ASP.Net CType unable to convert "£1,234.56" to Decimal - Need detailed list of influences - asp.net

Question

This is a common question - and it has several common answers.
My problem is that none of them have worked.
The code is entirely typical, a CType to a Decimal, which fails due to globalization settings.
Console.write( CType("£1,234.56", Decimal) )
>>> Conversion from string "£1,234.56" to type 'Decimal' is not valid.
My issue is this particular computer isn't converting the value after several different attempts to fix it.
So far, in no particular order of desperation:
Region settings. Made sure they were (United Kingdom) [en-GB], restarted.
IIS, ".NET Globalisation", Culture is set to Invariant Language (Invariant Country).
IIS, ".NET Globalisation", Culture is set to (United Kingdom) [en-GB].
Region settings, Administrative tab, Copy locale settings.
I've yet to try:
Set in web.config ... https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bz9tc508.aspx
Is there anything else I can try?

Answer 1

As the_lotus mentioned, Decimal.Parse will work:
Option Infer On
Imports System.Globalization
Module Module1
Sub Main()
Dim s = "£1,234.56"
Dim d = Decimal.Parse(s, NumberStyles.Currency, New CultureInfo("en-GB"))
Console.WriteLine(d) ' outputs 1234.56
s = "$1,234.56"
d = Decimal.Parse(s, NumberStyles.Currency, New CultureInfo("en-US"))
Console.WriteLine(d) ' outputs 1234.56
If Decimal.TryParse(s, NumberStyles.Currency, New CultureInfo("en-GB"), d) Then
Console.WriteLine(d)
Else
Console.WriteLine("Could not parse.")
End If
Console.ReadLine()
End Sub
End Module
An inferior way would be to remove everything which doesn't belong in a number:
Dim s = "£1,234.56"
Dim re As New Regex("[^0-9,.]")
Dim t = re.Replace(s, "")
Console.WriteLine(CType(t, Decimal)) ' outputs 1234.56
It isn't as good because you don't get to check if the currency symbol was the one you expected.