We have issued a new £20 note made of polymer. You can still use your paper £20 notes for now. We’ll give you 6 months’ notice of the date you’ll no longer be able to use the paper £20.
If you have a UK bank account, the simplest and quickest way to exchange your notes will normally be to deposit them with your bank.
The Post Office may also accept withdrawn notes as payment for goods and services, or as a deposit into any bank account you can access with them.
The Bank of England counter is temporarily closed in response to the Covid-19 outbreak and will re-open in due course. We recommend you exchange your banknotes by post. At present we are unable to confirm whether the Counter will be open on the issue date of the new polymer £50. Please refer to our ‘Exchanging old banknotes’ page for up to date information about our Counter and opening hours.
You can always exchange withdrawn notes with us by post. At this time there may be a delay in processing your exchange.
Be aware the banknotes are sent at your own risk. So please take appropriate measures to insure against loss or theft.
Please complete a postal exchange form for individuals or businesses (available below). Send it with your banknote(s) and photocopies of ID (one photo ID and one proof of address) for any exchange (mandatory for any exchange of £700 or more) to Department NEX, Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AH. To check what we accept please see ‘Identification and proof of address’ below.
We can pay your money into a bank account (normally within ten working days), by cheque or, if you live in the UK and your exchange is worth less than £50, in new banknotes. We do not send banknotes overseas.
For payments to an overseas bank account, please provide the BIC/SWIFT Code and IBAN or Account number. Please note we can only pay into accounts that accept sterling (GBP). We do not charge for this service. However your bank or their intermediaries may charge you.
If we are unable to make an electronic payment, we will send a sterling cheque payable to you. We will always cash the cheque if presented at the Bank of England counter, although please note that the Counter is temporarily closed. Please give us 24 hours' notice if you wish to cash the cheque at our counter.
To exchange your banknotes by post, please fill out the banknote exchanges application form Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window and send it to us with the banknotes along with copies of your photo ID and proof of address.
To exchange your banknotes by post, please fill out the business banknote exchanges application form Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window Opens in a new window and send it to us along with:
We accept the following identity documents and reserve the right to request identification and proof of address for an exchange of any value:
We accept the following as proof of address:
We may keep your banknotes to carry out additional checks if we need to.
If you are bringing €10,000 (or sterling equivalent) or more in banknotes into the UK from any non-EU country, these must be declared on entry to the UK.
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 higher value exchanges, to audit our processes and to comply with applicable laws and regulations. We may make reference to your previous claims to the Bank, and in some instances commercial sources, to enable us to meet our obligations in assessing your application.
When making payments, the Bank 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.
Your data will be stored for a period that the Bank considers appropriate to support the prevention of crime and to enable its compliance 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 the Bank 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).
The Bank’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted via the details above and you can also find out more about how the Bank deals with your personal data on our privacy page.
For more information please contact us by email at exchanges@bankofengland.co.uk or telephone 0203 461 5994 (Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm).
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