If you have any old £20 and £50 paper banknotes, today is the last day you can spend them.
The old notes are being removed from circulation as the Bank of England is withdrawing their legal tender status after September 30. This means people will not be able to use them in shops from Saturday.
However, they will still be allowed to deposit any old notes at the Bank of England or into their accounts at a Post Office. Many banks should still allow customers to exchange old bank notes after they’re no longer legal tender.
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All polymer banknotes carrying a portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II remain legal tender and can still be used as normal, reports The Mirror. Although most paper £20 and £50 notes in circulation have already been replaced with polymer versions, the Bank estimates there are still over £5b worth of paper £20 featuring the economist Adam Smith.
And there are still nearly £6b worth of paper £50 banknotes featuring the engineers Boulton and Watt in circulation. It means there are more than 250 million individual £20 banknotes and more than 110 million paper £50 banknotes.
Long queues are expected at Post Offices across the country where £1.2b worth of old paper notes have been deposited since January. Post Office banking director Martin Kearsley said that most of Britain's 11,500 branches are open long hours with staff on hand to help with the process.
"We're fully aware that people lead busy lives and some may put off depositing their paper £20 and £50 banknotes until the last moment," he said. "Postmasters and their staff are on hand to provide that human reassurance that your old notes have been deposited into your bank account and will provide a receipt too."
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