Bank of Ireland

[scotman]

Are Bank of Ireland notes denominated in Pounds legal tender in UK?

[New2Quizzes]

ABSOLUTELY YES!

[ABerrant]

Legal tender has a very specific meaning in law and does not in itself govern the acceptability of banknotes in transactions. Whether or not banknotes have legal tender status, their acceptability as a means of payment is essentially a matter for agreement between the parties involved.

Technically only Bank of England banknotes have legal tender status, and only within England and Wales. In Scotland and Northern Ireland BoE banknotes are promissory notes only.

Scottish and Northern Irish bank notes are issued by retail banks rather than a national central bank, and as such are also promissory notes rather than legal tender even within their home country.

There is a general agreement between banks within the United Kingdom to treat all above mentioned banknotes as legal tender however, as per the opening paragraph, that does not mean that a retailer must accept these banknotes as payment.

[Buenchico]

Further to ABerrant's post, from the Bank of England website:
http://www.bankofengl...tes/about/faqs.htm#16

Chris

[scotman]

Thanks for that guys.

The reason I asked is that recently I was in Ryman's and was offered a BoI £5 note in change. I declined it and they changed it.
I believe that BoI is based in Dublin so I was unsure about legality of notes.

[chrissa1]

We lived in NI for 5 years in the early 80's and whenever we came home we were treated with suspicion when tendering B of I notes. Even worse were Northern Bank notes although they were perfectly legal. Hence the Northern Bank Robbery of £26M.
In those days Eire used the Punt which was not allowed in the UK.

[spudqueen]

See the link that Buenchio has put up. Scottish, Northern Irlsh, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey notes are NOT legal tender in England. Some shops etc may accept them, but they are under no legal obligation to. I work in a Post Office and will happily change any of the above notes for Bank of England notes.