British VS Scottish pounds

I was in Scotland May 2025. I withdrew cash once and got a combination of Scottish pounds and British pounds. Almost all transactions can be done by credit card, even at the laundromat.

First, you can use British pound currency easily in Scotland. But, using Scottish pounds in UK is not easy.

On our 2 1/2 week Scotland trip in 2023 we spent about £20 cash. Almost everywhere took cards, even for small purchases. You may come across an honesty box in the countryside selling treats.

Choose a bank ATM for the best exchange rate and don't withdraw a large amount. Hopefully your card has no fees.

A few points:

-You rarely need cash anywhere in the UK these days, but I would withdraw something like £50 just to have in case. You can pay for most things on card or phone (eg Apple Pay).

-In Scotland, some cash machines will give you Scottish notes and some will give you British notes. If the bank is based in Scotland (Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale) you will get not only Scottish notes but notes particular to one of those three banks- each bank prints its own notes. If you go to a cash machine from a bank based elsewhere in the UK or a global brand, like HSBC, you'll get British notes.

-While it's true you may have a harder time spending Scottish notes outside Scotland, it is legal tender and they are meant to accept it. It's the same "pounds," just the notes are different. An exception would be a machine- e.g. the machines to put money on your Oyster card in London won't accept Scottish notes.

-It shouldn't make a difference where you get cash out- most cash machines don't charge here (tho of course your bank would charge you for the conversion etc).

I think £50 Scottish pounds is way too much. There are many places in the UK that will not accept cash.

Yes, as Cat says, Scottish notes are legal tender throughout the UK. Getting a shop clerk to accept them is a different story. (Anyone try to give a US clerk a $2 bill in America, lately. They think it's funny money.)

I don't know about the Glasgow airport, but the machines at London Heathrow were all Travelex with an extortionist exchange rate. We passed and never needed cash in London.

Do you have the ability to use ApplePay or GooglePay on your phone? In my last visit to Scotland for a month last summer which included Orkney and Shetland I used ApplePay for nearly every transaction. I had some old leftover Scottish pounds from a prior trip and tried to use them up before I dug into any other GBP's I had left. I had to work to spend the cash. Even the honor boxes with cakes took contactless transactions!

In the last two years, I spent about six months in Scotland.

I went all over Scotland and only used cash in Dundee--for a haircut and for some taxis. That's it.

If you should have Scottish pounds left over when you are ready to leave ask your hotel to exchange them for Bank of England pounds (commonly known as British pounds.) I do it all the time.

Merchants in Scotland accept both.

Pedant alert, but Scottish notes are not legal tender https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/explainers/what-is-legal-tender.

There is no such thing as Scottish pounds. It is the pound sterling everywhere in the UK. Banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland can issue their own notes.

Pretty much everywhere across the UK, even in the smallest shop in the remotest part of the country will take cards so not much reason to worry about getting cash. If you need cash just go to an ATM.

To have this all sorted, you could get British pounds before you leave home. Then you have some cash for Scotland that you can also easily spend in England.

British pounds (ie Bank of England pounds) are accepted in Scotland. They are common there, whereas Scottish notes are very rarely seen in England unless you live close to the border. Shops don’t like to accept them as they don’t feel secure in judging whether they’re fake or not.

I know that I'm in nearly rural England, and not Scotland, but I will say as resident I have used less than a total of £70 cash since 2019. Absolutely everything is Apple Pay or contactless. Except buying fuel at Costco which only accepts chip and pin at their unattended pumps - no cash or contactless.

The one or two person sellers on the canals selling cheese or cakes or cups of coffee from their narrowboats all take contactless cards and Apple / Google Pay. Don't even need a tap pad anymore - there is an app they and I use which lets you tap the vendors' phones.

The only time I've used those notes was to spend them before they were recalled when they changed to polymer notes.

I still have £50 in the wallet. I've thought for a while I should find a place to use some and just keep a fiver or a tenner. Maybe one day. I finally got rid of my coins a few weeks ago, just have 5p now. Don't carry the coin purse anymore.

Just relating how the day by day goes.

I was in England, September 2025. When I was in Scotland in 2023 I accidentally brought 80 pounds back with me. I had absolutely no problem spending that Scottish money in the UK. Small shops had no problem.

Spending the odd Scottish 20 on a return to London after a Scottish trip has never been a problem for me.

I'd pick up £50 from an ATM (cash machine) and not worry too much about whether it's Scottish or English notes. If you want to increase your chances of getting English notes, use a city centre ATM tied to a branch of an English Bank, Natwest or Barclays machines have a better chance of dispensing Bank of England notes than any of the Scottish banks.

Firstly, there are no 'British' notes of the pound sterling. There are NI, Scottish, and English ones. Though the Bank of England is also officially the Central Bank of the UK, the coins are the currency and exactly the same. Notes are 'promises'.

Notes issued in pounds by Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, St Helena, and the Falkland Islands are, however, officially different currencies. Though if you get one of their notes and coins they are good souvenirs. Though you can use the coins in machines.

The notes are of the same size and colour schemes across the issuing banks. The best are the current RBS ones. Which replaced the worst series of notes! Their twenty has red squirrels on it!

In terms of cash, it is good to have a float of cash. And to cash in some to get £1 and 50p coins for parking or similar. But paying by cash is the minority now, but there are businesses that still are cash only.

I live in Skye - about as rural as you can get in Scotland. I have an 'emergency £20 note' in my wallet but have not used cash for several years. The only place you might want to use cash is if you buy something from one of the roadside honesty boxes, but many of them take PayPal!

An interesting indication on how little cash is now used is the coins.

So far only three coins of King Charles III have entered circulation. Much to my annoyance as these are cracking coins.
Only the £1, 50p and 5p.

All the others are not yet needed meaning the Royal Mint has enough of the coins of the other denominations of Elizabeth II still in stock to satisfy demand as of now.

You will need very, very little cash. in 2023 the only place I had to pay by cash was at a church gift store that wouldn't take CC for small transactions.

I'd thought a bus tour might involve a tip for the driver/ guide. £50 is maybe too much to take out, but I'd have a few quid in cash if there's a whip round for the driver, or I wanted to tip a guide I'd been on a tour for five days with.

I wonder if a bank in London would exchange your Scottish issued pounds for British issued pounds, for the Oyster Card machine, etc.
I have some old issue British pounds and I understand even the banks in Scotland will exchange it for current issue; just like the Bank of England does.

I wonder if a bank in London would exchange your Scottish issued pounds for British issued pounds, for the Oyster Card machine, etc.

All Pound Sterling notes (bills in US English) are "British".

Scotland is part of a unitary state called "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Pound Sterling Notes are issued by banks in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Scottish notes will work in an Oyster machine in London no problem. [edit: Anecdotal evidence from Reddit tells me TfL's ticket machines don't seem to accept Scottish notes.]

Notes issued by the Bank of England aren't "British" any more than notes issued by The Bank of Scotland. They would be "English".

It's true the TFL machines don't accept Scottish notes- in fact the ones at Kings Cross station all have big signs "Scottish notes not accepted" due to this being one of the main stations people travelling down from Scotland will arrive at. When I lived in Edinburgh and was coming down to London with a pocketful of Scottish notes (back in the days I still used cash!) I often ran into this issue.

It's true the TFL machines don't accept Scottish notes- in fact the ones at Kings Cross station all have big signs "Scottish notes not accepted" due to this being one of the main stations people travelling down from Scotland will arrive at.

Well, there you go. It's not a situation I've ever been in to have noticed that.

I've been back and forth between Scotland and London for a long time and I've never really had much of a problem that I can recall spending Scottish notes down here. If people look at Scottish notes funny, sometimes telling them it's fine is enough. Just your luck, but not really a big deal in my experience.

I think where you might struggle is a lot of younger people, or people who haven't grown up in the UK, will possibly never have seen Scottish notes these days. There's much less cash in circulation than there was and Scottish notes are rare down here. You can understand someone not wanting to be stuck with something they don't recognise in their till at the end of the day.

Will your last accomodation or two in Scotland be at a hotel?

If yes, then do what I do. When you check out, or a day or two ahead of time, go to the reception desk and ask if they will exchange Scottish notes for British/English notes. I have never had a problem and they all understood why. It doesn't cost them anything and I doubt they would refuse.

Problem solved.

It was definitely more common with the paper notes for there to be an issue.

The polymer notes are the same colours and sizes for the denominations across the sterling notes, and the other pound notes.
So a £5 will always be blue, a £10 orange, and a £20 purple.

To a degree.

Now as pointed out most transactions are cashless, so familiarity is less available.

Scottish pounds are more difficult to get out of your wallet or purse. They dont surrender with out a fight

Even beggars take cards these days. The chances you will need cash are vanishingly rare. I would take out 20 or 30 pounds at the start of your trip just in case, but the chances are you won't use them.

The only places I've ever used cash is at B&Bs that insist on it. They are typically the smallest places in the most obscure areas. Our upcoming trip to Barra requires cash, and a few years ago we needed it in Kirkwall. Everything else is "tap to pay" with my phone (Gpay in my case). Even tiny purchases, like a postcard.

The only use I've had for GBP in nearly 4 months of travel in England, Wales and Scotland over the past three years has been caddie fees at various golf courses. Literally everywhere else accepted card payment.

Some people love having cash on hand. I'm not among them.