Originally Posted by
headinclouds
The post office process sounds easy and simple. Go to a specific branch, show your passport, exchange the notes. Would make sense for the post office to have such a service at the int'l airports, IMO. Why the BOE has such a complex procedure is beyond me, especially for tourists.
To be honest, the post office being able to exchange notes is a recent innovation and probably been set up due to demand caused by the demise of our paper bank notes. Actually having anywhere outside of the Bank of England and indeed London is a new one on me.
Before anti-money laundering regulations came into effect basically any bank would probably swap out notes for you, customer or not. So it's an unfortunate consequence of the bad guys.