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A bill of exchange (BoE) is, essentially, a third-party promissory note or even an IOU; it's sort of a check without a bank. Someone wrote out a paper promising to pay money to - either you by name or whomever who assigned or maybe just "bearer". You give this paper to someone you owe money to, and this effectively tells them "go collect my money from someone else".
The BOE only satisfies or discharges or does anything to diminish your debt if the person whom you give it to (1) accepts it (he doesn't ahve to) and also (2) gets the money with it. If it turns out that the paper you gave him doesn't get him the money promptly (and he isn't required to go to any trouble before deciding the paper is worthless to him),it's very much as if you gave him a bum check, and you still owe him - and now maybe he can add interest and the time and energy he wasted on your BOE to your debt. In other words, you don't want to use a BOE unless everything is completely aboveboard; in certain business circles, where everyone knows everyone, it is perfectly acceptable. When strangers are involved, it might be refused as a method of payment.
A BOE can be refused as a method of payment (the IRS refuses to accept them), and if you were to try to raise a fuss over someone's refusal of your BOE, the question would be asked "Why can't you yourself collect on this paper and then pay with that money?"
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