REVEALED: How long you've got to spend your old paper fivers

Have you got any of the paper 5 notes left? Picture: Bank of England.

The Bank of England will be withdrawing legal tender status of the paper Â£5 note, featuring Elizabeth Fry, on May 5 - and is encouraging anyone who still has one of the notes to spend them over the next month.

More than 50 per cent of all Fry fivers have already been returned to the Bank to be destroyed but there are still around 160 million notes left in circulation.

After May 5, retailers and the public no longer have to accept the paper £5 note as payment or in change and the new polymer note featuring Sir Winston Churchill will be the only £5 note with legal tender status.

Some banks and building societies may accept paper £5 notes after that date, but it is at their own discretion.

You can still get them exchanged for the polymer notes by the Bank of England at any time. The new polymer £5 note was first issued in September last year.