Euro-prat

[Kittykat]

We use Sterling, which is pounds and pence (the equivalent of dollars and cents). There are 100 pennies in a pound. Much easier than the old Imperial system!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd

Thank you!

[Jester]

Key West is not exotic enough for you?

[Slave to the Phone]

I'm sure that you live under a damn fine rock, Jester. I just asked my sweetie if we could use Euro's in the UK as he was walking past me to clean the litter boxes (boy, I sure do love that guy) and he didn't even hesitate before saying "No." (Of course, then he came back to me with a random trivia question. A couple that has been married 30+ years tends to develop their own customs that others might consider to be odd.)

Good to have you back, I also was wondering if you had ran off to exotic lands.

Besides plagues of locusts (killer bees swarming the front of my home and cracking a window), fires, and floods all is about the same here in the "land of we don't need any more stinking sunlight."

[Jester]

Even an ignorant and very self absorbed American like me knows that England opted out of the Euro thing.

To be fair, I'm a relatively knowledgeable American, and my little sister not only lives in the UK, but is a dual citizen of the UK and the US, and I did NOT know that you're you couldn't use Euros in the UK. Of course, I would have asked much more politely than the jackass in the OP, or if I assumed they would be accepted and was told otherwise, would have politely accepted this information, and chalked it up to my own stupidity.

I might as well argue that NAFTA means I can spend my USD anywhere I want in Canada or Mexico.

I'm pretty sure that American dollars are welcome just about anywhere in Mexico.

[dalesys]

... Much easier than the old Imperial system!

AKA £sd, which Timothy Leary championed.
"That'l be a farthing thripny, miss"

[greek_jester]

What IS the current form of money used in the UK? Not being sarcastic, genuinely asking.

We use Sterling, which is pounds and pence (the equivalent of dollars and cents). There are 100 pennies in a pound. Much easier than the old Imperial system!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd

[Kittykat]

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

[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.

[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.

[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).

[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.

[Bardmaiden]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.