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Plastic £5 Notes



fork me

I have changed this
Oct 22, 2003
2,147
Gate 3, Limassol, Cyprus
Coming soon to your wallet.. The good news is that they will last longer thus saving the Bank of England a packet . The bad news is that the Banking & Retail Industries will have to spend an estimated £200 million to change their machines .

They are also reported to have a tendency to stick together, which is good news if you are drawing money from an ATM but bad news if you are buying a drink in a busy bar....

Couple that with introduction next year of a new 12 sided £1 coin and the retailers are facing a big investment in updating their machines

Any thoughts ?

I went to Romania in November, all of their banknotes are plastic and they're much more comfortable and easy to use, especially when pissed as they don't all screw up in your pocket.
 








halbpro

Well-known member
Jan 25, 2012
2,902
Brighton
I agree but apparently Charities benefit to the tune of millions of £s per year because people often donate loose change to them

In countries that have done away with them (New Zealand, Australia and (I think) Canada), they've seen no decrease in donations to charity.
 






I don't understand why we continue to use cash at all. I'm quite happy with a contractless debit card and I only carry cash to pay the rapidly diminishing number of retailers who haven't caught up with recent developments.
 












Cian

Well-known member
Jul 16, 2003
14,262
Dublin, Ireland
About time we got rid of 1p and 2p pieces.

I have about £4 in 1 and 2p coins from never managing to shift them all when I'm over and not wanting to lug them all back with me. If they can wait til next time I drive over before getting rid of them that'd be great :p

We've brought in "voluntary" rounding up/down to 5c, and bar a few grumps/people who like being awkward who demand their 1 or 2c coin (and stand there waiting longer than it'd take them to find a 5c on the ground, or earn far more) nobody ever un-volunteers and they're basically gone. Easy way to get rid by stealth.

If they massively increased circulation of the £2, there'd be less wear and tear on the fivers - its not that awkward really to get given £9 change in 4x2+1 compared to a fiver and 4 1s
 






beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
36,015
I don't understand why we continue to use cash at all. I'm quite happy with a contractless debit card and I only carry cash to pay the rapidly diminishing number of retailers who haven't caught up with recent developments.

you'll also be glad to have cash when a server or local telecoms goes down. few years ago half of west London was offline due to fire in an exchange, no debit cards or cash machines working that day. fees for debit use are a problem too, either charging you 50p or having a minimum spend (anyone know why the supermarkets seem immune to this, do they bear the cost or have a deal?)
 


GypsyKing

New member
Feb 4, 2013
132
you'll also be glad to have cash when a server or local telecoms goes down. few years ago half of west London was offline due to fire in an exchange, no debit cards or cash machines working that day. fees for debit use are a problem too, either charging you 50p or having a minimum spend (anyone know why the supermarkets seem immune to this, do they bear the cost or have a deal?)

There are two elements to the cost of merchant acquiring - the exchange fee (fixed by visa and mastercard) and the margin (%) charged by the provider (Worldpay, Elevon etc).The margin/tariff will be linked to volume so the supermarkets pay far less that your local newsagent. They will also just incorporate this in their costs so don't need to charge it separately.

Your local newsagent doesn't have the same volumes or profits to absorb this cost so passes it on. But no way would they pay anywhere near 50P per transaction. Not even 10p. So they use it as an opportunity to make a turn as well.

On a general point re retailers, they have been preparing for this for a long time and all modern self-service machines are already designed to accept poylmer notes anyway so new capital outlay required...
 




Surrey Phil

Well-known member
Aug 3, 2010
1,531
I like it and best of all you can leave your cash in your back pocket when you wash your trousers!!!!
 


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