I came back from Gibraltar with £50 in Gibraltar sterling notes, took them to HSBC to change them for Bank of England sterling notes and was told there was an exchange rate of 1.116000, I thought it was wrong as sterling is one currency! They they called the notes GIP which I have since discovered is only a banking term as all sterling are GBP I believe.

This is a rip off because there is no excange rate or GIP, this is actually a charge by HSBC to change sterling into sterling but by calling it an exchange rate & using their own abreviation of GIP it looks to the customer a legitamate exchange rate.

They should just exchange the notes as both are the same currency, just isssued by different british banks.

Have been told at Tesco that they would accept any sterling notes as payment for shopping.

The (CHARGE) by HSBC was roughly 10% not a lot of money but a scam in my book!