Hi,

It would be better if you order your money at the bank in England and explain you need clean notes as you are going to Bulgaria, they are usually very obliging. Failing this I had about 180 pounds in 20's all had pen marks on them so when I went to Manchester Airport they had a change place where they had no problems in changing for clean notes.

Celiajan

yes i went to bulgaria for the first time last year and i just went to barclays and explained bulgaria only accepted clean notes with no tears in them and they got the clean notes out for me and gave me nice crisp new ones.

mel

Notes don't have to be absolutely pristine but will be rejected if they are marked or damaged.

The main things that are checked by Bulgarian bank cashiers are marks or writing (e.g. where a UK cashier has written the total of a stack of notes on the top one) and damage, e.g. tears. missing corners, etc.

If you have (or open) a Nationwide Flex Account and use the associated Visa Debit Card to withdraw Leva from Bulgarian ATMs, you will receive a better exchange rate than you will for cash, with no charges - this is the only method that I tend to use these days. It's even better than using one of my Bulgarian Borica bank cards, which charge 20 Stotinki per withdrawal.

Baldur

A Bulgarian friend had an English £20 note and it was refused by her bank because it had lipstick on it. We swapped it and had no problem spending it in UK.

I've been known to go over clean but old notes with a cool iron in the past.

Patka