As you may have heard over the last few years, the 500 Euro note has become something of a problem for those concerned in the Forex industry. With huge fears about how it is being used and abused in terms of criminal activity around Europe, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced last year that they will no longer be producing the note. By the end of 2018, it will be out of circulation altogether.

Recently a story broke that a toilet in a Bank in Geneva was blocked by a bundle of these 500 notes being ripped up and flushed down. The Swiss Police had absolutely no idea why, but it’s pretty clear that a lot of suspicion still surrounds these huge notes! With the notes being favoured by terrorist organisations, drug lords, and tax evaders around Europe due to their ability to move huge amounts of cash in easily portable packages, it is a wonder these notes were allowed in the first place!

Despite the fact the ECB has said that the 500 notes are still in circulation until 2018, here at CurrencyOnlineGroup, we have decided to stop taking them. A lot of our customers using our Buy Back service have asked about these notes, but there is no benefit to us taking them anymore.

We would strongly advise that anyone going abroad who happens to come across these notes, to get them changed into smaller denominations as soon as possible. European banks will still accept them and change into smaller. Even the 200 notes are still fine for us to take, and using our Buy Back by Post service you will still receive fantastic rates for these from us.

Holiday makers should never have to worry about or see these notes anyway, and if you are buying currency from us using our Home Delivery service, you can rest assured we won’t be giving you any!

If you have a cash transaction abroad and are selling a car, boat or property etc, then again, try to avoid accepting the 500’s, or even better set up a bank to bank overseas transfer. We can help set any International Payment up for you at unbeatable rates.