💰 Quick Context: The Guernsey Pound and No Sales Tax
Guernsey issues the Guernsey pound (GGP), fixed one to one with sterling, with its own notes and coins including a £1 note. Bank of England notes are accepted everywhere, so there is nothing to convert. Two things make the Bailiwick unusual. First, it charges no VAT and no general sales tax at all, which is why the shopping and the fuel are cheap. Second, the Bailiwick includes Alderney, Sark and Herm, and on two of those there is no bank and no cash machine, so what you carry off the boat is what you have.
🎧 Order Pounds Before You Fly
Sterling spends everywhere in the Bailiwick, and Sark and Herm have no cash machine at all.
Order GBP → CEI Currency ExchangeNo VAT, No GST: What That Actually Saves You
Guernsey is the outlier of the British Isles. It is a Crown Dependency with its own parliament and its own treasury, and unlike the United Kingdom, unlike the Isle of Man and unlike its neighbour Jersey, it levies no general consumption tax whatsoever. There is no VAT and no goods and services tax, so the price on the shelf carries no sales tax at all, against 20 percent in Britain and 5 percent across the water in Jersey. Whether that lasts is a live political argument; the States have debated introducing a GST for years without doing it.
Where you feel it. Alcohol, tobacco, fuel, perfume, jewellery and electronics are visibly cheaper than the mainland, and Guernsey has a long history of shoppers coming over for exactly that. Duty is still charged on alcohol, tobacco and fuel, so those are cheaper rather than free, but the absence of a sales tax layer on top is real money on anything expensive.
Where you do not. Restaurants, hotels and supermarkets are not cheap. Everything on Guernsey arrives by sea or air, freight is expensive, and the island's costs are high. A pub lunch here will not undercut one in Hampshire. Treat the tax position as a discount on goods, not on your holiday.
Going home is an international arrival. Because the Bailiwick sits outside the UK's VAT and excise territory, a flight or ferry back to Britain arrives from outside, with duty-free allowances on alcohol and tobacco and a value limit on other goods. The airside shops at Guernsey Airport therefore sell genuine duty-free even on a flight to Southampton, which no mainland UK airport can do on a domestic route. Check current thresholds before filling a suitcase.
Guernsey Notes, Jersey Notes and Bank of England Notes
Three sets of notes circulate and only one of them travels. Guernsey issues its own pound, backed one to one against sterling. Bank of England notes spend freely across the island. In practice you will also be handed Jersey notes and occasionally Scottish ones, because the islands trade constantly and the cash gets mixed.
Guernsey notes are not legal tender in the United Kingdom. A shop in Weymouth, a self-service till in Bristol, a London bus: none of them have to accept a Guernsey tenner, and most will not. The coins are the same shapes as UK coins and will slide unnoticed into your pocket, then be rejected by mainland vending machines and meters. Guernsey notes are also not automatically accepted in Jersey, and Jersey notes are not automatically accepted here; shopkeepers on both islands usually take the other island's money as a courtesy, but no one is obliged to.
The rule that solves all of it: spend the island notes while you are on the island, and hold your Bank of England notes back for the journey home. On the last morning, swap any Guernsey cash at a bank branch in St Peter Port or at the airport. Coins are a lost cause once you have left; put them in a charity box rather than carrying a pocket of dead metal back to Gatwick.
Cash vs. Card in the Bailiwick
On Guernsey itself, cards work as they do in Britain. Visa and Mastercard are accepted everywhere with a terminal, contactless is standard, and Apple Pay and Google Pay behave normally. St Peter Port's High Street shops, the restaurants, the supermarkets, the petrol stations and the hire-car desks all take cards. American Express is patchy.
Off Guernsey, the picture changes completely. This is the part that catches visitors. Sark has no banks and no cash machine; it also has no cars, and its guesthouses, bike hire, carriage rides and pub work on a mixture of cards, where signal allows, and cash, which always works. Herm, a twenty-minute boat ride away, has one hotel, a couple of places to eat and no cash machine either. Alderney is bigger and does have banking, but only just, with a small number of machines in St Anne.
So carry more than you would in Britain, and carry it in small notes. On Guernsey itself £40 to £60 is plenty. If you are day-tripping to Sark or Herm, take the day's spending with you in cash before you get on the boat, because there is nothing to withdraw from at the other end and a mobile card terminal on a small island is at the mercy of the signal. The island bus fare, covered below, also needs exact coin.
How to Get Money for Your Guernsey Trip
There is nothing to exchange if you already hold sterling, so this is short. Bring pounds or bring a no-markup card. Nobody outside the Bailiwick sells Guernsey pounds and you do not need any, because Bank of England notes spend everywhere on the island. The one thing worth planning is denominations, because of the buses and the smaller islands.
Order sterling before you travel
US travellers can have CEI Currency Exchange ship physical pounds sterling to a US address with insured 2 to 5 day delivery, and a home bank will do the same on a longer timeline. Order sterling, not Guernsey pounds, which no bureau outside the islands stocks and which you do not need. The reason to order ahead rather than rely on the airport machine is the denomination problem: this island's bus network wants exact coin, Sark and Herm have no cash machines, and a cash machine that hands you two £50 notes has solved nothing. Ask for fives, tens and coin.
Withdraw from a bank machine in St Peter Port
Guernsey's machines run on the same LINK network as Britain's, so a UK card withdraws exactly as at home and a foreign card gets its own network's interbank rate with no operator surcharge. The machines are concentrated in St Peter Port around the High Street, Market Square and the Town Church, with more at the airport and at the larger supermarkets in the Bridge and at Braye Road. Beyond the town, coverage thins to a machine per village or none. There is nothing on Sark or Herm. Cash comes out as a mix of Guernsey and Bank of England notes at random, so check your wallet before flying. Our ATM fee calculator will tell you what your specific card charges.
Exchange counters, and being billed in your home currency
A visitor arriving with sterling has nothing to exchange, and the counters at the airport and harbour exist mainly for euro-carrying arrivals from France. Their spreads run several percent off interbank before commission, and there is a LINK machine in the same building giving the real rate. The genuinely costly mistake is different: when a terminal or a cash machine offers to bill your foreign card in dollars or euros instead of pounds, that is dynamic currency conversion and it adds 5 to 10 percent. Choose pounds, every time, on every screen.
For a side-by-side comparison of every method (bank wire, travel card, pre-order, ATM, exchange counter), see our complete Getting Currency guide →.
Best ATMs to Use in Guernsey
Guernsey is a finance centre with a population of around 64,000, so the banking is concentrated and good in St Peter Port and thin everywhere else. Every machine sits on the LINK network, which means there is no such thing as a surcharging independent operator here in the way there is on a Mediterranean resort strip.
Barclays
Worth seeking out specifically if you carry a US Bank of America debit card, because Barclays is Guernsey's Global ATM Alliance partner and a BoA card skips the flat non-network fee at its machines. The limit is important: BoA's 3 percent conversion charge applies regardless and the Alliance never waives it. Branches and machines in St Peter Port.
Top Pick for Bank of America Cards
NatWest International
NatWest's Channel Islands arm has one of the most visible retail footprints in St Peter Port, with machines in the town centre and at the airport. LINK network, interbank rate, no operator surcharge. The most reliable default for a visitor who just wants a machine that works and is easy to find.
Top Pick
HSBC
Long established in Guernsey with a St Peter Port presence and machines on the main shopping streets. Withdrawals behave exactly as they would in the UK. Convenient if you bank with HSBC at home, and a perfectly good choice if you do not.
Recommended
Lloyds
Another familiar high-street name with an offshore Guernsey operation and machines in town. Nothing unusual about the experience: LINK access, real rate, no fee at the machine. Between NatWest, HSBC and Lloyds you will not walk far in St Peter Port before finding cash.
Recommended
Butterfield Bank
The Bermuda-headquartered offshore bank has a Guernsey operation aimed more at private clients than passing trade, with a small number of machines. Listed so you recognise it as a genuine bank rather than an independent operator if you happen upon one first. Works normally on LINK for a foreign card.
Fine, Fewer Machines⚠️ Choose Pounds on Every Screen
Guernsey card terminals and cash machines will sometimes offer to charge a foreign card in dollars or euros rather than pounds. Accepting hands the conversion to the machine's operator instead of your card network, at a markup far larger than any fee on this page. Choose pounds every time. Our dynamic currency conversion explainer shows exactly how the numbers work, and the DCC quiz takes a minute if you want to be sure you would spot it on a live screen.
ATMs and Counters to Avoid in Guernsey
There are almost no predatory machines in the Bailiwick, because the ATMs are all bank-operated and on a regulated network. The genuine risks here are about running out of cash somewhere there is none, and about carrying the wrong notes home.
Arriving on Sark or Herm Without Cash
Neither island has a bank or a cash machine. Sark has no cars either, so there is no nipping back to a machine, and the boat timetable decides when you leave. Card terminals exist at the pubs, the hotels and the bike hire, but they depend on a mobile signal that is not guaranteed. Take the day's money with you in notes and coin before you board at St Peter Port, and take more than you think you need.
The Real RiskAirport and Harbour Exchange Counters
Aimed at arrivals from France carrying euros, and priced accordingly, at several percent off interbank before any commission. If you are arriving from Britain with sterling there is nothing here for you, and if you do need pounds there is a LINK cash machine in the same terminal giving the real rate. Walk past.
AvoidThe Parking Clock: Free, but Bring the Disc
Guernsey does not charge for parking. There are no meters, no pay-and-display machines and no app in most public car parks, which is genuinely unusual in Europe and takes visitors a while to believe. What there is instead is a time limit, and the way you prove you are inside it is a parking clock: a cardboard or plastic disc with a movable dial that you set to your arrival time and display on the windscreen.
You need one before you park. Clocks are free and are handed out at the airport, the harbour, the tourist information office and by hire-car companies, who will normally leave one in the glovebox. Ask at the desk when you collect a car. Parking bays are marked with a time limit in hours, you set the disc to when you arrived, and a warden checks it against the clock face.
The rules to actually follow. Set the disc honestly, because moving it forward during the day is exactly what the wardens look for and it is treated as an offence rather than an oversight. Overstaying the marked limit is a fixed penalty. In St Peter Port the short-stay bays near the seafront turn over fast and the longer-stay areas are further out, so read the sign for each row. It is a system that costs nothing and catches a lot of people out, purely because nobody expects free parking to have paperwork.
Buses, Boats and Getting Around the Bailiwick
The island bus network runs a flat fare, the same for one stop or right across the island, and it is one of the cheapest ways to get around anywhere in the British Isles. The catch is that drivers do not give change, so you need the exact fare in coin, or a stored-value travel card bought in advance. This is the main reason to arrive with coins rather than notes. Buses reach the airport, the beaches and the cliff paths on the south coast.
Taxis are available in St Peter Port and at the airport and mostly take cards, though it is worth asking. There is no Uber. The island is small enough that a hire car, a bicycle or the bus covers everything, and the roads are narrow lanes with a low speed limit throughout.
Boats are the real transport story. Isle of Sark Shipping runs the passenger ferry to Sark and Travel Trident runs the boat to Herm, both from St Peter Port, both booked by card in advance or bought at the kiosk on the quay. Condor Ferries connects Guernsey with Poole, Portsmouth, Jersey and Saint-Malo. Once you are on the smaller islands, remember that there is nothing to withdraw from: Sark's carriage rides, bike hire and pub, and Herm's single hotel and beach cafe, are best paid in cash you brought with you.
Tipping in Guernsey
British norms and nothing more. Restaurants sometimes add an optional service charge of 10 to 12.5 percent, in which case nothing further is expected, so read the bottom of the bill first. Where nothing is added, 10 percent is generous for good table service and rounding up is perfectly normal.
No tip is expected for a pint at the bar, counter service or a takeaway. Round up a taxi fare rather than calculating a percentage. A pound or two a bag for a hotel porter. Because UK-style terminals rarely prompt for a tip, leaving one means putting cash on the table, and a Bank of England note or a Guernsey one is equally welcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Bank of America have an ATM partner in Guernsey?
Yes: Barclays is the Global ATM Alliance partner in Guernsey, so a US Bank of America debit card avoids the flat non-network withdrawal fee at a Barclays machine in St Peter Port. It does not avoid BoA's 3 percent international conversion charge, which applies to every foreign withdrawal and is never waived under the Alliance. If you want to avoid that too, a Wise card converts at the interbank rate and a Charles Schwab card refunds operator fees.
Does Guernsey have VAT?
No. Guernsey charges no VAT and no general sales tax of any kind, unlike the United Kingdom at 20 percent and Jersey at 5 percent. The price on the shelf carries no sales tax layer at all. Duty is still charged on alcohol, tobacco and fuel, so those are cheaper rather than untaxed. The States of Guernsey have debated introducing a goods and services tax for years without adopting one, so this is a live political question rather than a permanent fixture.
Can I use Guernsey notes in England?
Usually not. Guernsey issues its own pound at par with sterling, but it is legal tender only in the Bailiwick, so mainland shops, buses and self-service tills can refuse it, and vending machines reject the coins. Some UK banks will swap the notes at par as a courtesy for their own customers, but none must. Spend the Guernsey notes on the island and keep your Bank of England notes for the journey home.
Is there an ATM on Sark or Herm?
No. Neither island has a bank or a cash machine. Sark has no cars either, so there is no quick trip back to a machine, and the boat timetable sets when you can leave. Card terminals exist at the pubs, hotels and bike hire but depend on a mobile signal that is not reliable. Take the day's spending money in notes and coin before you board the boat at St Peter Port, and take more than you expect to need.
How does parking work in Guernsey?
It is free, but time limited, and you prove your arrival time with a parking clock: a disc with a movable dial that you set and display on the windscreen. Clocks are handed out free at the airport, the harbour, tourist information and by hire-car firms, so ask at the desk when you collect a car. Bays are marked with a limit in hours. Moving the disc forward during the day is treated as an offence, not an oversight, and overstaying carries a fixed penalty.
Do I need cash in Guernsey?
More than in Britain, and in smaller denominations. On Guernsey itself cards work everywhere and 40 to 60 pounds is plenty, but the island buses run a flat fare with no change given, so you want coin. If you are crossing to Sark or Herm you need to carry the whole day's spending in cash, because there is no cash machine on either island. Alderney has banking, but only a small number of machines in St Anne.
Are Guernsey and Jersey money the same?
No. They are two separate currencies issued by two separate island governments, each fixed one to one with sterling. Shops on each island will usually take the other's notes as a courtesy, but neither is obliged to and the courtesy is not universal, and neither currency is legal tender in the United Kingdom. If you are visiting both islands, carry Bank of England notes, which are accepted in both without discussion.
Is Guernsey cheaper than the UK?
On goods, yes, because there is no sales tax at all: alcohol, tobacco, fuel, perfume, jewellery and electronics are visibly cheaper than the mainland. On everything else, no. Restaurants, hotels and supermarkets are expensive, because the island imports almost everything by sea or air and freight costs more than the tax saves. Treat the tax position as a discount on things you were going to buy anyway.
Is there duty-free flying from Guernsey to the UK?
Yes. The Bailiwick sits outside the UK's VAT and excise territory, so a flight to Southampton or Gatwick counts as an arrival from outside and the airside shops sell genuine duty-free on alcohol, tobacco and perfume. No mainland UK airport can do that on a domestic route. Allowances on alcohol and tobacco and a value limit on other goods apply on arrival, so check the current thresholds before buying in bulk.
Go deeper: Guernsey and the Channel Islands
This covers the whole Bailiwick, including the islands with no banking at all. For the neighbouring Bailiwick, where there is a 5 percent sales tax and parking works on scratch cards rather than a clock, start with Jersey. For the mainland picture, the UK guide.
Hero photo: sunrise over Saint Peter Port harbour, Guernsey, via Wikimedia Commons.