€100 notes... what's the point?

Ev84

Had to rush to hospital this morning with my girlfriend. The closest money to me at the time was a €100 note, (didn't have time to look for other cash) so thinking nothing of it, off we went to the hospital. A few hours pass and I'm absolutely starving so I decide to go down to the hospital shop for some food for the two of us, A cup of tea and the paper.

I get to the counter/till with all the stuff I thought I was buying and the shopkeeper says "we don't take €100 notes". I said "no problem I'll be back in a minute" and headed off to the petrol station next door. Got to the till, "20 John Player please"... "Oh, we can't accept €100 notes". This time I was puzzled as there was one of them UV lights on the till. "That's strange" I thought . So I asked the shopkeeper where the closest bank was and luckily enough, it was only down the road, so off I went. Got to the bank, Changed the note for 2 €50's and returned to the hospital some time later to get my stuff.

Not a problem really but it left me wondering "what the f**k is the point in making these €100, €200, €500 notes when nobody accepts them only banks?" Are they just a representation of that amount of money? Like credit or something? That's what it felt like anyway. I can understand the fear of getting ripped off on the shop's behalf but when the precious "Euro" was in its design stages I remember state leaders boasting about the immense amount of counterfeit technologies being implemented and that it will be the "safest" currency to date. So what happened? Are there a lot of counterfeit notes in circulation? Or can the shops just not afford to be taking big notes off people because they will be left with no change to give to other customers?

Damn Euro... Bring back the good 'ol Púnt I say... Do any of you ever have problems spending €100 notes where you live

Big Nasty

Johnny Blue and €100 notes - there's your problem right there! :D

Sonics2k

Yeah, because £100 notes were much more widely accepted.

edit:
100euro notes are for flash gits in Brown Thomas?

Ev84

Sonics2k wrote: »

Yeah, because £100 notes were much more widely accepted.

edit:
100euro notes are for flash gits in Brown Thomas?

I rarely have them so that's why I was confused trying to spend the bastard...

dirtydiesel

I have seen notices in shops in clonmel saying 100e notes not accepted, so its an issue here too.

El Weirdo

Ev84 wrote: »

...Are they just a representation of that amount of money? Like credit or something?...

Isn't that what all banknotes are?

pragmatic1

dirtydiesel wrote: »

I have seen notices in shops in clonmel saying 100e notes not accepted, so its an issue here too.

Why the fcuk not. Its legal tender.

Micky Dolenz

My mate said he never saw a €100 note until he went on the dole.

Tahuti

dirtydiesel wrote: »

I have seen notices in shops in clonmel saying 100e notes not accepted, so its an issue here too.

Nobody can refuse legal tender.

They can, however, tell you they are out of change.

Ev84

El Weirdo wrote: »

Isn't that what all banknotes are?

Ha Ha ya I suppose but I think if you have cash, it should be treated like cash and not just a useless representation until you reach the bank?

TeddyTedson

They're mainly for dealers

phasers

most shops don't have enough change in their tills to take €100 notes, unless you're buying like €80-€90 worth of stuff.

dirtydiesel

pragmatic1 wrote: »

Why the fcuk not. Its legal tender.

Maybe they can only count to 50:D

Ev84

TeddyTedson wrote: »

They're mainly for dealers

See? Even dealers take the f**kin' things!!!! Paranoid as they are :pac:

Mike 1972

The ECB are actually thinking about phasing out €500 euro notes because their existance only really benefits criminals. (For the same reason $20 is the largest demonitation banknote in widespread circulation in the US even though $1000 notes do exist)

Personally Id do away with any banknote above €50 and any coin below 5c

Id hazard a guess that UV lights wont catch every type of forged banknote out their either.

Tahuti wrote: »

Nobody can refuse legal tender.

But anybody can refuse to sell one something.

We had these myths about legal tender a few weeeks back. Looks like its going to become another regular topic on AH

Ev84

phasers wrote: »

most shops don't have enough change in their tills to take €100 notes, unless you're buying like €80-€90 worth of stuff.

€100 notes are rare, €50 notes are plentiful so what's the difference in handing a few €50's out? If they accept €50's all day long and don't accept €100's they never get to give €50's back to people do they? Think about it...

johnmcdnl

well god knows what a 500 euro note is for

OutlawPete

Ev84 wrote: »

Not a problem really ..

No no no no no no.

What's all this "not a problem really" malarkey. Where's your inner William Foster, this is AH - we demand you be irate! These bastards fcuked you over when you were at the hospital with your girlfriend. You could have been hit by a car while going to garage, or shot by crossfire at the bank.

They fcuked with your LIFE man!!!!!

That God damned shop had a UV light ffs. The only reason they didn't let you use that note is because they didn't want to give you all the change they had in the till. They seen the look in your eyes and knew you were at their mercy, that you were a nice guy and that they could walk on you and so they did. He treated you like your needs were nothing and with the little power he has, he said 'NO, not here buddy, next'.

I bet you he even said 'Next please' as you stood there taking in what he said. Zero respect was paid to you my firend, ZERO!! I purpose tomorrow that you buy yourself a nice heavy baseball bat and head down to that hospital shop again. You let him know that if he doesn't take that note from you today, he's going be eating the food he sells for a fucking month!

phasers

Ev84 wrote: »

€100 notes are rare, €50 notes are plentiful so what's the difference in handing a few €50's out? If they accept €50's all day long and don't accept €100's they never get to give €50's back to people do they? Think about it...

€50 notes aren't kept in the till in a lot of places, they go into a safe box thing underneath that staff can't access.

darragh16

What about 200 and 500 notes?

Ev84

Mike 1972 wrote: »

We had these myths about legal tender a few weeeks back. Looks like its going to become another regular topic on AH

Sorry, I didn't know that... I agree with the whole getting rid of the higher sum notes.

Ev84

darragh16 wrote: »

What about 200 and 500 notes?

I've never even held one :pac:

phasers

I just remembered, when I was working before Christmas someone came in and paid with a €200 note... I had to go check with my manager that it was OK to take because I'd never even seen one before. The guy paying said he'd never seen one either but the bank was out of 50s!

The stuff he was buying was like €195 or something though so it was fine

phill106

johnmcdnl wrote: »

well god knows what a 500 euro note is for

snorting coke off a hookers arse?

B0X

I've seen €100 euro notes in work a fair bit, I dont really have problems accepting them but i'd check them under the UV light first.

€200's I've taken a few times too, again I wouldnt be too worried as long as we had the change in the till to actually take it.

I've only taken a €500 once, in fact it's the only time i've ever seen one. The woman who was buying something was only getting a thing worth about 20 euro aswell. I spent about 5 minutes making sure it was real

darragh16

Ev84 wrote: »

I've never even held one :pac:

The €500 note is nicknamed the 'bin laden'. Everyone knows they are there and what they look like but they have never seen them!

The Scientician

From my retail experience, €50s seem to be becoming the standard non-card unit of payment for any transaction, no matter how small. :mad:
I've had numerous €100 notes, a few €200 notes and on at least one occasion a customer paid a large bill with a €500 note. Another time a person came in and asked me for change of a €500, I doubt I would have had more than €60 in the till at the time. Dunno if it's true but someone told me that in parts of the Eurozone a fifty will get you short shrift with retailers.

Ev84

OutlawPete wrote: »

No no no no no no.

What's all this "not a problem really" malarkey. Where's your inner William Foster, this is AH - we demand you be irate!

I was pissed off alright but if I ranted through my whole op everyone would just slate me for being a moody bastard... I wanted some honest (and funny) insight into this. Besides, both of the shopkeepers were young women. Hardly there fault was it. Probably the bosses instructions...

Mint Sauce

Ev84 wrote: »

Damn Euro... Bring back the good 'ol Púnt I say... Do any of you ever have problems spending €100 notes where you live

Never had one in the first place.

spinandscribble

phill106 wrote: »

snorting coke off a cookers arse?

thought of my nans old cooker, thanks....:eek:

OutlawPete

Ev84 wrote: »

I was pissed off alright but if I ranted through my whole op everyone would just slate me for being a moody bastard...

Never mind what AH, if you were pissed off then you darn well tell people you were. Never be afraid to express your inner feelings. , if you are, they will sense it and tear you from limb to limb

Ev84 wrote: »

Besides, both of the shopkeepers were young women.

One thing about the Outlaw, I'm no sexist.

Just because they are women doesn't mean they should get preferential treatment.

It's that attitude that denied women the vote for many a year.

Sort of.

Ev84

Tahuti wrote: »

They can, however, tell you they are out of change.

I know that but if they can give you change of a €50, they can give you change of a hundred...

20 John Player, hand in €50... Get €41.50 back

20 John Player, hand in €100... Get €41.50 back plus another €50. no big deal is it?

Ev84

OutlawPete wrote: »

Never mind what they think.

If you were pissed off then you darn well tell people you were.

Never be afarid of AH, they can sense it and will tear you from limb to limb

One thing about the Outlaw, I'm no sexist.

Just because they are women doesn't mean they should get preferential treatment.

It's that attitude that denied women the vote for many a year.

Sort of.

Ok, I was pissed off, ya. but not with the shopkeeper, man or woman it's not their fault so what's the point in me being a wanker about it?

TeddyTedson

Interesting that this thread is getting more attention than the same thread referring to the 1 cent penny.

Ev84

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Interesting that this thread is getting more attention than the same thread referring to the 1 cent penny.

1 cent penny? enlighten me? honestly I didn't see it...

the groutch

Ev84 wrote: »

I know that but if they can give you change of a €50, they can give you change of a hundred...

20 John Player, hand in €50... Get €41.50 back

20 John Player, hand in €100... Get €41.50 back plus another €50. no big deal is it?

the bigger the note, the higher the risk of being counterfeit

and counterfeit notes are more likely to be used on booze & smokes than bread & milk

Ev84

the groutch wrote: »

the bigger the note, the higher the risk of being counterfeit

and counterfeit notes are more likely to be used on booze & smokes than bread & milk

Please read my op first.

TeddyTedson

Ev84 wrote: »

1 cent penny? enlighten me? honestly I didn't see it...

Here ya go:)

rainbowdrop

I had awful hassle trying to cash £50 notes in the UK last year. I had £300 in £50 notes and nowhere would take them, which meant I effectively had no money.

A shop assistant in one of the shops I tried to buy something in suggested I try change them into smaller notes in a bank, but the banks wouldn't let me change them because I didn't hold a bank account with them (obviously I don't, cos I live in Ireland doh:mad:)

Eventually had to get my Aunt to meet me at the bank; she lodged the £300 into her account, walked outside, drew it out from the ATM (£20 notes) and then handed it back to me. Total pain in the arse!!

Ev84

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Here ya go:)

I started my one first :P

Ev84

phasers wrote: »

€50 notes aren't kept in the till in a lot of places, they go into a safe box thing underneath that staff can't access.

Ya they roll them up in them red capsule things and drop them down a hole don't they? So what's the harm in accepting a few €100's and dropping them down into the safe too? The second shop I went into had the UV thing and all... The Euro is supposed to have nearly or over 30 security features on all the notes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes

What more can they do to prevent counterfeiting? But yet shops still won't accept big notes...

And for those who say they have no change:

(For arguments sake, you are at a petrol station and buy €10 petrol/diesel)

1. you get 10 petrol, hand in €50... And Get 2 x €20 back. grand.

2. You get 10 petrol, hand in €100... And Get 2 x €20 back and the only difference is they have to give you another €50... There are LOADS of them around.

So what's the big deal? €100 is frowned upon by shop staff but 2 x €50 is ok? I'm genuinely baffled by this. Do the shops need better equipment to check authenticity?

Stinicker

I find the €500 note to be much more plentiful than the €200 note, I went to the bank recently to withdraw €2k in cash and the clerk went to go give it to me in €50 x 40, I refused and made him give to me in €500 x 2 and €200 x 5, he made such a big deal about it despite it being legal tender. Big notes are fine and have plenty uses.

The main reason shops don't want to take large value notes is they are afraid of getting caught with a counterfeit, if you passed in a counterfeit €500 note and got change for a small purchase then you'd really have screwed them over, add in your usual dopey staff at the till and it will happen unless you have a blanket ban on notes higher than €50.

£50 notes are rare in the UK and they don't even have a £100 note, something Ireland had in Punts. In the United States the highest legal tender in circulation is $100 with the higher $1000 bills only used for interbank transactions and with modern methods of wiring money I doubt if they are used for anything now. The rarity in the US is the Half Dollar Coin and the $2 bill both of which most people never see or hold, yet amazingly I have both in my possession when my OCD with Callcards merged over to coin & note collecting in my early teens.

Ev84

Stinicker wrote: »

The main reason shops don't want to take large value notes is they are afraid of getting caught with a counterfeit, if you passed in a counterfeit €500 note and got change for a small purchase then you'd really have screwed them over, add in your usual dopey staff at the till and it will happen unless you have a blanket ban on notes higher than €50.

The ECB said that €20 and €50 notes continue to be the most counterfeited. Almost equal numbers of each denomination were recovered during the first half of 2010, together accounting for almost 85pc of all fake notes. According to the central bank, during the past six months the share of counterfeit €20 banknotes has decreased, while the share of €50 banknotes has increased.

http://www.businessandleadership.com/leadership/item/24307-fake-euro-notes-in-circulat

Stinicker wrote: »

The rarity in the US is the Half Dollar Coin and the $2 bill both of which most people never see or hold, yet amazingly I have both in my possession when my OCD with Callcards merged over to coin & note collecting in my early teens.

Callcards... jeez that brings back memories... Remember £1 Irish notes too?

Edit: Link wasn't working.

Stinicker

Ev84 wrote: »

The ECB said that €20 and €50 notes continue to be the most counterfeited. Almost equal numbers of each denomination were recovered during the first half of 2010, together accounting for almost 85pc of all fake notes. According to the central bank, during the past six months the share of counterfeit €20 banknotes has decreased, while the share of €50 banknotes has increased.

http://www.businessandleadership.com...es-in-circulat




Callcards... jeez that brings back memories... Remember £1 Irish notes too?

Remember them as a young child, have some of them too!

Ev84

Stinicker wrote: »

Remember them as a young child, have some of them too!

Cool, I have one somewhere. God only knows where?

Old Irish Púnt.jpg

Back Of Irish £1.jpg

Our old money was beautiful. Look at this old Irish £50.

Back Of Irish £50.jpg

That was REAL Irish money and way better than this European s**t...

Ammsy500

Id say its the shop you went into OP since a petrol station relies on having alot of change and probably lifts cash every hour with the amount of money they take in. I know when i worked in a clothes shop the most we ever took in was €100 depending how much they spent eg maybe €50 but we never took €200 (actually dont think i ever seen one of those) or €500. I think it was too much of a risk to loose that much money if lets say they were only buying a total of €40 items and the note ended up being counterfit.

I remember a few people coming in first thing in the morning when we would have very little change and buying a €5 top and than wipping out a €500 note expecting change :eek: Maybe in Brown Thomas but not in the shop I worked in lol

dotsman

Tahuti wrote: »

Nobody can refuse legal tender.

They can, however, tell you they are out of change.

If there's one thing worse than someone who doesn't know the law, it's someone who doesn't know the law, but thinks they do.

Corruptedmorals

Retailers even hate €50's, nevermind anything bigger. Lots of places have floats of €50 in notes or less- Dunnes float is €40 is notes, 2 10s and 4 5s. It goes in 2 transactions flat, so there's an awful lot of change orders, time wasted getting a manager, trying to get change off someone else on tills. Obviously the solution is larger floats so you can cope, but lots of retailers are reluctant to do that. Smaller businesses may not be able to cope with the largest notes, especially if they're constantly doing bank runs to keep the money on premises down.

I worked in Dunnes for 3 years. €50's, extremely common. €100's, you'd definitely see a few a week depending how long you spend on tills. €200's- rarer, once a month type thing. €500's- got about 5 or 6 altogether. They are HUGE! I'd love to have some, they seem so luxurious. Unfortunately all of those transactions I took them for were less than €50, so all of them required a 5 minute wait to change the note, and all of those customers got annoyed. All of them were early on weekends too! If you're waiting outside for a shop to open on a Sunday morning and you charge over to the till with your €30 worth of goods and €500 note..really you think I can instantly make change for that? Bit of cop on required. Seem to stem entirely from foreign bureau de changes.

Counterfeit is still an issue as well as making change for them. It's such a massive amount of money to lose in one note, they are scared to take them even though smaller notes are much more commonly faked. As mentioned, other countries are much stricter with large notes. The €100 is fairly commonly accepted (high street and large stores and supermarkets) while the rest are more restricted.

Daegerty

Really cant stand this small minded attitude of "sorrry now we can't accept those ... policy .. manager .. not allowed .. counterfeit"

If its such a problem they should have made the notes harder to counterfeit

I'm no more of a criminal if I pay for my stuff using 10 50's from selling stolen stuff or a 500 from selling stolen stuff. Hate being branded a criminal not for doing something illegal but doing something slightly out of the ordinary.

Aoifey!

Although I've never had one, my mother used to always use 100 notes to buy the shopping (usually cost 150 or so for the whole family) without any problem. Then again, I suppose she didn't need change and she doesn't exactly look like she'd trying to trick them out of money.

Reindeer

I was headed back to Ireland and exchanged about $2,900 for Euro at the bank so I wouldn't have to pay the Exchange. They gave me 2 freakin' 500 euro notes because that's all they had on hand after I took all their 100's off of them. I could not find anyone that even wanted to touch them. I was about to go to the bank just to deposit them when my landlord finally said he'd accept them in rent.

I had no troubles with the 100's, though. No one even batted an eye. Are you wearing a hoodie at all times?

Mike 1972 wrote: »

The ECB are actually thinking about phasing out €500 euro notes because their existance only really benefits criminals. (For the same reason $20 is the largest demonitation banknote in widespread circulation in the US even though $1000 notes do exist)

Personally Id do away with any banknote above €50 and any coin below 5c

Id hazard a guess that UV lights wont catch every type of forged banknote out their either.




But anybody can refuse to sell one something.

We had these myths about legal tender a few weeeks back. Looks like its going to become another regular topic on AH