes, we also regularly use and accept banknotes issued in other regions of the UK. I work in a shop and within any hour block at work, I deal with any number of notes from customers that were issued by the Bank of England, Clydesdale Bank, Bank of Scotland etc. The notes have exactly the same value as those issued by Northern Irish banks like Ulster Bank or Danske Bank, so why on earth wouldn't we accept them? It's not even a consideration in our minds to refuse them. Why is it different in England?

(c) if the justification is that Northern Irish notes are not "legal tender" in England, well then everyone who lives in Northern Ireland is in trouble because in Scotland and Northern Ireland no notes, not even ones issued in those countries, are "legal tender". They are, however, legal currency and so are perfectly acceptable to be used for trade.

Can anyone explain please?

*(or, if we really wanted to, easily looked them up on the internet!)

There tends to be a lot of forged notes, Scottish 20 and 50 pounds notes are most prevalent. Some are quite poor forgeries as well. The red flags are when someone wishes to make a large purchase, usually cigarettes , alcohol or gift cards, and paying with a sheaf of Scottish or Irish 20 or 50 pounds notes.
The transaction will be declined

We accept them in the Isle of Man. In fact I got a N I Fiver in my change other night in pub
Lot about at moment as the Manx bikers come back from the Northwest racing

When I worked as a cashier we had no training on notes, I didn't know what a real scottish/N ireland looked like so wouldn't have take one without checking with my manager first.

Northern Irish and Scottish bank notes are not legal tender in England.

The issue is, scottish and NI notes are incredibly infrequently used, so 'getting used to them' just doesn't work when your staff only would see 3 a year.

It's just lack of familiarity leading to lack of confidence in spotting fakes.

If note type X is used in 99.9% of transactions and note type Y in 0.01% of transactions, staff are naturally going to end up with a better idea of what type X notes are supposed to look/feel like, and so more easily notice when something's not right.

Besides which, shops can take/refuse whatever type of payment they like. Do any of you objectors run shops in England, and if so are you happy to put your money where your mouth is and take a chance on your staff spotting fake NI notes when they've barely ever seen one before? You'd be cornering a niche in the market if it's such a big problem.

I've never seen an Irish note in my life the shops I've been in have pictures of the English notes and what to check there is nothing about Scottish or Irish

I live in NI so I understand your point and annoyance, but this is a tiny population so it’s probably more that no one can be areas with extra training and safety measures for a rare occurrence. I mean the population here is about 2-3% of the UK as a whole and then it’ll be a small percentage of that regularly trying to use bank notes in Britain, especially as cash is declining anyway.

*arsed

The level of ignorance on this thread by some (thankfully not all!) Is actually crazy.

drugs money? Not legal tender?

call us bloody Neanderthals who don’t don’t what the fuck ‘real’ money is, why don’t you?

ffs

I spend time in both places so agree it’s annoying, but they are small businesses and they are worried about fraud, so I don’t blame them. If supermarkets (for example) refuse them, you can insist on seeing the manager and they will, but with small shops it’s up to the owner.

As an NI native living in England, I have to say I don't give a flying fuck if shops don't accept NI banknotes. When my family come over if they want to use cash they just use English banknotes. My parents give me cash for my birthday, always English notes. My aunties give me NI bank notes and I use them in the self service checkouts in Sainsbury's and Tesco with no issues. My siblings just transfer me money if they need to. I did have my NI notes rejected in House of Fraser before, the staff said they looked nice but plastic fivers couldn't possibly be real. We had a laugh and I showed them my university and Bushmills distillery on other notes in my purse.
As to why people in NI use English bank notes I guess there are just more of them.

There are plenty of things I do get worked up about, the price of NI driving licences being double that of mainland UK ones for a start, retailers saying free UK delivery and then excluding NI in the tiny print and the serious issue of women's access to terminations. But those would derail the thread...

Unfortunately, the PPs who say Scottish bank notes are not legal tender in England are correct. I didn’t know this either and I’m still not exactly sure what the difference is but it’s all explained here: https://www.cashmatters.org/blog/brief-history-scotlands-legal-tender

It’s annoying. Tesco and M&S and places like that recognise and accept them.
go to an English cashpoint would be my advice. It’s not going to change and not worth getting bothered about.

Largely fraud. It's cheaper for a business to decline your custom than it is to train their staff on what the different currencies available in the UK are and how to spot fraudulent ones or to risk a dud note that the bank won't accept. Ironically accepting the motes would increase their circulation and ordinary exposure, but it's a risk not many businesses are willing to make.

Pretty much the same reason plenty of businesses won't accept £50 notes from the Bank of England. People just don't see them often enough to have confidence it's the real thing.

Honestly if you held a gun to my head I couldn't tell you who is on a £50 note, and I certainly wouldn't know the right colour schemes/graphics for any of the Scottish or Northern Irish notes.

One shop I worked in a few years ago had to stop taking in Scottish bank notes for a while but that was only while the police investigated because there had been ALOT of fraudulent Scottish notes in the area in a very short space of time and so until we had the means to test them (we had one UV pen in the shop that no longer worked!) and while the police were looking into the matter we had all been told we were not allowed to accept them. It wasn't for long though and I've never worked anywhere else that has any issues taking in Northern Irish or Scottish pound notes.

On the note of Scottish notes not being legal tender, English notes technically are not legal tender in Scotland. According to the Bank of England. But Scotland accepts them no problem. Imagine the uproar if Scotland didn’t (dare!) accept English notes.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/explainers/what-is-legal-tender

Yep I'm from NI too and this pisses me off massively - we all use sterling currency so what is the problem with NI notes, it makes no sense 🤯

Its just coz they don't see many in England isn't it? Especially the further away you get. So they can't tell what is counterfeit so easily. A lot of shops don't take English £50 for the same reason, lack of familiarity. Given that most places take contact less card payments now I'm surprised shops haven't stopped taking any notes whatsoever.

I actually remember going on holiday to Scotland (some point in the 90s) and buying something and being given a £1 coin in change and I said "Oh can't I have a note instead please?". The shop assistant said they don't usually give the notes to English tourists because they know they usually can't spend them back in England - but I wanted one as a souvenir !
The lovely lady swapped the coin for a note 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Scottish, NI, Channel Islands and Manx bank notes are not legal tender in England.

I work in a charity shop, we have 50 volunteers, most operate the till, some aren't even allowed to take English notes, they have to call the manager over, those of us who are trained to spot fraudulent English notes have no idea about Scottish or NI notes, my detecting machine only dies English too. We don't accept £50 notes either

Jesus, can you imagine?! 😲