So which is more budget for cashing in coins.

[bumbershoot]

If my bank refused to take them rolled, I'd get a manager. They are legal tender, and distributed by the bank to others. They should be required to take them in.

My credit union doesn't take coin because they don't take cash other than in their machines. I would have to drive to one of their three locations that is a cash location in order to do it. Not worth it to me!


Before WaMu became Chase, they wanted to charge 10% on rolled coin because they have to send it off by way of armored car, and those services charge by weight. They were willing to take a couple rolls at a time without charging, so that's what I would do.

Chase, however, hasn't had a problem with the rolled coins.


But if I had things to buy either for the trip or in my normal life from amazon, I would get the no-fee GC from the Coinstar machine, use that for those items, and put the cash I would have used for those things into vacation fund. Someone else mentioned Starbucks, and that's a good idea if you normally go to Starbucks and have that budgeted. Take the amount of the s'bux giftcard, put the cash into the vacation account, use the GC.

 

[kydisneyfans]

One of the better ideas I have heard and use is that if the coins are mixed and you have a charge for couning, pull the quarters and dimes out to roll yourself, and let the machine count the smaller denominations.

 

[RitaE]

Do you have a local CoinStar at a grocery store?

Our will give you a grocery store credit with no service charge.
I usually save mine all year for the Amazon bonus offer and use them then though.

 

[Dismom55]

I agree with roll and take them to your bank, that is what I do. I have two accounts at my bank, one is my household acct, the other is my Disney acct. When I get about $50 in coin, I roll and deposit, that acct also earns interest so it is a win/win for me, the sooner I deposit the coin the sooner it earns interest. I also deposit other money like rebate checks and other unexpected money. This is in part how I pay for my Disney trips, so every penny counts.

 

[mtblujeans]

Our banks won't accepted rolled coinage because people were putting slugs or Canadian coins in the rolls. I know some stores will weigh the roll and then take it.

 

[a1tinkfans]

I use TD bank
I have no account there
Its free, fast and easy...you dump it in, they count it and wah la cash in hand.
I have never had an issue with the machine or a teller. Awesome!

 

[Karlzmom]

I bank at my credit union at work... They don't accept coins I bank there bc it is just easier than trying to make bank hours...much easier to just go to the window at work. Plus... No fees

Here's an idea...find a bank that changes coins for free, bonus points if it has a promo for a "new" account. Open the account with the minumum necessary and then only go there when you want to cash your coins. The added bonus a "savings" account that you'll basically forget about and have it grow. I completely get wanting the convenience of the work credit union, but if paying someone to cash your coins bugs you, then look at the occasional drive over as an "investment"

 

[Kycha]

Do you have a local CoinStar at a grocery store?

Our will give you a grocery store credit with no service charge.
I usually save mine all year for the Amazon bonus offer and use them then though.

What's the Amazon bonus offer and when does it happen? Thanks!

 

[Lintasare]

When I was a teller we would take rolled coin. We did not have a coin machine, according to upper management they were too expensive.

However we were REQUIRED to open each roll and count them.

Why? Because sometimes people miscount and put too many or too few coins in. Or they would slip in things like game tokens or foreign coins.

We would give out these rolls to other customers needing change and we would open them when we needed to fill our coin trays. Do you know how much trouble we would have been in if a customer had found game tokens in a roll we had given them or if we didn't balance because a roll was short?

 

[aprilgail2]

I'm not sure where you live but if there's a TD Bank near you, you should bank there. They have great hours (and are even open on Sunday) and they have the free coin counting machine -- and if you guess correctly (within $1.99), you get a prize! (usually a little change purse or silly bands or a magnet or something. LOL!)

I agree- I bank at chase and apple but recently also opened an account at TD bank that we started with change we had saved- we cashed it in to open the account and it was 350.00- no way was I giving coinstar almost 35.00 to do that and I wanted money not a stupid gift certificate! So now I just use TD bank for our change and other random checks we get that we want to save for disney and keep my checking at chase and other accounts at apple.

 

[RitaE]

What's the Amazon bonus offer and when does it happen? Thanks!

Coinstar usually runs a promotion in December where you cash in a certain amount of coins and you can get a bonus gift card amount. Last year I think it was cash in $40 and get $10.

It ran for Amazon, Lowes and a few other places.