Euro-prat

[Dreamstalker]

Most should as long as it's on a network that the bank accept (Cirrus, Star, etc)...all the relevant info might be available online. You might have to call your bank ahead of time and let them know your travel dates so they don't see a sudden transaction from France (if your normal activity is only stateside), freak out and block the card.

[RealUnimportant]

Regarding spending Euros in London: only a few major tourist attractions would be likely to accept them, as well as a few corner shops deep in the heart of the shopping district but at a very poor exchange rate! I've had tourists asking why they can't use them on public transport.

When I worked at Gatwick in the long term car parks, we were one of very few businesses on the airport that didn't officially take foreign currency of any form, but if someone was really stuck we'd buy it from them then spend it ourselves at one of the more accommodating retailers.

[notalwaysright]

Just another SC who thinks he knows better than the person who actually works there. How awesome is it that the other customers told him off! I wish that happened more often.

[Nunavut Pants]

...Turkish currency (can't remember the name).

Lira. Like the former Italian money.

[zond]

The last time I needed to change US for Canadian bills, I was visiting Niagara Falls with my brother, sister-in-law and sister after my nephew's wedding in Rochester. We used exchange machines in a casino and got a pretty good exchange rate.

[TheCheerfulTreeRat]

I was surprised it was prepayment - I've never pre-paid over here. The nearest I've had is using a card at the pump!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Euro Prat sounds like some new techno music straight outta Stuttgart.

Or it could be a good name for a music group . . . the Euro Prats.

I'm sure they'd be a big hit with the teenage set here in the US.

[Jetfire]

As said, a lot of border communities in Canada and the US will take the other country's currency, but give you change back in local currency. If you live in the area, that's not a big deal.

Most big cities will also have Currency Changing places in malls and airports and other high traffic areas, that will change foreign currencies to local ones.

Some banks will also do that for you too, and if you want to buy foreign currency, they can sometimes order and get that for you too. (Or they used to do that, 20-30 years ago before the Debit/Credit networks became so common).

As far as I know, very few places will accept coin currency not in the local denomination. Once again, US/Can communities will not bat an eye at a US quarter in Canadian change or vice versa, but away from the border, they'll often refuse it if they notice it. And currency change places rarely accept metal either; maybe some of the higher denomination coins (Toonies/Loonies in Canada's case) but that would be about it. So make sure you change up before you leave the country.

And on a personal non-Can/US note. A couple of years ago, I went to Scotland for vacation/for my grandmother's ashes burial. First time I ever spent time in the UK (first time I'd been to Europe in over a decade even). We got by on Credit/Debit and taking cash out at cash machines.

I returned home with a couple hundred Scottish pounds, and figured I would sell them to coworkers later on. (My company does a lot of international business including regular trips to London for one of our clients). It wasn't until I got home that I realized that Scottish Pounds and British Pounds are oh-so-slightly different, and spending the Scottish ones in London might be problematic.

Still, I outlined all of the possible concerns and extra hooplah that might be needed when I put the call out to my coworkers. Sold them to a manager who was going over a few weeks later, and when he got back, he said he had a few crosseyed looks when he spent them, but otherwise had no major problems with it.

[nutraxfornerves]

I recently returned from 10 days in London. I used my ATM card to get £60 and didn't spend it all. I have a.travel credit card that doesn't charge a foreign fee, so I used that to pay for just about everything.

I had a bit of a problem when I tried to order some tickets online. They wouldn't accept a credit card from another country. Although I had notified the cc company of foreign travel, they froze my card because it was declined--a red flag. . The cc company send me both a text and an email, with an easy online way to unfreeze it, but that took a few hours to fix. An annoyance, but I preferred the vigilance to having some ne'er-do-well going on a spree with the card.

One important thing is to use an ATM card, not a credit card to get cash from a machine. If you use a credit card, it is considered a cash advance, and you pay interest from the minute of withdrawal. No grace period. Some credit cards also come with a cash advance fee.

[Bardmaiden]

M&S take Euros and other currency, but that is because they have exchanges in most stores.

[RealUnimportant]

I returned home with a couple hundred Scottish pounds, and figured I would sell them to coworkers later on. (My company does a lot of international business including regular trips to London for one of our clients). It wasn't until I got home that I realized that Scottish Pounds and British Pounds are oh-so-slightly different, and spending the Scottish ones in London might be problematic.

There's no difference between them, they're both Sterling. Same goes for pound notes issued by Northern Irish banks (Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank); all are technically equally valid. Not to say you won't get "cross-eyed looks" at some places, but they're always exchangeable at banks if the corner shop balks. (Due to not seeing the very often, many smaller retailers don't accept them as they don't know the security features so well.)

The most common fake note around my patch is a Bank of Scotland £50 that has just been run off on a regular colour printer. Scottish banks also issue a £100 note which I've never seen but wish to acquire one day.

[Jetfire]

Yeah, I told him (he was my manager) when he bought them that he might need to go to a bank to exchange them if the retail stores wouldn't take them; but ultimately he had no problems with it at all.

Still, when I got home from my trip and read up on the UK banking/bill notes situation, it was rather fascinating, since I'm used to having only 1 bank issuing tender (and next to a country also with a single source of legal tender). When I got the bills in Edinburgh, I figured the different types of bills were different runs or special occasion bills; not bills literally from different banks. (By the end of the trip I think I had bills from all 3 Scottish banks).

[Victory Sabre]

My guess is the idiot the op talked about went to Eurozone, had a 20 left over, and hoped the op was stupid enough to take it.

[Sparklyturtle]

My sister and her hub were stationed in the Netherlands some years ago. She and hub took a group of school children on an outing (he drove the bus and she was the nurse accompanying the group) and she told me that some parents gave their children American dollars to spend on the trip. This was even despite being told by the school that they had to have euros to spend in the Netherlands.

[Kittykat]

As a non European/British citizen. What IS the current form of money used in the UK? Not being sarcastic, genuinely asking.