Currency and formatting
- Currency
- Pound Sterling (GBP)
- Symbol
- £ — placed before the amount
- Decimal places
- 2
- Formatted example
- £123,456.78
- Thousands separator
- ,
- Decimal separator
- .
- Digit grouping
- threes (3)
- Live rate
- 1 USD = 0.741894799317 GBP (boe, 2026-07-15)
Tax
- 0% — food
- 0% — books
- 5% — domestic fuel
- 0% — childrens clothing
Payment methods in United Kingdom
Roughly ordered by real-world use — not by what a card processor would prefer you offer.
- 01 card
- 02 paypal
- 03 apple pay
- 04 google pay
- 05 klarna
- 06 clearpay
- 07 bank transfer
- 08 bacs direct debit
Card schemes that work domestically: visa, mastercard, amex, maestro, jcb, unionpay, diners. 3-D Secure is standard practice; strong customer authentication is legally mandated.
Locale
- Primary
- en-GB
- Official languages
- English
- Regional
- Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic
- Direction
- left-to-right
- Date format
- DD/MM/YYYY
- Measurement
- metric
- GDPR applies
- yes
Phone numbers
- Calling code
- +44
- Mobile format
- +44 XXXX XXXXXX
- Digits
- 10
United Kingdom: common questions
What currency does United Kingdom use?
United Kingdom uses the Pound Sterling (GBP), symbol £. It uses 2 decimal places, formatted as £123,456.78.
How many decimal places does GBP have?
GBP has 2 decimal places. Charging with the wrong number of minor units is a 100× error, so this is worth getting right.
What is the VAT rate in United Kingdom?
The standard VAT rate in United Kingdom is 20.00%. Prices are displayed tax-inclusive.
What payment methods are used in United Kingdom?
The methods that matter in United Kingdom, in rough order of use: card, paypal, apple pay, google pay, klarna, clearpay, bank transfer, bacs direct debit.
What is the dialling code for United Kingdom?
United Kingdom's country calling code is +44. Mobile numbers are formatted +44 XXXX XXXXXX (10 digits after the country code).
API_
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