scottish ££££ in england

[Big X]

Are Scottish & Northern Irish notes legal tender?

In short ‘No’ these notes are not legal tender; only Bank of England notes are legal tender but only in England and Wales.
The term legal tender does not in itself govern the acceptability of banknotes in transactions. Whether or not notes have legal tender status, their acceptability as a means of payment is essentially a matter for agreement between the parties involved. Legal tender has a very narrow technical meaning in relation to the settlement of debt. If a debtor pays in legal tender the exact amount he owes under the terms of a contract, he has good defence in law if he is subsequently sued for non-payment of the debt. In ordinary everyday transactions, the term ‘legal tender’ has very little practical application.



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"Never apologise for showing feeling, in doing so you apologise for truth" Disraeli

[Steveo]

Scottish notes are prefectly acceptable in England and Wales.

Northern Irish notes are not accepted outside Northern Ireland.

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Get off my internet.

[Das Feuer liebt mich]

Every time I've been to England they NEVER accept my Scottish notes. The places I've tried being Thame, Aylesbury, Oxford and Liverpool. So there

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Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.

[SchizophrenicCabbage]

Scottish notes say 'Sterling' on them. That makes them legal in England!

[Paranoid]

They're legal, but no one likes them down south (especially late night kebab shops who think your pulling a fast one on them!)

Basically you'll be hard pushed to find anywhere in Central London that will accept them so your better off depositing them in your bank and then withdrawing at the ATM again (banks should have no problem in accepting them, and if they do thats definitely in violation of your rights...must be!)

...I tell ya its a costly exercise everytime I visit home up North, I have to spend all my 10's and 20's at the airport before coming back down!!

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..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...

[Idealist]

Scottish notes are legal tender in the whole of the UK, and any shop assistant who tells you otherwise is severly mis-informed. Whenever I have problems using my Scottish money in England, I refuse to give in, even if it means that they have to call head office to make sure that I'm not trying to give them Monopoly money.

Irish notes are sterling too, and they are (or should be) accepted in the rest of the UK.

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[s]"You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time"[/s]

[Big X]

Quoting Idealist from 09:37, 17th May 2007
Scottish notes are legal tender in the whole of the UK, and any shop assistant who tells you otherwise is severly mis-informed. Whenever I have problems using my Scottish money in England, I refuse to give in, even if it means that they have to call head office to make sure that I'm not trying to give them Monopoly money.

Irish notes are sterling too, and they are (or should be) accepted in the rest of the UK.

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[s]"You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time"[/s]

just thought i'd let you all see where i got the info from.....what do u think a bout this idealizt?

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/faqs.htm

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"Never apologise for showing feeling, in doing so you apologise for truth" Disraeli

[Jono]

People don't like them because they don't know how to tell a real one from a fake. With English notes it's common knowledge. Scottish notes are a different matter.

Anyone know how? It'd be useful to know.

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Exclusive to The Sinner, and all other fora.

[Don]

Quoting Schizophreniccabbage from 09:19, 17th May 2007
Scottish notes say 'Sterling' on them. That makes them legal in England!

Well if you think that a bank note needs to say "Sterling" on it to be legal in England, then England has a problem as none of their own bank notes would be legal. Take a closer look at an English note and you will see that it doesn't have "Sterling" on it.

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Daz, makes your whites #gggggg

[Garnet]

I always forget about this when in England. I had to spend 10 minutes trying to convince a taxi driver that it was legal currency and I thought I was going to have to find an ATM to get money out to pay him and possibly miss my train. In the future I will remember to get english notes.

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so alive, so full of fire and music!

[Ashley]

Quoting Big X from 09:50, 17th May 2007

Quoting Idealist from 09:37, 17th May 2007
Scottish notes are legal tender in the whole of the UK, and any shop assistant who tells you otherwise is severly mis-informed. Whenever I have problems using my Scottish money in England, I refuse to give in, even if it means that they have to call head office to make sure that I'm not trying to give them Monopoly money.

Irish notes are sterling too, and they are (or should be) accepted in the rest of the UK.

just thought i'd let you all see where i got the info from.....what do u think a bout this idealizt?

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/faqs.htm

Yep, I was going to post the same thing. Scottish notes, even in Scotland, I don't believe are legal tender. Someone more expert can perhaps explain but I believe it's something to do with them simply being a promise of payment from each respective bank, possibly being backed up by a Bank of England equivalent in London?

So as for Scottish notes being perfectly acceptable in England, in theory because of the above, I don't believe they are obliged to be accepted although in practice, they are sometimes by reasonable shopkeepers.

I'd say the main reason for them not being accepted though down south right now though is not due to a technical obscure mistrust of the Scottish banks capability to repay on their notes but rather due to a scare story on fake notes. Apparently they regularly circulate and businesses are evidently uncomfortable at determining the fakes. Apparently.

Needless to say all of this, you'll find them rather more readily accepted in Berwick than in Portsmouth and a £5 RBOS note accepted rather more easily than a Clydesdale £20.

It's a bloody pain at the end of the day basically and I admire shopkeepers in Scotland open to basically any note available.

Ha. And if you do find yourself however in need of spending exotic notes in middle England however, go to Tesco, they'll accept anything!

What a long and boring, and possibly factually inaccurate post, that was!

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Nobody ever mentions the weather can make or break your day

[starsandsparkles]

I've never had any problems using Scottish notes at home and I live just north of London.

I was questioned by a barmaid once but she was Polish so I guess she can be forgiven.

[Gubbins]

Scottish notes are not legal tender in England and Wales, but neither are they illegal tender.

Strictly speaking, the only legal tender in Scotland is the English pound note, which was phased out around 1984. The difference between English and Scottish law is that a person collecting a debt or payment in Scotland must accept any reasonable form of payment (including land) as settlement. Under English law, this is not the case, thus they are not obliged to accept Scottish banknotes, but they can choose to.

In the three years I've spent commuting down to England, I've encountered mixed reactions to Scottish banknotes. Although most organisations don't have a problem with them, I've had a few of the locals and the occasional bus company refuse to take them (it earned me a free bus ride once). Thus, I have made it my objective to bring back as much Scottish currency as possible and convert these last pockets of resistance!

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...then again, that is only my opinion.

[Duffman]

[b]Quoting Ashley from 10:12, 17th May 2007[/

Yep, I was going to post the same thing. Scottish notes, even in Scotland, I don't believe are legal tender.
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Nobody ever mentions the weather can make or break your day

Yep I read the same thing, it has something to do with there being no statute saying that they are legal tender, I think. I've never had problems using scottish notes in Somerset, everyone's too trusting.

Speaking of fake looking notes, how fake do the new English £20 look. I know they have all this advanced security but they just look fake at first glance.

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Don't dream too far,
Don't lose sight of who you are.

[Duffman]

[b]Quoting Ashley from 10:12, 17th May 2007[/

Yep, I was going to post the same thing. Scottish notes, even in Scotland, I don't believe are legal tender.
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Nobody ever mentions the weather can make or break your day

Yep I read the same thing, it has something to do with there being no statute saying that they are legal tender, I think. I've never had problems using scottish notes in Somerset, everyone's too trusting.

Speaking of fake looking notes, how fake do the new English £20 look. I know they have all this advanced security but they just look fake at first glance.

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Don't dream too far,
Don't lose sight of who you are.

[papercutheart]

Scottish noted are Promisory notes - which if you actually check on the notes it says "Promise to pay the bearer on demand Xamount".

This means that if you take it to the bank with which it was printed from - they are obliged to swap said note for legal tender.

Therefore, Scottish notes are not legal tender, but they are generally accepted tender.

[SchizophrenicCabbage]

I have freaking loads of problems with Scottish notes in Somerset. Even the cashier in Sainsbury's thought I was trying to commit fraud! Mind you, had the usual question of 'what's this?' when I tried to pay in a supermarket in Halifax too.

[WashingtonIrving]

I remember hearing about a scot who, every time he had scottish notes rejected, proceeded to pay for whatever it was using a jar of pennies he carried around with him. Which I think is the best way to deal with it.

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"I said farewell honey, I'll see you Judgment Day"

[Ashley]

Nice idea. Although to pull up more arcane monetary laws, aren't shops allowed to refuse payment in coppers if it comes to more than 20p?

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Nobody ever mentions the weather can make or break your day

[orudge]

I had fun trying to get an RBS £5 note accepted at a petrol station in Cornwall this time last year, the cashier kept wondering what kind of "mickey mouse money" it was, but did accept it eventually. Not really had any problems anywhere else, though.

Anyway, according to that ever-useful resource Wikipedia:

Scots law has, in effect, a broader concept of legal tender. Official legal tender is similar to that of England and Wales (Bank of England notes below the value of five pounds, and Royal Mint coins in varying amounts, but not any Scottish notes). However, since the smallest circulating Bank of England note is £5, the only way to pay large amounts in official legal tender is with £1 and £2 coins.

This is largely irrelevant, however, as creditors are obliged to accept any 'reasonable' settlement of the debt, be it banknotes (Scottish, English or otherwise), coins, cheques (which Scottish notes technically are) or even (in theory) property. In the event of a dispute, it would fall to a court to decide what 'reasonable' meant in the circumstances.

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