Coinstar anybody?

[dopeyfanatic]

Do you have kids? Our credit union will count change for free if it's being put in the kids account.

 

[delmar411]

Do you have a Chevy Chase near you? They have the coin counting machines in the lobby and free checking. If it's really a ton then it might be worth it to open an acct just to get the coins counted! LOL

 

[4fosterkids]

Any idea's on what to do with a HUGE abundance of pennies?
We save all our other coins in a container for an upcoming trip...no pennies allowed in that one! lol
Well now I have about 4 large sam's club pretzel containers full of pennies

 

[ENSOCK]

our bank tries to charge a fee but I tell them to count it or I will close my accounts. Since there are other banks and credit unions in the area that count for free, they comply. I find it is best to go at a really slow period of the day -- like around 2pm after the lunch hours. They're all just standing around then anyway. I also don't bring a wheelbarrow full in. I have a small jar that usually holds about $100. It takes them a couple of minutes.

I agree with calling the local credit union or a smaller local bank that hasn't been eaten by Bank of America or Chase yet. They are usually more customer service focused, especially if you tell them that you'd be willing to open an account with the money if they'll count it for you.

Since I work at a bank, we would nicely tell you sorry we do not do that. Any rolled coins brought are charged .05 per roll. We are very small and are very customer service focused. Please remember next time you threaten your tellers that they have nothing to do with the rules of the bank. We have to do what is told to us are lose our jobs! As for standing around doing nothing at 2:00 that is when we balance for the day. It is the busiest time at the banks.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

oh it is not a threat, it is a fact.
Every month or two I bring a jar of coins into the bank and I expect them to be counted and deposited. If a bank is unwilling to do that, then they will not be my bank. If the tellers would prefer not to handle the duty, then they are welcome to go and get their Supervisor.

 

[ENSOCK]

thank God you do not bank with me!!

 

[Toby'sFriend]

thank God you do not bank with me!!

whatever.

I can assure you that my banks are more than happy to have our accounts.

 

[kimsuenew]

We are members of both a bank and a credit union. Our credit union has a change machine. I would call around to ALL B and CU in your town, to see if any have one (we are in a smaller town and have that option).

I refuse to give Coinstar and money, IMO that is plain silly, but I see many people doing it at our local Meijers store so not everyone agrees!

Giftcards scare me, look at Sharper Image... all those recent Christmas Presents that were given in the form of a giftcard are now worthless plastic.

We received a giftcard at Christmas the year before last (well...husband did, he is a mechanic and the bus drivers pooled together, and bought him a $80.00 giftcard to a local butcher shop). We thought we had thrown it away accidentally, but when pulling out Christmas decorations this year (I always save our Christmas Cards) I felt a heavy envelope and sure enough, there it was! Yay! I called the company and the secretary said there was no expiration date (it had been nearly a year now). Right after Christmas I went shopping there and stood at the counter and chose some wonderful cuts of meat, got to the register, and low and behold, was told it expired at exactly one year. I got nowhere with the manager either, even after telling him what the secretary said. I, of course, left everything there and walked out. I absolutely REFUSE to shop there anymore! The verification receipt was with the card, it had been one year and 6 days!

So my point is... getting giftcards can be a bit tricky, cold hard cash is so much better!

If you have no option, and do not want to count out/roll all of your change, the Coinstar will work! It looks easy enough to do.

Still, I would say call around and check all banks and credit unions in your vicinity before using it... you may luck out!

We have been saving all change since October for our September 2008 WDW trip, we have the free DDP, and plan to put the paper money we receive from our coins towards our tips! We have three sandwhich size Ziploc baggies full so far, I cannot wait to see what we have come September!

 

[Lintasare]

oh it is not a threat, it is a fact.
Every month or two I bring a jar of coins into the bank and I expect them to be counted and deposited. If a bank is unwilling to do that, then they will not be my bank. If the tellers would prefer not to handle the duty, then they are welcome to go and get their Supervisor.

I used to be a bank teller and let me say...it was NOT our job to count coin and roll it. That was the customers job. If it was not rolled we would not take it. That was our bank policy. We did not have the time to stand there and count coins. And we did not have a coin counting machine either. But we were always more than happy to give you free coin rolls.

 

[juliana_sd]

You pay a price for convenience. I don't mind paying the Coinstar fee because I don't have to make an special trip anywhere, it's available whenever the store is open, and it only takes 5 minutes. Rolling change is not worth my time.

 

[JKYlovesRuss]

Commerce Bank has a penny arcade. There is no fee. You even get a gift (letter opener or yo-yo) if you can guess how much change you put in! My daughter uses it all the time. The machine gives you a printed reciept and you bring it to the teller to cash it in.

 

[Pixiedust34]

The whole point of a change jar is saving money, so I don't want to spend money to cash in the change. I'm not interested in gift cards as that change jar is for saving for WDW.

The kids and I make a project out of rolling the coins ourselves. We dump the jar and get to work. It's not hard to do, and the kids get excited when they see all of the rolls lined up. I recently took $93.50 worth of rolled change to our credit union.

 

[jeankeri]

We have used Coinstar and redeemed for i-tunes and Amazon gift codes. That way there is no fee taken out. Works if you know you are wanting to buy something there.

 

[Hedy]

My brother paid for his GPS in change he converted to Amason gc's. So yeah, it works.

 

[megthewonderful]

Once or twice a year I use Coinstar and get an Amazon certificate. There's no fee and you get the certificate on the spot, you don't have to wait for the gift card to come in the mail.

I brought rolled change to my bank about a year or two ago, and they actually unrolled it and sent it through a counting machine and told me not to bother rolling it in the future. So, I switched to Coinstar knowing how I buy things from Amazon anyway.

 

[sumrmist]

Does anyone know if you get the disney shopping gift card if you can then buy a regular gift card that could be used in the parks with it?

Our grocery store has a coinstar, and I have change and thought if I could do it that way I would. If not then my credit union does have a free machine.

 

[phragmipedium]

I'm pretty impressed with Coinstar! I was going to go check our local one today to see if it offered gift cards, and it had a ton of choices. As others have mentioned, no fee for the gift cards. I was going to use it to get Starbucks giftcards for my husband (it's all his change anyway since I never use cash). At the very end, it told me that the gift card I wanted was unavailable at that time, so they would give me the cash voucher without taking out any fees. I would have half-expected it to tell me that I had to deal with the fee, so I thought that was pretty good customer service from a box. So I cashed out and picked up a Starbucks card for my husband when I did the bottle return at Safeway and it all worked out.

 

[Melrosgirl]

I refuse to pay coinstar's prices. We have a coin sorter at home. I use that. Now we have a Commerce Bank, so we take it there. I like the idea of the gift card if it's some place I know I'll need something from. I don't want $200 to Starbucks though, LOL.

 

[Green Tea]

Suntrust takes coins. It may be specific to a certain branch in the area, or maybe on a certain day. But I have had them counted at Suntrust before. Another tip is to call some small, local banks. They almost all do it cheerfully, I have found.

You could use the local bank to open a checking account with the counted change. Then move it to ING. Keep the account as an interest account for the change saving. hen you get new coins, you move through that account.

 

[Mono~rail]

I don't like to pay money to get my money. Coinstar is not for me.

I saw one time where people separated the quarters from the change jar and only put dimes, nickels, and pennies through coinstar, thus reducing the fees. That makes more sense to me if time is an issue.

I don't use Amazon or Starbucks so the giftcards are worthless.

That's what we do, except we take out the quarters and dimes leaving only the pennies and nickels to be sent through. Sometimes I'll even take out the nickels and only send the pennies through.

I'm going to check the lobbies of the local Chase banks and see if they have the free machines.

In the past, one thing I have done to roll pennies is to measure by weight. I have a small digital kitchen scale. I count out 50 pennies into a cup and weigh it. Write down that measurement and use the same exact cup and fill it to the correct weight. Goes much faster than counting.