I suddenly noticed that I have a damaged $50 note in my wallet (note ripped into 2 and taped back together). Went to a few retailers including Coles & Woolies but nobody want it. Went to CBA and was advised to lodge a claim with RBA. Does anyone know of a simpler way to deal with it? Any advise will be appreciated. Thanks
What to do with damaged $50 note?
byo on 09/07/2014 - 20:46
Comments
I had a friend who worked at the RBA. People would call up and admit they'd manage to horribly destroy money, and the RBA would always work with them to honour whatever fragments remained.
Someone even called up after a housefire, sent in the small lump of melted plastic from their safe that had been ten grand in fifties or something, and the RBA had them send it in, analysed it enough to be pretty certain, and gave them fresh money back.
Read the info supplied by Boonanza; seems like CBA could have accepted the note on behalf of the Reserve Bank. Poor show CBA.
http://banknotes.rba.gov.au/redeemdamagednotes.html
The Reserve Bank recommends that people take damaged banknotes to their bank or another authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI). These institutions are encouraged by the Reserve Bank to accept all claims.
key words are "could have"
Could and should!
With the gazillions in profits that they make, the least the CBA could do is pretend to have some customer service for something so minor.
yeah i gave Westpac damaged note before, they accept it without issue , as long as the note's number (both) are still intact and visible.
TV: Which bank? I CAN
Fact: Which bank I CAN never trust.
Does it fit in the coles self serve checkout machines?
the sticky tape on it might make it slightly thicker than a normal $50 note.
should try it anyway. I'd just try as many places until you lose it into circulation again
last resort: pretend it came out of the self service machine while cashing out money :D
self serve machines gives out 5's 10's and 20's - not 50's notes
@abbztract: Doubt it, while they might not take it off the customer they check the notes that are being dispensed from ATMs…
Boonanza's link is right. Also especially if you are a cba customer, they should have let you deposit that note in your account or exchanged it - it's not up to you to deal with the rba on this, the ADI's get new notes in exchange for the unfit ones. Source: used to be a bank teller.
unfortunately I am not CBA customer. I only have online accounts.
Seriously?
Just … use it to pay for something!?
Don't ask people whether or not they want it. Just go somewhere and buy something.
Surely I'm not the only one who's received damaged banknotes from time to time over the years and simply used them to pay for stuff and never had an issue?
However, if - for some odd reason - you're legitimately having trouble getting rid of it (as you say), try something like this:
* Put some petrol in your car. Walk into the servo to pay. "Only" have that $50 note on you (don't show them any other cash or cards you might have). What do you think they'll do? Take the money you're offering or let you drive off without paying?
* Order some kind of home delivered food. Pay the driver with your $50 note (again, it's "all you have". Again, what do you think is more likely? They'll take your money, or drive away with your food that they've already spent time and money preparing and delivering to you?
* Pay a taxi fare.
* Basically, use it for anything that is 'post-paid', i.e. where the goods or services have already been provided to you before you pay. Pretty much anyone is going to prefer a damaged $50 note to $0.Good luck, I guess!
I'll try my luck with Woolies self-serve tomorrow.
Good luck, but I reckon you have more chance of a machine rejecting it than if you just hand it over to a person without saying anything.
yes, and magically taped itself together.
Poor alternatives. You are putting others into trouble by giving others simply no alternative other than to accept it.
I would recommend it to Claim with RBA. It may take time but eventually, you will get it.
I agree.
How's about you pair of idealistic tarts head on over and give the OP a crisp new fiddy & make the claim on his behalf then…
Take it to a shop tomorrow, when they bitch and moan, tell them they gave it to you as change last time.
ie. lie
:\
I took a damaged note that a store wouldn't accept to NAB and they exchanged the torn note for me.
Take it to parliament house and ask Clive Palmer for change.
Clive only carries hundreds so the Op might make a profit!
"Clive only carries hundreds" that must be a pain in the arse for McDonalds !
"I'd like 71 cheezal McFlurries"
Do you really think he gets more than a few $ back after he ordered?
It would cost him more money just listening to the question.
either pass the 'problem' on or RBA. depends on how screwed you are for the $50 but if its two identical halves and it matches and both halves pass the genuine test I'm sure they will send you either a new $50 or a chq
Your bank should do the checks and lodge it for you as they get notes for destruction, verification and replacement all the time as a daily part of handling currency…
So polo88 - how did you go?
The $50 note was ripped into 2 neat halves and taped together quite nicely but the stick tape made it very bulky. I must be blind not to notice it before. I am sure it will not fit into any auto machines.I tried a few retailers and two banks (CBA & WBC) without luck. Out of desperation , I went into a post office inside a shopping mall . The lady there didint even look and deposited it into my ING Everyday a/c.
I'll buy it off you for $25 :) it's torn in half, so it's obviously only worth half!
Totes signed up just to reply to this.. and post rather than just lurk around haha.
I work at NAB and we're usually pretty chill when it comes to damaged notes, just walk into any bank and they should be able to give you a new one, or as others said just buy something.
We just send them to the RBA anyway.
Agree. NAB are very very good 'over-the-counter' service. Plus I always change my $50's to $100's for travel with them and they have no problem with it. One of their ATM's that I go to gives you $100's if you want them, which is also handy. HSBC not very good though.
Which NAB? I find it very hard to get $100 notes for travel.
you nned to inform them at least 1 business day if you want to get lots of $100 notes
How damaged?
But yes every time I get a torn note I just take it into a bank and switch it over (doesn't have to be the one you bank at)
Deposit it at a bank.
And if the bank doesn't want to accept it over the counter, deposit it through an ATM.
I managed to deposit it through a post office outlet eventually haha.
If no one accepts it you can always just send it to the reserve bank yourself instead of going through the banks:
http://banknotes.rba.gov.au/assets/pdf/claim-form-individual…
Wife works at a bank, I asked her before - as long as you have all of the note they will exchange it for you. They send it back or record it some sort of register (I stopped listening at this point).
I think banks today in general simply lack customer service although I should not complain as I am no CBA or WBC customer. They have no obligations to help me out.
bank staff are overworked and stress
There was an article recently regarding the pressure on them
Poor bastards, my heart bleeds for them…
You mean tellers? what's next? bartenders are over worked too?
yeah tellers
I'm guessing it started 4-5 years ago, every time I went into a branch they'd be trying to sell me something. Always felt sorry for them, they were always so nice about it.
It also explains the weird changing of accounts people have experienced over time ie closing and reopening your account - them trying to get quota
On the rare occasion I have to visit a bank teller they often try to up sell a product to me. On the even rarer occasion when I agreed to hear their spiel and then declined the offer they looked like I had just kicked their puppy.
Worked for cba, we had weekly targets to be met regarding having customers open savings accounts, taking insurance or home loans.
If a customer came in asking for a bank cheque for 'joes car yard' it was expected to ask them to have a quote done regarding car insurance.
There was quite a lot of training put into doing so. Every branch was expected to 'sell' a certain amount of products each month. Guessing by the profits it won't be a business practice changing anytime soon.
Glad to hear you got it sorted. I have had damaged bank notes before (with the same problem, torn in half and sticky taped back together) and I have just used it normally and never had it rejected. Last time I used it at 7 eleven and the cashier didn't even care.
Geez when I worked in retail I was told to accept 3/4 of a note, or sticky taped note… and when it went to the bank they would take it out of circulation and replace it… Im surprised noone took it if its a whole note, things must have changed.
I received a torn $20 note and the lady at NAB wanted to refuse it because it was torn through the window.. After begging she decided to let me swap it as it was all there but she did say they are not supposed to take in notes damaged through the window.
i once had $50 torn note, no problem with coles, no question asked
Since when has a torn note ever been a problem, its all money.
My NAB bank doesn't even care, I also would accept and ripped (but taped) notes heck I've had to tape some together.
Lol, I wonder if you can exploit it…. (you know it is ozbargain here!)
According to RBA:
If less than 20 per cent of the banknote is missing: Full face value is paid.So basically you need 6 bank notes, each with 19% missing, then you can make a 7th bank note with sticky tape! mwahahaha evil scheme has been hatched!
OzBargain, not ScamBargain or CrimeBargain ;)
It's illegal to damage currency on purpose.
Go to the casino…. Never had an issue changing over notes there :)
go to a bank you have an account with and hand the note to the prettiest girl working there. that's what I did.
huh? and then what happened?
I have never had a problem with getting damaged notes replaced/banking them at ANZ, CBA or NAB. Just try a different branch.
Use to work at cba and we just collected all the old torn or melted notes to be sent off to RBA at the end of the day. Only people who had half a note that had trouble.
Funniest story I heard was an old couple travelling round in a campervan and they had a microwave up high and one of them hid a bunch of cash in it. The other put a plate of food on it and the notes melted together, they bought the notes in, got them sent to the rba and the RBA gave then full value for them.Went to CBA and was advised to lodge a claim with RBA.
Apologies if this has already been answered, but where was the branch that you went to?
Related experiences:
I noticed the damaged note after the fact - This has occurred twice. Once, I managed to use it with out issue that very same day elsewhere. On another occasion, I topped up my go-card.
got the note and noticed just after the time of purchase and immediately asked for a different note, without issue.
Failing that, I would have taken it to my bank. I know yours refused but surely that's unacceptable.
As long as over 90% of the note is there, casinos will take it.
IME they don't mind taking 100% of it either… ;)
Please message me, I'll send my address so you can post it to me. I bet I can spend it somewhere :D
I've once accidentally ironed my $20 note. its melted to half and cba actually gave me a fresh note instantly.
I would suggest to try other branch. the one you met earlier perhaps one of those staff who wont give a **** about the customer
This info might help http://banknotes.rba.gov.au/damagedbanknotes.html