Get your facts right!

Oh dear, I'm going to nit-pick again! Report in the papers of a lad who was turned off his bus to school because the driver refused to accept a Scottish £5 note. Clearly this was something which shouldn't have happened, and the bus company have quite rightly apologised, but the report then went on to say that Scottish notes are legal tender. Well they aren't - simple as that, but this also shows a complete misunderstanding of what legal tender implies. If you are in debt, and you offer payment to your creditor in legal tender form, he/she is obliged to accept it, or suffer in costs if they later sue you for the debt. The rules relating to legal tender are quite complicated, but the crucial words here are "if you are in debt" - legal tender has no relevance unless you are. So when you offer to buy something in a shop, or buy your ticket on a bus, or whatever, you are not offering to pay a debt, and therefore legal tender doesn't come into it. If your offer to pay does not suit the shopkeeper, busdriver or whatever (for example offering a high-value note for an item worth pence) they are perfectly entitled to refuse it. So the bus driver was within his rights, however unwise he was to do what he did.