NI banknotes when in England

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Mickyturbo

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Hi,anyone ever have trouble in England when paying with NI banknotes.I have my eye on a bike for £3,000,but I want to pay in cash.I think it may lead to problems as the salesmen wont be used to seeing NI notes.Anyone experienced problems before??
 

stevieturbo

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Strictly speaking it is not legal tender there, despite what we want it to be. So yes you would expect problems.

Some places will take them, some wont. Get English notes beforehand to be safe. Otherwise you're taking a risk.
 

Paddy_R

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Strictly speaking it is not legal tender there, despite what we want it to be. So yes you would expect problems.

Some places will take them, some wont. Get English notes beforehand to be safe. Otherwise you're taking a risk.

All this is true.

Easier to order the English notes in your local bank (if there are any of them any more). They may not keep 3k in English notes spare so pre ordering would be recommended.
 

bora-gav

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Years ago I went to edinburgh to buy a car with ni notes, the guy I was buying the car off wouldn't take them but we got lucky to get a bank opened on a Saturday and they were happy to take them.

The place in the airport were looking something like £3-400 pound to change my ni notes to English ones. They were met with a swift f*** off first thing that morning
 

pablo

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If it’s a dealer use your debit card. Private do a bank transfer.

Else **** about getting cash. I’d only entertain carrying over ni notes if the seller can lodge them into their account while you are there.
 

avo5021

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On a separate note if you’re carrying a large amount of cash through Airport security be prepared for a few questions on where, how etc you got the money !!
 

Nickyyy

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Hi,anyone ever have trouble in England when paying with NI banknotes.I have my eye on a bike for £3,000,but I want to pay in cash.I think it may lead to problems as the salesmen wont be used to seeing NI notes.Anyone experienced problems before??

Northern Irish or Scottish notes are not legal tender in England, it's upto the trader whether to accept them or not.

You can take your notes to your bank to get swapped to English notes before you go.

Or you can just pay credit/debit card if the dealer allows it or are previously stated bank transfer.
 

impact

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Northern Irish or Scottish notes aren't legal tender anywhere even at home as far as I know. It's legal currency though. The nuances between the legal speak won't help though if someone doesn't want to risk getting handed a lump of notes they've never seen before.
 

pablo

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they are some sort of strange promise to pay type thing from memory. I wouldnt take any if I was an English seller.
 

111gsi

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When buying a classic in a private sale from an older gentleman in England last year, I pre-ordered the cash from his local branch of Nationwide, went with him to collect the cash, he lodged it in his own bank, job done.

I don't think he was the type for online banking. Added about an hour onto my day before heading for the ferry, but quite straightforward.
 

Derekm

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Sellers are within rights to refuse to take NI notes. I certainly wouldn't attempt to buy a car with them but I do get a strange satisfaction from a discussion with shop keepers who question them. Very rare now to have major retailers refuse them but can be more of issue in small villages or local shops where they are less likely to have seen them before. Occasionally junior sales person will ask their manager if they can accept them and they usually say yes its ok.
Years ago they were more likely to be refused.

I always take great pleasure in presenting NI notes for goods already consumed like in a restaurant etc or if you have just put fuel in your car and you present NI notes to pay and they say sorry we don't accept. My response is then "well its sterling and is legal form of currency and I have nothing else...." they always take them then:p.

Remember ordering a round of drinks in a busy bar in England once and my friends had all taken their drinks and disappeared into the crowd. I went to pay with a NI note and they refused and I stuck to my usual "well I have noting else....." we argued back an forth for a bit and he still wouldn't take my money. So we just agreed to leave it at that and I got the round free :joy:(y)
 

Derekm

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they arent legal tender though
Not legal tender but it is legal currency or another way to put it is that it is a legally accepted form of payment. They still can choose to refuse it though.
 

Derekm

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The Association of Commercial Banknote Issuers ACBI states the following:

Meaning of Legal Tender:

The term “legal tender” has very little practical meaning as far as ordinary, everyday transactions are
concerned and it has no bearing on the acceptability of authorised banknotes as a means of payment,
whether the notes are issued by Bank of England or by one of the Scottish and Northern Ireland
authorised banks. The acceptability of any means of payment, including banknotes, is essentially a
matter for agreement between the parties involved in a transaction. In practice, many transactions are
settled using methods of payment other than cash (including debit cards, credit cards, and cheques) -
none of which has “legal tender” status. This fact does not adversely affect the acceptability of those
payment methods.
In reality, the phrase “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.

What is the legal position regarding Scottish and Northern Ireland banknotes?
Banknotes issued by the authorised banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland are legal currency and
can be accepted throughout the United Kingdom. They are authorised and approved by the UK
Parliament, a position that was established by legislation as long ago as 1845 and has
been reinforced more recently by Part 6 of the Banking Act 2009.
 

FM155

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Mmmm, thats the sort of thing that is useful to print out, laminate and leave in your bag if you go back and forth a lot. That and your rights as an air passenger.. Needed that plenty of times.

I've had people tell me that 'they don't use sterling in the north, they use punts and they use euros in the south...' . Well I didn't see that mentioned in the news before I left Belfast this morning was my response. Still wouldn't take them lol. Many years ago, 5 of us were in a pub in Bristol having a meal and a pint which came to just less than £20 each. Quite unintentionally, we each gave a different NI £20 note. I honestly thought the girl was going to burst into tears but we said no problem sure go and get your manager and he'll know what to do. He did, he called the cops. What fun we had trying to explain NI notes to them. Luckily one of us had a credit card and the manager accepted that but wanted to put an exchange rate on it...

I just don't take NI notes to England if I can avoid it. The average person in the street over there is ignorant to anything outside their street, never mind anywhere else.
 

pablo

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I guess the bottom line is this:

"The acceptability of any means of payment, including banknotes, is essentially a matter for agreement between the parties involved in a transaction."

meaning they can refuse anything they want
 

Derekm

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If you want to use NI Notes you will always have greater leverage if using them to pay for goods that you have already consumed like food & drinks or fuel already put in car etc...... At the end of the day the seller can't get their goods back and you are offering them a legally accepted form of payment. Its up to them if they choose not to accept it.....

I am in GB regularly and its rare these days to have them refused. Granted I do use cashless payment methods much more frequently now. However, I do miss the odd good old argument with some random retail vendors who are ignorant of the fact that they are pretty much the same as the bank of England versions.
 

leek9

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They wont take any paper fiver or tenors now in England, but they have mostly taken my 20's.
 
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