Nope, it’s true. When I went for the first time a couple of years ago, my bank decided I needed more £50 notes than anything, and I got several “Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve seen one of these,” comments when I used them.
Also, fwiw, depending on where you’re heading in the UK, cashless payments can be way more prevalent than they are in many places. I’ve been to multiple bars in and around Manchester that just didn’t accept cash, and would bring out a card terminal to tap for every £2-3 beer I ordered.
On the other hand, bring a coin purse or something with you, because when you do use cash, you’ll get a ton of coins back, and it becomes a pain to have rattling about in your pocket real quick.
HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 3 days ago
I think it’s more the £50 notes. Much like using a USD100 note in the States, it’s a bit big for most daily purchases.
I ended up dumping most of mine on a couple expensive souvenirs in shops expensive enough that they’d deal with it or breaking them in banks.
arudesalad@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I am such an idiot for thinking pence and not pounds…
swizzlestick@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
Was about to say, £s not pence :) 50s will also out you as a tourist, if nothing else does. Whereabouts are you planning to visit? Just London for the touristy stuff or going for more of an explore?
As mentioned above, electronic payments are now the norm here and have been for ages. Shouldn’t have any problems using a phone or contactless card to pay in most places. Chip/PIN covers most everything else & when you get prompted to insert the card as a security check after trying contactless.
Swipe & sign is possible last time I checked, but pretty much defunct with chip/PIN being readily available. Cash only places are rare and usually associated with food or drugs.
.zip isn’t blocking UK access via apps/api, but it is for browsers. I like VPNs and supporting my home instance, so here I am :)
arudesalad@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I’m already in the uk, but with a question as silly as mine it makes sense why you thought I would be another tourist