Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

christ whats happening ..something new again .................banks not taking and money exchanges .not changing notes any pen marks .rips . worn edges .. £10 notes giving 4.5 tl ..until 7th jan ! ..........

Yeh I have heard of this! - we tried to pay money in the Limassol bank this morning and they refused £150 of it - some 1mm tears and one with ink on them! beware when accepting these. Not sure what you mean by the £10 notes and 4.5 TL???

I did see a notice on the door of Asbank last Friday stating that they would note accept any 'damaged foreign notes'. Really didn't give it much thought , had just collected 1000GBP from TEB in 50 pound notes, but was only paying in TL to Asbnk at that point. Today going southside went to change 4 of the notes at exchange shop near Metehan , was very shocked when they rejected all 4, 2 had printed numbers, 1 hand written number and the last one just a bit well worn.
just checked all the 20 notes and found that 9 of them would appear to be unacceptable now. will be going back to TEB tomorrow to ask for exchange to clean notes.
Have never understood why the banks here have 'marked Sterling notes', vividly recall watching someone in Asbank many years ago sitting stamping a number on each of an enormous pile of 50 pound notes.
No doubt this is something that has come from the Central Bank but for as usual here with no prior warning or clear explanation can see many problems arising for lots of people.

We used the Garanti ATM at the garage before Escape beach this morning, for Sterling - £20 notes given out. Went to Exchange shop at beginning of Girne only to be told that he would not change these for TL as they were 'old' ones - ie not plastic variety I presume. So, we went to the Garanti bank in Girne, who then exchanged them for £50 notes, which were not plastic variety (I am not sure however if UK has plastic £50m notes yet). Anyway, just pointing out for everyone that this could be a problem now. Garanti bank in Girne just smiled the old Cypriot smile (!) when asked why old notes were being loaded into ATMs if they can't be used .... (I just noted Sukicat's post)

The new £20 plastic note is not due for circulation till 2020

It will do wonders for the tourist industry, no doubt. I don't understand why legal tender is suddenly not acceptable.

Just received an email......

TEN POUND NOTES

Dear Owners we are writing to inform you that as of Monday 8th January 2018 we will no longer be able to accept the old style ten pound note and only the new style .

Banks here will be acceptıng them for a limited time now. So please be aware when planning to make payments in North Cyprus and bringing spending money.

They are no longer legal tender after early March I believe so don't accept them from anyone.

I have read that March 1st 2018 is the date the old £10 notes cease to be legal tender, although banks in the UK will still accept them.

Had fun of my own yesterday changing £500.00 sterling (obtained from the Garanti ATM), most tatty but none marked, quite a lot of them rejected by the change man so he just changed what were acceptable. Checked the condition of all the TL handed over and went through them all - found a lot to be tatty and some with printing/marks on them an refused to accept them! Oh the face of the guy, it was wonderful to see - I pointed out that if they could only accept top condition notes themselves that I would only accept top condition notes in exchange!! He said this was not possible as all his TL notes were legal tender - I gave him them all back and asked for my Sterling to be returned. That happened after another discussion and I went elsewhere and changed my "tatty" sterling without problem. Later in the day, talking to my TC friend he said that the bank rule had changed back to normal after one day! Strange, but there you go, will see what happens after the election, only in Cyprus - lol.

I had an idea it wouldn't last long. I can't blame them for not taking the old tenners though.

Money exchange opp Lemar will change old tenners but at a reduced exchange rate

I changed two £10 at Moon Star in Girne high street yesterday. He said they were old but would accept them just for today. Same exchange rate as displayed on the board

Can anyone confirm has the bank rule changed ??

Took £700 in sterling from the Guarantee ATM at Chatalkoy on Sat. In view of what has been said checked through them all & found though not in a bad condition £460 was marked or stamped.
This morning took the unmarked notes into the exchange opposite the Lemar. karakum. The cashier didn't even check them just put them straight into the counting machine
Took the notes with writing and stamp marks into the Guarantee bank together with the receipts to prove we got them from the Guarantee ATM.
The girl in the bank said that they should have been alright to exchange it's only really tatty notes in a worn condition that they should be refusing.
However didn't feel inclined to take that risk so they exchanged them for unmarked notes.

Credit West Bank in Catalkoy has a message on their electronic notice board stating that due to a change in policy they will no longer accept any notes marked with ink.

Just had a twenty pound note declined by the tax office in famagusta they referred to a note on the wall in turkish . The note had some small writing on it . I think this is a ploy to stop people using sterling they tried before by reducing the tax if the rent was in tl . This is a pretty dumb move as the country relies on students and tourists for most if its revenue ......then they do a lot of dumb things here dont they

The tax was reduced if the rent was in TL.

istanbank ,,went in put in stg ... £500 worth of it was marked pen and stamps .......didnt say a word ,,,,,make sure i check when take back out though ..phew lucky ...

Why would anyone want to withdraw Sterling notes from a TRNC bank and then change them for Lira?
Would it not be easier just to draw the cash from the card in Lira in the first place?

And why do people living here not have accounts in Lira anyway, then all you need to do is move pounds from the Sterling account into the Lira account and then draw from that.

If I'm missing something please enlighten me.............

MoonageDaydream wrote:Why would anyone want to withdraw Sterling notes from a TRNC bank and then change them for Lira?
Would it not be easier just to draw the cash from the card in Lira in the first place?

And why do people living here not have accounts in Lira anyway, then all you need to do is move pounds from the Sterling account into the Lira account and then draw from that.

If I'm missing something please enlighten me.............

Because some banks make a charge to withdraw TL but not Sterling, I withdraw Sterling with Nationwide flex card without charge.

The Ancient Mariner here again! When I first came here they would give a discount for sterling and never bothered about the condition of the notes. Business were glad to accept sterling cheques, and most would cash them without charing. Such was the reputation for honesty of the British Expats. How sadly life has changed. :

But I do agree about keeping a lira account, apart from convenience (I have know people who would spend more in petrol for he sake of saving on banks charges) it is swings and roundabouts with the rate of exchange.

MoonageDaydream wrote:Why would anyone want to withdraw Sterling notes from a TRNC bank and then change them for Lira?...

Because you can get a much better exchange rate for Sterling from the exchange shops than you can get from the Banks, and also, as mentioned by woodspeckie, you can get Sterling using a UK debit card with no additional charges, unlike TL - so, you withdraw Sterling from your UK bank account, change it into TL at an exchange shop, and then either spend it, or put it into an interest-bearing TL account with a local bank!

To date when I need to change sterling from my UK account in to euros to spend in the south I would withdraw the sterling here locally using my nationwide card (no charges no conversion rate) and change it in to Euros at a local exchange bureau (considerably better exchange rate than my UK banks give if I were to draw Euros or use the card to pay in Euros).

However I am now trying a new approach using a company / service called revolut https://www.revolut.com/

With this service I can transfer sterling from my UK account into my revolut account (no charge no conversion rate). Once in my revolut account I can then change it into Euros or any number of other currencies at money market rates (even better than local exchange bureau rates) and then use my revolut master card to pay for stuff in the south in euros with no conversion charges at all. To date I used the revolut service the other way round - to get euro electronic payment into my UK account in sterling without being raped by my UK banks horrible exchange rate, which did not require a revolut mastercard and it worked fine, saving me a considerable sum that otherwise would have gone to my UK bank. Since the recent 'we wont take marked notes' fiasco I decide to order a revolut debit card (to be sent to PO box in the south). I have not yet received the card or 'tested' the system but I see no reason why it will not turn out to be an easier and more cost effective way to spend pounds I have in a UK sterling account on stuff in the south priced in Euros than my old system of withdraw sterling, change locally to Euros, spend Euros.

Just thought it might be of use / interest to others.

The only bank notes that are legal tender in the TRNC are those issued by the Turkish Central Bank.

Bank of England notes are legal tender in the United Kingdom. The UK law governing legal tender for UK currency specifies the amounts and condition of the coinage that must be accepted in financial transactions. That is to say I can’t force you to accept 500 1p for a bill of 5 pounds.

Regards Mike Turner

http://edu.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledg ... al-tender/

Erol, please give us an update once you receive, and have used your Revolut card.

I have been using Revolut since last summer.
It is quite frankly a revolution ( no pun intended )
I very rarely need cash now in TRNC as I use the card for everything where a card ( MasterCard ) is accepted.
So everyday shopping in Ileli and Lemar for example is in my opinion easier.
If you have smart phone your transaction shows immediately you make a transaction.
I can transfer money from my UK bank account to my Revolut Card in seconds.
There are no fees for any transactions.

Further, what I find useful is the fact that I can set up a number of currencies within the APP.
The advantage of this is that I can transfer funds between the currencies within the APP. For example a number of
months ago I transferred an amount from sterling into Turkish Lira, at that time the rate was about £ 1 = 5.70 TL
I am still using this money when making purchases.
Because I have some of that transfer left I could if I wanted to change it back to sterling at circa 5.26 today’s rate.
I have used this card in Europe and UK as well as TRNC without any problems and the rate of exchange is the rate you will get on xe.com Etc.
As I have mentioned before if you can get used to using a card for all purchases ( where applicable) your visits to the cash machine will reduce considerably.

PapaBravo wrote:Erol, please give us an update once you receive, and have used your Revolut card.

Collected my Revolut card yesterday from po box in South. All worked fine was able to use it in various shops in the South with no problem. Does seem to be easier and more cost effective than my old system of drawing sterling here locally from an atm using my UK nationwide card and changing that at a bureau to Euros, though the saving is not massive. Yesterday I drew £100 sterling as sterling from an atm and changed it at my local bureau and got 113 euros for it. Using the same nationwide card I was able to transfer £100 into my revolut card and change it to Euros on the revolut app at the same time as the cash change and I got the xe money market rate of 1.1404 so I got approx one more euro on my £100 by changing using revolut than my old way.

Hello Erol,
I agree the savings are not massive. The savings I make are by paying by Revolut Card in the supermarket, restaurants and other household bills over time. There is also the convenience.
If I was to pay on a UK card the charges are usually at least 2% to 3% non Sterling Transaction Fee plus a downgrading of the exchange rate.
Buying food and other household bills are the most common expenditure which I used to pay by cash but found I was
travelling to an atm very regularly as most of the time I could only draw £500 per visit.
For every non visit to the atm I now save on petrol as well.

Depends if you are uk based or not the clarity credit card gave me 5,28 /£ when I got 5,27/£ yesterday no fees but you need uk address

Hello Wanderer,
Do you use your clarity card for purchases abroad, if so do you happen to know what the spread is.

There's no spread just what they have converted at with no fee yesterday I got 5.27/£ at the money exchange today its on the move 5.31 5.32/£
The card gave me 5.28/tl against a 120tl purchase yesterday and today yesterday I won today I lost but the prawns were lovely both days at Azzure & Shayna

Coming over next week from Blighty, are they still being fussy about marked and damaged stirling?

cashed 3 £20's with numbers written small on the notes counted 2x no problem Karakum opposite Lemar 24/1/18

erol.

Thank you for your reply. I understand that I will need to set up an account with Resolut and then transfer money into it from my Nationwide Account. Is it easy to set up the account? Have you found any disadvantages with Resolut, so far?

PapaBravo wrote:erol.

Thank you for your reply. I understand that I will need to set up an account with Resolut and then transfer money into it from my Nationwide Account. Is it easy to set up the account? Have you found any disadvantages with Resolut, so far?

I was able to set up the resolut account online, sending scan of my passport to them. The app can be a bit confusing and dealing with them is via app chat service and can be tricky. However it does 'work' now it is all set up and I have my card.

There are several of these new tablet/smartphone internet banks with no branches starting to offer "instant banking",atm access at extremely favourable rates of exchange and foreign purchase cashback on cc.

You do have to be comfortable using the internet for your banking to join the snowflake generation!

Sterling,Monzo,Tandem,Resolute and N26 all offer services that can be quite attractive to the expat or anyone who travels abroad.

Cash is no longer king,you can get a rings, smartphones and smartwatches as well as the old fashioned credit card to swipe a machine to pay your bill.

I would guess that any business that cannot access this technology will not be trading within the next few years.

divesups wrote:Coming over next week from Blighty, are they still being fussy about marked and damaged stirling?

We always bring clean currency from the UK, we withdraw Sterling from the bank or post office and check it before we leave. Got Sterling from Geranti and TEB ATM's here and it has been undamaged.

Hello Erol and Mr. Chinnery,

Stuck at the first challenge on the Revolut website, as it won't accept my KKTC Mobile number, as it clearly thinks that I should be entering a RoC number.

Any ideas of how to get around this online?

Cheers,

HH

Revolut will accept my UK mobile, but not my KKTC one. I think that I may have found the answer, to my own question, from the following extract from the FAQs section on their website. I guess that I may have to send them a copy of my UK passport, if I download the App to my KKTC mobile.

Where is Revolut available?
Revolut is currently available for legal residents of the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. This includes the following countries:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

We are working on becoming available worldwide soon, so stay tuned

Erol Mr.chinnery.

Is it possible set up a direct debit with Revolut card ? In order to Pay TRNC Phone contract payments utility bills etc
Can you use in TRNC as a contactless card ?
How tricky is the card application process ?

Cheers

kiplet wrote:Is it possible set up a direct debit with Revolut card ? In order to Pay TRNC Phone contract payments utility bills etc

Not currently at least according to this https://community.revolut.com/t/use-rev ... debit/7073

kiplet wrote:Can you use in TRNC as a contactless card ?

I do not see why not though I have not done so myself. It worked fine (contact less) in the South.

kiplet wrote:How tricky is the card application process ?

I found it quite straight forward. Was able to do it all online from here using my Cyprus address and my local mobile number.

Thanks Erol