Has anyone ever turned their coins in thru CoinStar?

[Delaney]

I'm getting ready (financially) for our big Disney trip on 11/22! :)

I was going to roll my coins but just found out that my bank now charges a fee to turn in rolled coins. :eek: That seems so contrary!

I know that in our supermaket, there is a Coinstar (or something like that ) machine where you can pour your coins in (for a small fee) and get dollars back.

Has anyone ever done that before?

Del

[fkj2]

I've never done it and wouldn't be tempted to; the last I knew, they wanted 9% or $9 of every $100 in coins. Too much loss for me; I'd roll the coins.

[GoldenOldie]

Interesting you should ask this question. Recently our newspaper ran an article about the Coinstar machines in the area. It took the same exact amount of coins in the same denominations and used the same machine in the same location at least five times. They tested several locations in the area. They found the results to be very constant across all the different machines they tested.

Twice the machine had the exact count. Once it was over and two times it was short by varying amounts. And it charged you a 10% fee unless you wanted to donate the coins to charity. Then (so they said) there was no fee taken out.

So much for machines replacing man. :rolleyes:

[annemariec]

For turning in coins?? What are they charging?? Man! I would call around and see if there are other banks that do not. That's crummy. I'm sure there are some around. Money is money! Seems like services the banks offer are getting less and less.


Annemarie

[maciec]

I did it with about $26 in change. I think I had to pay $1 with the fee. Just the idea of not having to wrap and sort the change was worth the dollar!

[Bildmouse]

Does your bank charge if you deposit your change to an account? If they don't you could deposit it and then withdraw that amount!

[Toby'sFriend]

I've used 3 different banks over the past 5 or 6 years and all 3 of them wanted our coins <b>unwrapped</b> - so they could just pour them into their own coin counting machines. Our current bank charges a flat $5 if your coins are over $100. So everytime it looks like we are approaching $70 or $80 I take them in. If my bank charged a fee I also would start calling around. What's Next? A fee for depositing $1 bills on Tuesdays????

I also wouldn't use Coinstar - 9% is a pretty high rate.

[Debbie in Townsville]

I've used Coinstar when they have some kind of a promotion. Kroger had a coupon in their flyer for free store brand ice cream when you turned in $35 or more of coins. I haven't seen any promotions lately though.

Debra

[Lewisc]

If you must use coinstar, count your quaters yourself and just use machine for pennies, nickels and dimes.

[mum4jenn]

I have used it and it is worth it for me just to save time and not have my hands stink. We used it once when we had around 70$ to turn in and on our last trip to put the change my dd had saved which was mostly pennies and around 30$.I could have turned it in to Publix without any hassle but I just did not want to roll.

[lawyermom]

Faced with the prospect of rolling years' worth of coins, I decided to roll the halves, quarters, nickles and cimes, but not the pennies. Actually, I did roll 12 rolls of pennies and didn't seem to even make a dent! So, took the pennies to the local coinstar location (had never done it before).

$69.00!! In pennies!!! Lost only 8%, which to me was a real bargain to not have to roll the thousands of coins myself.

[Loudbmw]

I save the quarters and nickels for our annual trip to the Atlantic City casinos and turn them in(sorted but unrolled) at the slot redemtion. Dimes and pennies go to coin star so it cuts my losses by 75% (on the coin star fee - loss on the casino portion is usually 100% LOL)

Lou

[kinlaw6450]

I use it. Here it is 7 cents on the dollar. I know it sounds like a lot I guess but I couldn't imagine the time it would take to roll all of that. Especially the pennies!!

[Dagny]

I have used coinstar the last two WDW trips we took. For me, it was worth the fee not to have to roll 1000's of coins. It was quick and easy :)

[Braque]

We used CoinStar for our spare change savings in 2000. It was quick, easy and I just closed my eyes to how much we had to pay for the convenience.

In 2001, we rolled our own coins. It was a family affair and the kids really had fun with it (even though Dad had to recount their piles - just to make sure). It helped get everyone in the mood for getting ready to go to WDW and showed how spare change can really add up. Now even the little ones want to contribute to the 'Disney Box' when they have a few extra coins.

Our bank was fine with simply cashing in the rolled coins without a deposit or fee. If they did charge me I would threaten to put my fortune elsewhere :rolleyes:

[B3LM]

My DH used CoinStar a while back and was charged an 8% fee. I just took our "Disney" change into the bank a few weeks ago. My DS and I rolled it ourselves and we weren't charged any fee at the bank.

[ncbyrne]

Our local coinstars charge 7%, but that's still too much for me. Buy some of those tubular coin banks - the kind that has indicator lines letting you know exactly how much you have saved. When it gets up to the "roll amount" ($2 nickels, $5 dimes, $10 quarters), just roll them yourself. I use those, plus I have found that an old Nescafé instant coffee jar holds just about $10 worth of pennies, and when it's about half full, we roll those. When I get $50 worth of coins, they get deposited in our Disney fund at the bank.

[Beverly Lynn]

our coinstar charged 7% when I used it.But for 176.00 in change it was well worth it for me.

[Kathie from Boise]

our's charges 7%, I think it is great for pennies and nickels......I just use the quarters :)

[travelcoupons]

My bank charges no fee and they prefer the change loose...not rolled because they have to check it anyway in their machine.:p

[dizneenut]

I used it once, but I'd rather just roll the coins!

[mom5417]

My fortune is spent at wdw. We have used coin star and my motto is time is money. We had coins in boxes, drawers etc waiting to be wrapped someday when we had time. Well coin star saved the day. worth every penny.

[Pooh's Pal]

I roll all but the "pennies". I now have 3 coffee cans full of pennies and will visit coin star soon to be rid of them, turn in the slip, get the cash and it will go to the bank in my Disney fund. I think my coin star charges 8%, but I don't care with the pennies.

[pbhunt]

I use the coinstar every time we get an accumulation of pennies. It's seven cents on the dollar out here. Well worth it. Last time I took rolled pennies to my credit union for redemption, I received a debit notice in the mail a few weeks later....... YOUR ACCOUNT HAS BEEN DEBITED 2 CENTS, REASON: PENNY ROLL SHORT 2 CENTS. The credit union spent 34 cents to mail me this notice!LOL:) :)

[josierac]

Call your nearest Burger King, Mc Donalds, etc and see if they will take them. You might have to leave your name, address and phone number in case the coins in the pkgs are not all US coins, or not the right amount in them.

I used to be a Restaurant MGR at a Burger King and I would always accept them. I would ask for ID and write down all the info above on the rolls.
Coins are always needed at these places especially on a weekend when they are running low before they can get to a bank on Monday.

I still turn mine in but a friend of mine is the MGR so it's no problem

[robinb]

My credit union does it for free!

But ... if you want to "roll your own" I've seen a bunch of the automatic coin rolling machines at the local stores like K-Mart and Kohl's.

[seashoreCM]

I would not pay the fee that Coinstar and other coin eating machines charge.

How about handing each cashier some loose change instead of collecting more and more pennies, every time you buy something?

More Disney tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

9/65 Disneyland
3/75 (World Inn* off I4 near DD)
4/85 (Kon-Tiki* on 192)
'80s Disneyland once or twice
7/94 PORiv
9/97 ASMu
11/98 ASMu
12/98 (Knights Inn on 192)
9/99 ASMo
12/00 ASSp
9/01 ASSp
11/01 ASSp
*no longer exists

[dianeschlicht]

WE always save coins to pay for our APs when we go to Disney. We often save all of our change for a year and end up with around $900. We take them in in big buckets, and the credit union has never charged us to count and deposit them.