What to do with old £20 notes – how to exchange old notes and coins

We explain what to do with old £20 and £50 notes as they are no longer legal tender in the UK — plus where you can exchange them for new polymer banknotes

What to do with old £20 notes and £50
(Image credit: Jim Dyson/Getty Images)

Old £20 and £50 paper notes stopped being legal tender in the UK on 30 September 2022. This means you can’t use them in shops or as payment any more.

However, there are still around 375 million paper notes – worth £6.6 billion – in circulation across the UK, according to a Freedom of Information request made by BBC Wales to the Bank of England.

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Kalpana Fitzpatrick

Kalpana is an award-winning journalist with extensive experience in financial journalism. She is also the author of Invest Now: The Simple Guide to Boosting Your Finances (Heligo) and children's money book Get to Know Money (DK Books).

Her work includes writing for a number of media outlets, from national papers, magazines to books.

She has written for national papers and well-known women’s lifestyle and luxury titles. She was finance editor for Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Red and Prima.

She started her career at the Financial Times group, covering pensions and investments.

As a money expert, Kalpana is a regular guest on TV and radio – appearances include BBC One’s Morning Live, ITV’s Eat Well, Save Well, Sky News and more. She was also the resident money expert for the BBC Money 101 podcast .

Kalpana writes a monthly money column for Ideal Home and a weekly one for Woman magazine, alongside a monthly 'Ask Kalpana' column for Woman magazine.

Kalpana also often speaks at events. She is passionate about helping people be better with their money; her particular passion is to educate more people about getting started with investing the right way and promoting financial education.

With contributions from