Northern Ireland banknotes

[Kathyan]

I lived in NI for a few years and on coming back to England for visits only had Northern Ireland banknotes. Quite a few shops refused to accept them (most thought they were Scottish!) Anyway I was told that if a shop refused to accept the notes that I was within my rights to take the goods anyway, because I had tried to pay for them with legal notes. Is this true?

[THECORBYLOON]

Only Bank of England notes are legal tender in England and Wales. Even if you had tried to pay wi Bank of England notes they could have refused to let you buy the goods because they're their property and they are not obliged to let you have them.

[snapdarlich]

Only bank of England notes are legal tender in England and Wales? No offence meant, but...

Eh? That's out of your bum your speaking. I've used Scottish notes plenty of times in England and we regularly get Belfast notes through our business with no problems. I lived in London 3 years and apart from them having the odd look at a Scottish note, never a problem.

[Buenchico]

From the Bank of England website:
"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."
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/about/faqs.htm

Scottish and Northern Irish banknotes are not 'legal tender' anywhere, even in Scotland and Northern Ireland:
http://www.siliconglen.com/Scotland/1_7.html

Chris

[Kathyan]

Thanks for that. I was under the impression that Soctland and N Ireland were part of the UK and as such their money would be accepted anywhere in UK. You learn something every day!

Chris, where do you find all this information? You always have a good answer no matter what the question. Thanks.

[snapdarlich]

Looks like I'll be buying everything in coins from now on! D'oh!

[THECORBYLOON]

So then snap I'm not talking out ma bum....in Scotland, he only legal tender banknotes were Bank of England notes below the value of �5 and since the withdrawal of the B of E pound note there are no banknotes that are legal tender in Scotland.

I await yir apology snap......

[jgs]

Well, I do not know about taking the goods away... However, the legal tender in the UK is STERLING. If the notes say sterling, then they are legal tender. However, some retailers will not taken them as there are a high amout of counterfeit Scottish and Irish notes in circulation. My advice to you is to get them changed at any High Street bank. They have the means and ways to check such notes, and send the cash back to theri origin.

[spudqueen]

I used to work for a bank and can confirm that Scottish, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Island notes (etc if I've missed any out!) are not legal tender in England and Wales, though some retailers do take them. The easiest thing to do is to take them to a bank who should exchange them for Bank of England notes. You are not allowed to walk out of a shop with goods because you tried to pay for them with non legal currency and the shop wouldn't (quite within their rights

[spudqueen]

What happened there??????? Hadn't finished!!!!! lol

..........cont ), that's stupid! BTW there are other rules on legal currency, no one is obliged to take more than 20p worth of copper coins off you, so if you try to pay for your 65p bus fare in 1p and 2p coins the driver doesn't have to accept it, and more than �5 in silver coins is also not legal tender.

[Kathyan]

I'm not in NI now by the way. The person who told me about walking out of the shop with the goods was told this by a member of the police force! I didn't believe it when I was told. Another thing, when I sent my daughter some money for her birthday (N Irish notes btw) she went to pay them into her bank account and the cashier told her that she (the cashier) would have to check what the exchange rate was!! My daughter told her it was a pound for a pound but she then asked her superior, who also said that she would have to check the exchange rate. What is this country coming to?

[THECORBYLOON]

jgs I see on another thread you describe yirsel as a senior bank official. I suggest the next time yir at work you check yir facts, as Scots and Ulster notes are NOT legal tender. If you work in England, does yir bank hand out any Scots or Ulster notes when folk ask for cash? I doubt it. By the way, I've just had a look at at a Bank of England note and that doesn't say "sterling" on it

[ABA]

CORBYLOON:

I note that you fany yourself as an insuferrable know all. This was a highly pretentious and pompous response to jgs. Have you nothing better to do than criticise at quarter to midnight? Pathetic.

[Hgrove]

I am quite certain that you would not be within your rights to remove the goods after you have tried to pay for them. The shopkeeper declined to enter into a contract to sell them when he refused to accept payment offered.

[leandrews]

I worked on a bar at a golf club, and we regularly had a customer who would pay with Scottish notes. We were always told that providing the note has the word 'sterling' on it, it's legal tender in the UK.

We readily accepted the notes from this man, but customers always refused them as change, as they thought they weren't proper money! No matter how many times we tried to explain they're OK, they always refused them and wanted an 'English' one.

But that's golfers for you!

[endymion]

See the Legal Tender Guidelines at:

http://www.royalmint.com/RoyalMint/web/site/Corporate/Corp_british_coinage/txt_LegalTenderGuidelines.asp

-- where there is a clear and detailed explanation (more so than on the BOE site to my mind) of what legal tender means in England and Wales and which seems to me to answer authoritatively rather than anecdotally the questions posed above.