northern ireland pounds

I'd suggest using your debit card & getting £ from an ATM when you arrive to Northern Ireland.

I wouldn't recommend exchanging Euros, because you will basically be buying £ by selling your €.
If you do this, you will end up losing money due to the lousy exchange rate you'll receive.

can you use the euro in northern Ireland

no

By the way, and not what you asked, it is capital N, capital I. The name of the nation is Northern Ireland. It would be like spelling rhode Island, or south Dakota.

I almost always use my credit card when traveling. I find they offer the best exchange rate. You may need to have some money on hand and like a pp said, I would take directly from an ATM.

If you get any notes from the Northern Ireland banks (Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank, First Trust Bank or Ulster Bank) it is advisable either to spend them or exchange if you can for Bank of England notes before you leave. Notes from NI banks can be troublesome to spend in the rest of the UK outside of NI and exchange internationally.

By the way, be certain to mention to your home financial institution that you will be in Northern IrelNd as well as Ireland, or you may find yourself in the unhappy situation of having your ATM and/or credit card declined. This happened to me last week. I had told them I would be traveling all around Ireland but didn't mention Northern Ireland. Fortunately, my neighbor is an officer at my bank, so the situation was remedied rather quickly with a call, but you might not be so lucky if you don't have a personal connection at the bank.

Greetings from 'Northern Ireland', Derry to be precise - where I have lived most of my life and where I often spend Euros - fact!

I have operated accommodation businesses in Northern Ireland for over 10 years and I always accept Euros in cash as payment if requested to.

I see some people here posting that you cannot send Euros in Northern Ireland, the reality is you actually can in a few places, I just wouldn't advise it, as the amount of places that accept Euro are limited and its not the official currency.

For example, many shops and other businesses accept Euros in Derry, the second biggest city in Northern Ireland -- as a city on the border (a border that the majority of the city's residents don't want), some shopkeepers feel they have to accept Euros, in order to survive economically and to make things easier for shoppers from Donegal and other parts of the Republic. I also have many friends in the commercial community who like to accept Euros, as they are pro-Europe and pro-commerce.

That being said, the currency in the 6 counties is £GBP so my advice would be to have the currency of the UK on hand when entering 'Northern Ireland', most places wont take Euros, and it'll make travelling in places like Belfast and the North Coast way easier.

le meas/with respect
Stephen McPhilemy
Rick Steves Ireland Tour-Guide
Derry and Dingle

Stephen,
If traveling from Dublin to Belfast are you going to encounter toll roads where you need pounds prior to getting into a larger town that has an ATM ? If so can you at least get some pounds somewhere in Dublin or somewhere in order to drive through to Belfast.?
Thanks

Hi Paul, the question wasn't "is the Euro legal tender in Northern Ireland", it was "can you use Euro in Northern Ireland?".
Therefore my answer is correct.
I was born in Derry (in Northern Ireland), I raised my family there, run accommodation and tourist businesses there and have spent most of my life living there.
Do my businesses accept Euro? Yes.
If mgarey04 came to stay at my Tourist Apartments could he/she pay in Euro? Absolutely yes.
Do many shops and business in Derry accept Euro? Yes
Can tourists spend Euro in Northern Ireland? the answer is 'yes, in certain places'.
You said 'no', that isn't accurate.

Now would I advise tourists to go to Northern Ireland with only Euro? Of course not, that would be silly.
£GBP is the legal tender and is what visitors should have in their wallets when they go. But that wasn't the question.

Le meas/with respect
Stephen McPhilemy
Derry and Dingle

Hi 'jimndianawilson'.
You can blissfully drive from Dublin to Belfast without any £GBP in your pocket or wallet.
There is one toll between Dublin and Belfast and it is on the Republic of Ireland side of the border, I think the cost is €1.90 per car.
Once you cross the invisible border in our Island you can drive all the way to Belfast without being asked to pay anything for a toll.
Do remember to bring your ATM or debit cards with you. You can pay for pretty much everything in Belfast with a debit card these days. Except maybe for cool places like St. George's Market.
I recently bought a nice painting there, and you'll never guess what happened .... wait for it.... drum roll .... The vendor happily accepted Euro from me because I had no other cash on me!
Warm greetings from Ireland :)
Stephen McPhilemy
Rick Steves Ireland Tour-Guide
Derry and Dingle

Try to spend all of the Northern Ireland Pounds you get in Northern Ireland. They are hard to spend in the UK, and if you exchange them, the rate will ream you. When I went, we tried to use our credit card as much as possible for large purchases, as usual. We got a couple of hundred pounds from the ATM to use for small purchases - food, beer in a pub, trinkets to bring home, flea markets, etc. We were there for 10 days.

NI banknotes can at times as I said above be 'troublesome' to spend in England, but never accept a lesser 'exchange' value as they are still sterling.

Marco. I agree. I had NI banknotes and did have a bit of trouble spending them in London. They took them when I told them the alternative was for me to use my credit card. I pulled out an American Express and they did not want to pay the AE fee.

I used the word 'troublesome' as it is by no means impossible, yet not everyone welcomes them either and you can't always be sure of the reception you get.

They can be just as difficult in Scotland, even though you might think people living there would be more used to banknotes coming from a variety of private banks. Indeed a friend of mine who happens to live in Colraine will only accept Scottish bank notes in change if the Scottish shop accepts NI notes.

Personally for an easy life I just pay any left after a visit into one of my bank accounts but that isn't an option available to most reading this.

I smile and when asked 'are they genuine' say 'yes, I freshly made them this morning,'

;-)

The reply to that is 'yes they look good copies'.

Nah, they are always originals. I make a little difference on each one.