If you have a UK bank account, the easiest and quickest way to exchange old banknotes is to pay them into your bank account.
Banks and building societies that accept old paper notes as deposits include:
The Post Office will accept most old notes as a deposit into any UK bank account you can access with them.
There are also 30 Post Office branches across the UK that will swap old banknotes, even if you do not have a bank account.
See the Post Office website to exchange withdrawn banknotes.
The Post Office is suitable for you if you:
There is no deadline to exchange old banknotes with the Bank of England by post.
We are currently experiencing delays of up to 90 working days processing postal banknote exchanges.
Banknotes are sent at your own risk. So please take appropriate measures to insure against loss or theft.
Exchanging by post is suitable for you if:
We can reimburse you with:
We can only pay into accounts that accept sterling (GBP) and all payments are sent via SWIFT transfer. We do not charge for this service, but their intermediaries may charge you.
Dept NEX
Bank of England
Langston Road
Loughton
Essex
IG10 3TN
We may ask you for identification (ID) and proof of address for an exchange of any value.
Identity documents we accept are:
We accept the following as proof of address (permanent home address even if it is outside of the UK):
In addition to the mandatory identification documents we require, some of the documents we may request are:
If you are exchanging on behalf of a business:
If the money forms part of an estate:
If the money is a gift:
If this is money you have earned and saved:
If you are exchanging on behalf of another individual:
If you brought this money into the UK (even as a family or group) and the value is £10,000 or more:
If you have any questions, you can contact us:
There is no deadline to exchange old banknotes with the Bank of England.
Our counter can get very busy so we may issue you with a ticket to return at a later time on the same day. If you arrive after 12pm, you may not get served before we close at 3pm.
Our opening hours are Monday to Friday 9.30am until 3pm (we are closed on bank holidays).
Before you arrive, you may want to find out about our accessibility and safety measures.
This option is suitable for you if you:
What we will ask you to do on the day
What we will do
We may ask you for identification (ID) and proof of address for an exchange of any value.
Identity documents we accept are:
We accept the following as proof of address (permanent home address even if it is outside of the UK):
In addition to the mandatory identification documents we require, some of the documents we may request are:
If you are exchanging on behalf of a business:
If the money forms part of an estate:
If the money is a gift:
If this is money you have earned in your job and saved (including for a previous visit to the UK):
If you are exchanging on behalf of another individual:
If you brought this money into the UK (even as a family or group) and the value is £10,000 or more:
We may keep your banknotes to carry out additional checks if we need to and this may take in excess of 90 working days.
We may request additional or supplemental information in order to satisfy its security checks. These checks are to enable to Bank to comply with anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations.
We will advise you about the information you need to provide given the circumstances of your exchange. Before the exchange is complete you may be asked to provide more information or evidence to support the origin of the banknotes. For example, if the money forms part of an estate, you need to provide copies of death certificate, wills or grant of probate. We won’t be able to process the exchange until we have all the information we need and you should allow time for our checks to be completed.
You must declare cash of £10,000 or more to UK customs if you’re carrying it between Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and a country outside the UK. This includes if you are travelling as part of a group or family.
When completing a banknote exchange form, the Bank of England collects personal data about you. This includes your name, address, contact details and bank account information. Proof of identification, a utilities statement in your name and further background information may be required for higher value exchanges.
We collect your personal data to assess your banknote application (in a way that complies with applicable laws and regulations, including Anti Money Laundering regulations) and to allow us to reimburse you the face value of your banknotes. Without this data, we cannot process your application. This is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of our official authority as the Central Bank of the United Kingdom.
We use this information to confirm you are who you say you are, to facilitate increased checks for certain types of exchange including higher value exchanges, to audit our processes and to comply with applicable laws and regulations. We may make reference to previous claims you’ve made with us, and in some instances commercial sources, to enable us to meet our obligations in assessing your application.
When making payments, we may provide personal data to financial institutions and payment systems involved. In complying with applicable laws and for law enforcement purposes, we may also disclose data to any government entity, regulatory authority or to any other person the Bank reasonably considers necessary. This may mean that personal data is transferred outside the European Economic Area. The Bank will not, however, disclose personal data to third parties for marketing purposes.
We will store your data will be stored for a period we consider appropriate to support the prevention of crime and to enable us to comply with relevant laws.
You have a number of rights under data protection laws. For example, you have the right to ask us for a copy of the personal data we holds about you. This is known as a ‘Subject Access Request’. You can ask us to change how we process or deal with your personal data, and you may also have the right in some circumstances to have your personal data amended or deleted.
To contact us about those rights, including making a request for the personal data we hold about you or to make a complaint, please see our privacy page or write to us at:
The Privacy Team
Bank of England
Threadneedle Street
London, EC2R 8AH
If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted via the details above and you can also find out more about how we deals with your personal data on our privacy page.
There are steps at our front entrance of our building on Threadneedle Street so we have a button to call for assistance next to the steps. It’s on the bottom left handrail at wheelchair level.
A portable writing table (eazydesk) is available for wheelchair users. Please ask a member of staff if you would like to use it.
An induction loop is available at the counter.
Security measures are in place and access will usually only be permitted to the individual who is exchanging banknotes, we will ask members of your party or family to wait outside the building. Your bags will be searched and we request that liquids, bikes, scooters and motor cycle or bike helmets are not brought into the building.
If you would like to make a complaint, please fill in a complaint form.
You can email the completed form to NEX@bankofengland.co.uk, or send it to:
The Manager
Counter Team, TS (A-C)
Customer Banking Division
Bank of England
Threadneedle Street
London EC2R 8AH
Or you can contact us by telephone on 020 3461 5994 between 9am – 12pm and 2pm – 4pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
If you wish to visit us in person our address is:
Bank of England*
Threadneedle Street
London EC2R 8AH
*Upon arrival please explain the nature of your visit.
We aim to respond to your complaint within 15 business days. However, this is not always possible. If this is the case we will let you know in writing and tell you the name of the individual responsible for dealing with your complaint. We will then provide you with regular updates on our investigations until we are able to provide a final response. This should be within 35 business days of receiving your complaint. If we are unable to resolve your complaint within this timeframe we will write to you and explain why.
If your complaint is about how we carry out our responsibilities as a financial regulator, please see our information on how to complain about the regulators
