What are the best ways to pay in England?

Question

Hello there,
Soon will be my first trip to UK and I wonder what payment methods are most accepted in the stores.
Like credit cards? Checks? I also heard that 50 pounds are not accepted in the stores...

Thanks alot!

Answer 1

Ahh.. I never had any issues in England spending a 50 pound. But if I were you I'd use the Credit cards. But check with your bank, Wellsfargo will charge a $5 fee per transaction. Im at a Credit union and they didn't charge anything! :-) Have fun in the UK!

Answer 2

£50 notes are legal tender but alot of places tend to not like them being used. Thats down to there very easy to forge compared to the rest of the english notes.

On the good side though if you go to an ATM they will NOT give you £50 notes, normally only £20 and £10 will be given, some even give £5 still , rare though.

Any Credit card (Visa, American Express) are valid pretty much everywhere in London - even the small shops. Debit cards such as Switch are the same, accepted everywhere.

There are ATM's pretty much everywhere, Most places that will change you currency will have ATM's in there too.

Cheques under £5 dont generally get accepted. I wouldnt use them at all.

Change abit of money before you come here. then hit the cash machines, always handy to have cash on you. The bigger things i would buy with credit cards though due to they have built in garuentees with them if purchased on that way of payment

Answer 3

Credit cards and cash are fine, of course. ATMs are all over the place. £50 notes are accepted at most big stores for high cost items, but dont try to buy something very cheap with a £50 note...even if it is accepted it will be done grudgingly as few places like to give large quantities of change. A lot of small stores dont like taking them at all, because they are prone to forgery.

Travellers checks are ok so long as they are in pounds. Ordinary bank checks from non-UK banks will generally not be accepted at all.

Answer 4

Hi most stores and restaurants except credit cards, cheques with a bankers card or switch cards and of course cash, but yes a lot of stores especially small ones will not accept a £50, best with £5, £10, or £20 but the banks will change them into smaller nominations. Hope this helps. Imp

Answer 5

What everyone else said, however note that American Express cards are not that widely accepted, better to have Visa or MasterCard. Credit cards are accepted nearly everywhere, except for many small grocery shops and some restaurants.

Cheques are on the way out (cheque cheques that is, you will be able to change travellers cheques easily enough), even British ones are not accepted by some stores.

Cash obviously fine.

Answer 6

Plastic is the way to pay in most of Europe. Convenient and easy to use. However, beware, if you are not careful you may end up over spending as you do not deal with bank notes. You tend to forget that eventually you will be paying for all the goods and services you paid for using credit/debit cards by hard earned cash!

Good Luck!

Answer 7

Most of the answers have covered all the salient points. However, may I suggest that if you use your credit cards or debit cards you will be charged conversion rates and commission on each transaction if your natural currency is not Sterling (which I assume is the case). This would add about five percent or more to your purchases. Worth considering the alternatives.........

Answer 8

I don't know about your bank, but mine charged $1.50 every time I used my card. Instead of charging everything to my card, then, I'd get about ₤50-100 at a time from ATMs to spend on small things--souvenirs, dinner, etc., rather than pay the fee every time. But if you're going to be having ₤70 dinners every night, that may not be feasible. Just depends on your preference.

Answer 9

Credit and Debit cards.