Old fivers and tenners worth £1.5bn not been returned – but you can still do it

About £1.5billion worth of old-style paper £5 and £10 notes have not been returned to the Bank of England – more than a year since they went out of circulation.

The old fivers ceased to be accepted as legal tender in May 2017, while the £10 notes were withdrawn in March 2018.

Since then, over 224 million £5 notes and over 697 million tenners have been returned.

But more than 118 million £5 notes and almost 94 million £10 notes are still unaccounted for, according to consumer website MoneySavingExpert.

While the old paper fivers and tenners are no longer legally accepted as a payment method, bank notes retain their value for all time and so they can be exchanged at the Bank of England.

But for many, the simplest way of cashing in  old notes is to take them to a local bank.

Many major banks allow customers to deposit the notes if you’re a customer, with Barclays, HSBC, Nationwide, NatWest, RBS and Santander all confirming they would accept old fivers and tenners.

Alternatively, head to a local Post Office, where customers of the following banks can deposit any old notes into their usual high street bank account.

The Post Office accepts notes on behalf of:

Allied Irish Bank (GB)

Bank of Ireland

Bank of Scotland

Barclays

CAF

Cahoot

Cashplus

Clydesdale Bank

Co-op Bank

Danske Bank

First Direct

First Trust Bank

Halifax

Handelsbanken

HSBC

Lloyds Bank

Metro Bank

NatWest

Royal Bank of Scotland

Santander

Smile

Think Money

TSB

Ulster Bank

Virgin Money

If you’d prefer to swap the notes with the Bank of England, you can do this by post by filling in an exchange form and sending it to Department NEX, Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AH.

You’ll need to include a copy of your photo ID and proof of address – the Bank of England website has a full list of what you’ll need.

The Bank will either give you new banknotes, or pay the money into your bank account. If you’re exchanging by post, you can also get a cheque.

Some 145 million old-style £1 coins also still haven’t been returned to the Royal Mint, more than 18 months after they went out of circulation.

While these won’t be accepted by the Bank of England, most major banks will let their customers deposit old £1 coins into their account, and the Post Office will also let you deposit them into your account for the banks listed above.