Important info about the 5 Euro bill

shirly. I am not sure about this.. I have a feeling there is more to this story. I just spent a month in Europe and not once did anyone even look at my 5 euro bills.. and I certainly do not believe bills before 2012 are not acceptable. I think you were miss informed.

The Europa series of bills have more security features.

The old series bills are still valid.

Who knows about reconverting, but it's probably just some bank's rule. Who reconverts, anyway?

Believe me, the old 5 euro bills are valid. I have some in my wallet and get some every day.

It may be the bank in the US that doesn't want to buy the older bills, but they are certainly legal tender in Germany.

Shirley,

I believe your bank wants to deal only with the newer 5 euro notes only b/c of the new security feature(s) in them. The statement the teller made would be equivalent to saying her/ his bank no longer accepts old $20 bills that do not carry the new security features.

Thank you for the "heads up" for when the rest of us go to our banks. Like Ed said (paraphrased), "Who converts back to USD?"

My 2-Cents Worth

I'm not sure what to think now... she was very definite that the old ones were no longer acceptable anywhere. She showed me a picture of what the older ones looked like and told me not to accept them. That could be awkward if they actually are ok and I refuse to accept them from someone! We shall see.
Thanks for any input!
Shirley

Trust us. We are never wrong about anything. Ever. The internet is infallible.

What's a euro, anyway, exactly?

This is total c..p.
They introduced the new €5 notes in 2013. The old ones look like this. The new ones look like this. Similar but subtly different designs. Both are perfectly legal and you can get either sort in your change. I have just checked, I have both types in my wallet at the moment.
The difference is in enhanced security features. All other denominations are due to be upgraded over the next few years.

I suggest if you have any €5 notes, or any other denomination, left over and you do not wish to keep them for your next trip; then you change them into whatever currency you prefer at the departure airport. You are likely to get a better rate than your small town bank.

How is it that banks are so ill-informed about anything to do with travel to Europe? My bank is still assuring me that Travellers Cheques are the way to go.

I just spotted this on the official ECB website. The new €10 notes are due to be introduced on 23rd September 2014.

People still take travellers checks.. really.. wow.. I haven't used them in 20 years almost..

Shirley.. you will be embarrassed if you refuse to take the older 5 euro bills.. people will think you are crazy. Your bank may refuse to accept them, that's their right, .. but your bank is not the world now is it..
Be careful what bank tellers tell you.. I had to inform a bank teller at one of my branches about my no fee for foreign withdrawals on my ATM card,, its was the type of account I had .. she didn't have a clue.. she had to call over a supervisor.. and they looked it up to confirm I WAS right.. duh( like I would make that up?)

You have people living in Europe right now telling you its not true.. or.. little miss bank teller in a foreign country ( US) .. who do you think knows best?

Collette, I don't understand why you would buy, at a cost, $100 in Travellers Cheques, and then convert at the airport to euros, also at a cost. Why not get some euros at an ATM at CDG or wherever it is you land. I must be missing something here ... or else you are.

Do those exchange booths even take travelers' checks?

@Collette, gotta agree with Norma. If you want to carry USD then just fold up a few $20 bills. Finding someplace that will accept a US travelers check may be difficult as well as costly.
@Chris F, thanks for the visuals. I checked the two 5-euro notes in my money belt and my trip is not ruined -- they're both new format.

The new US $100 notes are pretty and have lots of new security features as well. Does that mean Shirley's bank won't accept the old ones? And I love the new plastic Canadian $20's with the see-through window.

Without some outside confirmation I would take Shirley's comments very carefully. I am not sure some teller in a bank in small town in NC is going to be an expert on international currency. Most US banks want to have absolutely nothing to do with foreign currency. Just say no is easy.

I am sure what is happening with the Euro is same thing with the US dollar. It is going through changes to increase security and reduce fraud. Every when the change over to the Euro occurred from local currencies, the local currencies were acceptable for a time period and then for a longer time period were acceptable at local banks. I, personally, would not worry about it. I am guessing the worse case would be having to exchange the old Euro at a bank. But paper money has a short life expectancy so the assumption is that the old Euro bills will slowly go away.

Hi,

As of this past May I had no problems using the 5 Euro note in Germany and Austria. Thanks for the information. I rather not get the 5 Euro note as change anyway. When that happens, I usually use that note to spend first, mostly break it into coin change, esp one and two Euro coins. Those come in handy for train station lockers. I'm glad to know that Germany still intends to accept the 5 Euro note.

@ Colette....In Germany you can still exchange travelers checks at exchange bureaus, such as in the major train stations at the Reisebank. The exchange rate and commission charged are a different story. A couple of years ago at Berlin Hbf I asked at the Reisebank if that was still done. (Kann man denn bei Ihnen die Reiseschecks einlösen ? Nehmen Sie sie noch entgegen? ) The answer was yes but don't expect a decent exchange rate, probably like what you would get at the airport. I asked them too what the rate was.

Travelers Checks is off topic of the original post.

How did it come up?

^5, Ed! :)

Ed, you made me spit my coffee out this morning. Darn you!

Just to add to the chorus, this is total BS. I live in Vienna and I have 5 Euro notes in my pocket to prove it.

Colette.. the link to the other thread did not make your case.. it weakened it.

That was sharp Ed. And funny.

Either version of the 5-euro note is fine, I used both a month ago and have some older ones left over for the next trip. I use a small bank in Ohio and they know nothing about foreign currency.

Also off topic: make sure your bank knows you will be using your ATM card in Europe. If they don't have a note in your file (dates snd countries), your transaction will be declined and the international phone calls are not fun. Your bank needs to forward this info to your ATM company (Mastercard, Visa, etc.).

Also call your credit card companies if you plan to use those cards.

This is funny stuff!

To get back to the original post and Shirley, if someone gives you change back in a five, maybe innocently ask for coins (smaller denominations). That way you aren't getting the fives back if that would make you feel better. I would attempt this at the end of your trip so you don't come home with any fivers. If you make an effort to use them during the trip, you should be fine and they will be accepted.

And now to get off topic, why waste money with the traveler's checks. You should never use them, and if insist on doing some money exchanging, one is better off just taking a 100 bill in US dollars and just exchanging that. By the time you are done doing all of that converting and exchanging, the $100 is worth approximately 50 euro versus 75 euro.

To be fair to Collette, it was Norma who brought up Travelers Cheques first.

I plead guilty but I mentioned TCs only to show how stupid my bank is to keep pushing them.

Maryann.. the problem is if Shirly asks for coins every time she could get a five euro note.. she may end up with a lot of coins.. and I know in Canada they do not exchange any coins of any currency.. I bet its similar in States.
I have a feeling it is JUST Shirlys bank that is refusing to accept those 5 euro notes.. as she herself said her friends were not given any such (silly) warning by the places they obtained their euros from..

Wow- what an avalanche I started! Thanks for everyone's input. I think I shall ask for coins when offered a 'suspect' 5 euro bill and find lots of gelato to spend them on. :-)
My bank is actually Wells Fargo, not a little small town bank, so you would think they'd know what they're talking about, but whatever! I plan to pretty much run out of Euros while there anyway. As long as they accept the 5's, I should be just fine.

Thanks for your help! Have fun with your euros, coins, traveler's checks and all forms of cold hard cashola!

Shirley

I actually think the OP's attitude was a good one with respect to the feedback. And, regarding the "suspect" comment, I took it as tongue-in-cheek. I think ultimately the message was received, and sorry about the coins suggestion that I originated from me. I meant it somewhat tongue-in-cheek as well, and meant for all the coin to be spent before return if that is the tactic taken and only done in the last couple of days.

Hi,

Having one 5 Euro note is better than none but having two amounting to 10 Euro is even better so that you can buy a 10 Euro phone card, very handy for pay phones in Germany. If you came back with any 5 Euro bills, I would advise keeping them for the next trip in Germany.

David you missed a crucial comma, lol

I just have to step in, since there have more than one 'small town NC' comments. For the record, Matthews NC is essentially Charlotte. A major banking center. Let's not cast dispersions on the entire city because it happens to be in the South.

David, your compassion and charity knows no bounds. Mother Teresa would be so proud.
But I'm holding on to both my €5 notes to buy crepes in Paris at Christmas.

See the new 5 euro note as a technical update, to make it longer lasting and with new features more counterfeit proof. It will replace the old one gradually over the years and means that the the old 5 euro note is still in use and valuable. Till a small percentage is left in circulation the ECB (European Central Bank) will in the future officially announce to hand in the remaining old notes, a date is not set yet.

If the old 5 euro note would have been replaced in one major (very costly and complex!) operation it would have got a lot of attention here in the media (Netherlands/Europe) and my bank would have also informed me frequently and intensive to let me know that my old notes would have becoming worthless instantly. Nothing happened like this whatsoever.

Maybe some banks in the US are a bit hypernervous or maybe just that particular teller for some reason, but if so for this kind of important information they must come with an official statement and what the reason is they think the old notes are worthless.

Btw: The new 10 euro note will be released coming 23 September, so $7 exchange rate for the current ones???. Charity knows no bounds indeed :).

No need to insist on coins, they just add to your weight. I haven't seen any bad Euro notes for a long time...

Not all tellers know of what they speak.

Just returned from 3 weeks in Tuscany. i received and paid for items with the 5 euro bills. Never had an issue with them over the past 3 weeks.

I live here and use old and new 5€ bills interchangeably, just as everyone else does who lives here.

Matthews might be a big banking center, but they have at least one bank "professional" spreading faulty information. Just because they are unwilling to take back "old" five-euro notes is no reason to tell a client she should not accept them or use them while she is in Europe!

I'm thinking the teller was relating her bank's policy on what it will exchange back into dollars after your trip. It sounds like it only wants the bills with the new security features. Our Russian guide let us pay in U.S. currency, but only in $20 bills or larger - because their bank won't take anything smaller. Typically banks won't exchange coins (only paper money). If one bank has a policy of not exchanging older 5 euro bills, it's not a stretch to think other U.S. banks have the same policy.

I'd say don't worry about it too much but, if you plan to exchange euros back to dollars, make sure you spend your old 5 euro bills along with your coins before you catch your flight home.

@ David....It may just be that some of my 10 Euro notes are "worthless" but I'll have to see that when I get back over there again hopefully in May of 2015. I got rid of the 5 Euro note(s), exchanged it for change (Kleingeld) for the next trip. Better than to arrive with pocket change including one and two Euro coins than to be without. Thanks for the exchange offer and offerring to be at the meetings to effect the exchange.

This probably applies to Euros, also.

http://www.bestquestionanswers.net/are-the-old-dollar-bills-still-valid-in-the-us/

The BEST answer:

"Used to work for a bank. I can tell you that no matter how old a dollar bill is, it's still worth a dollar {Edit . . . Unless it's really old - i.e. Silver Certificate *which is a collectible}, but as far as the actual value, it could be from the 1800's, the banks will still consider it a dollar and honor it, even with 100 years of inflation.

I had someone come in with a shoebox full of dollars from the 1920's and he just exchanged for normal dollars. My colleagues and I bought them as a collection."

Dang it, David !

FWIW, years ago I had a phone operator from WF tell me that there were WF ATMs all over Europe. So, of course, I had to goof with him a little.

'They actually have the name 'Wells Fargo' plastered all over them?', I said.

'Yes ma'am'.

Uhhhhhhhh...OK.

NOT.

Shirley, you should be having a great time IN Europe right now! All 5€ notes received should be immediately spent on gelato, wine, espresso, a souvenir fridge magnet... ;-)

It is likely that euro banknotes will be exchangeable indefinitely at the ECB. This was not the case with all of the pre-euro currencies as some countries had a historical policy of demonetising notes after a period of time after their withdrawal.

I got my first of the new 10-euro bills today . . .as change from the florist at the market, and from the ATM. Paying at the dry cleaners', I noticed that it was the first time the lady had seen the bill too.

I encountered a similar situation with some Swiss francs I was given to use on my trip. I contacted the Swiss folks in NY and they said yes, there had been a change in currency but no, the old bills were not worthless. They advised if there were any problems to just go into a Swiss national bank while I was there and exchange old for new.

I'm thinking that Shirley's bank is saying they won't take in any old Euros, just because they don't want to have them in the till. My local currency exchange shop gladly gives out coins when you're purchasing currency, but when you come back to change the dough back they act like those little metal things are radioactive. Go figure.

BTW, have you seen the new $100 bills? My bank gave me some the other day and I thought they slipped me some Monopoly money.