So-Called "Scottish Bank Notes"
 

We leave Verona for Edinburgh (via Gatwick) this Saturday the 12th and I'll be getting additional cash from an ATM somewhere along the way. I have several hundred in notes saved from our last time in London but know I will need more.

We will continue this trip by ending it in England.

As I recall, perhaps incorrectly, there <B>may</B> be some "difficulty" with spending these Scottish notes in England according to some previous posts <B>here</B>. My tendency is to ignore that supposed warning but I can easily get additional cash at a machine while waiting at Gatwick if necessary.

Appreciate advice and thanks in advance.

Why call them 'So-called'?

They are issued by Scottish banks, and yes, you may have difficulty passing them in England. If you can. try to spend them in Scotland and save the sterling you already have for England.

Thank you

Go to a bank in Scotland and change them for British Pound notes?

I hope you have a good trip!

<i>Go to a bank in Scotland and change them for British Pound notes</i>

That would be <i>Bank of England</i> notes, and I've never had a problem using Scottish notes anywhere in the UK.

I have used Scottish notes in England. They took them, but the reaction was like I was giving them a used tissue paper.

When I was in Edinburgh in January, I only got a few Scottish banknotes, but since I didn't know when I would return to Scotland, I just made sure to spend them first so that I would only have "English" currency for my next trip to London.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...-money-england

Be prepared for them to be turned away in England and Wales.
It has happened to me, but I always had other means of payment. I got shot of them eventually. Last time I went to Scotland I made sure I spent any Scottish notes before returning to England.

This is the first I've heard of a difference between Scottish and English currency, and I must say I'm surprised that there are differences in acceptance based on the issuing bank; I would have thought a pound sterling was a pound sterling anywhere in Great Britain, as long as it's still hanging on as a union.

I will be arriving in Edinburgh from Italy and expect to get cash from an ATM on arrival. Will I get Scottish or English notes?

If Scottish, should I withdraw only enough to get me through the several days in Scotland and withdraw from an ATM in London when I arrive there after Edinburgh?

I tried to use Scottish notes in England and smaller merchants (non-chain stores) wouldn't accept them. I went to a bank and they directed me to an ATM that was labelled as dispensing Bank of England notes; they also told me that the large stores (Boots, M&S, Tesco, etc.) would accept all UK notes which they did.

In doing a bit of googling on the issue I see that the Bank of England is issuing notes printed on polymer material rather than paper as of mid-September. These notes will be 15% smaller than current paper notes. Are shops and vendors going to be reluctant to accept these new notes as well, despite the fact that they are English? Just trying to figure out how to minimize problems that might take up time to resolve.

Shellio, the new notes which I think are the £10 notes will be accepted everywhere as are the £5 notes which were issued earlier this year. There were a few comments at the beginning but now they are accepted as the norm. Just a point £1 notes have not been issued for several years and when i was in Scotland earlier this year I got £1 coins. You will need to watch these as well as the old round coins are being withdrawn later this year.

Hi Shellio

Here in Glasgow if I use an ATM at any HSBC branch I always get Bank of England notes. Any other bank's ATM, it's Scottish notes dispensed. It might be worth trying HSBC when in Edinburgh but I don't know for sure if they will be the same as this city, because it may just be local policy here.

You'll find their city-centre Edinburgh branches at 118 Princes Street EH2 4AA and 76 Hanover Street EH2 1EL.

bill

Along a similar note, last year some Scottish merchants took a double take when I presented Northern Ireland pounds as payment.
I thought it was strange, but after their initial hesitation, I had no problem.

2 years ago I went to a Royal Bank of Scotland ATM in Edinburgh to get about $300 worth of pounds to pay for an apartment in Budapest (our stop the next day)whose owner requested payment in pounds. Scottish notes came out of the atm and not knowing the difference between the notes thought it would be fine. Well, it was not. Owner wouldn't accept them and I ended up taking the back to the states where my local bank accepted them for exchange but for a Scottish pound rate not British pound rate. There was a bit of a difference in interbank rates for the Scottish notes. I would only get what you need in Scotland or find an atm that will give you British not Scottish pound notes. Just my two cents!

>>but for a Scottish pound rate not British pound rate<<

There is no 'Scottish £ rate'. They are worth exactly the same. 1£ = 1£ no matter if Bank of England or Scottish. Someone saw you coming . . .

There is a "Scottish £ rate". The bank can't issue those notes to people requiring £ so they have to send them back through the banking system

That's not an exchange rate, that's a bank sticking on administrative charges wherever they can, as they so often do.

"There is no 'Scottish £ rate'."


Cobblers. Most exchange operators outside the UK won't accept these monumentally pointless British subsidies to the banking industry: the few that do almost always charge a massive supplementary fee for handling them.

The irony of this bankers' scam is that none of the banks issuing Scottish or Northern Irish notes are owned by the people of Scotland or Northern Ireland: they're all owned by outright foreigners or the UK government.

But Scottish nationalists and Northern Irish Prods insist it's part of their provinces' way of life to be exploited by outsider banks, so they insist this ripoff be maintained.