Cash In That Spare Change Without Fees
I hate carrying around spare change, I don’t know why. I put all mine into a jar by the front door the second I get home. I try to use credit cards exclusively, but somehow the spare change has filled two spaghetti sauce jars already. Coinstar machines are everywhere now, trying to cash in on people’s laziness and giving you bills after charging a surcharge of 8.9% (9.8% in Canada). For someone that is happy when my saving account rate bumps up 0.25%, that’s too much. But now, you can lug your change to the machine and get a gift certificate for the full amount to select Coinstar partner stores - including Amazon.com, Starbucks, Hollywood Video, Pier 1 Imports. [Coinstar Kiosk Locator]
According to this CNN Money article, they are doing this by buying discounted certificates and pocketing the difference. Very smart. But I’d note that I could buy gift cards for Starbucks and Hollywood Video at a Safeway grocery store using my Citibank Dividend Card and get 5% cash back, so that would be like paying a 5% fee on my spare change. The Amazon option sounds pretty neat though.
My usual recommendation for cashing in spare change without fees is just to go to your bank and ask them how they like to do it. My local Bank of America gives me two options:
1) They give me free paper coin rolls, I roll them, and I deposit it with them. They just compare the roll length with an existing coin roll to make sure I’m not cheating them out of a nickel or something. They don’t even check if I have an account before giving me the rolls.
2) I bring in the loose coins in a bag, and they send it off to a coint counting machine at their central branch and deposit the total automatically in my checking account. Obviously, you need an account with the them to do this.
The latter option is the easiest and requires no work, but I usually do the former. I don’t know why, I don’t think the bank would bother cheating me out of some spare change, but I like to know how much it is before depositing. I usually just roll the change while watching TV.
Either way, more options is always good.
Find more in Frugal Living | 9/13/05, 8:59am | Trackback
September 13th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
I used to roll it too. Bought one of those idiotic coin rolling machines that never work (maybe it was a gift). Lucky for me, LaLa is very good at spending change and she handles 98% of cash transactions so we don’t even need to roll anymore.
Interesting how it takes a certain “talent” to spend change, isn’t it?
September 13th, 2005 at 7:48 pm
Try Commerce Bank. If I recall correctly, they have free machines by the door that will sort loose change and give cash, even for non-customers.
September 13th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
I’ve used the Commerce Bank coin sorting machines (with my girlfriend at the time, who had an account) and found it rejected some of my coins… but otherwise, good stuff, no service charge. The machine gave me a voucher and the cashier/teller gave me the cash.
September 14th, 2005 at 8:01 am
I think woman spend their change, because they have purses. Men never spend their change, because it’s too heavy. So men just need to start carrying around hand bags. Then you don’t have to pay 9% to get rid of your change.
September 14th, 2005 at 8:30 am
Commerce Bank in NY and NJ has free coin counter machines (the Penny Arcade) in all of their locations. You do not need an account to use them, just drop your change in the machine and take the receipt to the register.
September 14th, 2005 at 9:44 am
NYC money…I assure you that neither I nor my partner carries a purse
We carry all money in pockets, like most men. Bills are in a money clip, change is loose in the pockets. I think the secret is to NOT take it out of your pocket and set it aside at the end of the day, but whenever you use cash, actually check to see if you have either correct change, or change that will result in fewer coins at least.
Just a thought…though it would be funny to see men carrying hand bags around.
September 16th, 2005 at 4:51 am
If you have a bank account at a smaller bank (not BofA, etc.), then you can take your change to the bank hand it to a teller and they will count it through their machine behind the counter and then either deposit in your account or hand you the cash. If they don’t, then ask them to drop the fee and I would think they would rather drop the fee than lose your account that they’ve already paid to acquire (and every bank has a coin counting machine behind the counter). Coinstar is just a marketing gimmic and is making money off people who are lazy and don’t go to their local bank anymore. Now they have partner companies who are paying them to tranfer it into gift cards to Starbucks, Amazon, etc.
September 16th, 2005 at 5:23 am
I have two large coffe jars filled with quarter,nickels and dimes that I will be turning in a few weeks to help with Christmas shopping. I plan to use them for Amazon stuff.
November 22nd, 2005 at 6:57 am
I rarely have change because I don’t pay with cash often, but I really like the ‘Keep the Change’ program that Bank of America has now. I wrote about it in the linked article. It’s a good way to ‘force’ you to save, plus you get free money, and I’m all for FREE money.
March 8th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
I tried coinstar last night. For me, it looks like a cheating business. Coinstar claims if you get gift certificate, there is no surcharge.
However, when I ask for amazon certificate, the machine told me it suffered fron technical problem. So it printed out a cash receipt( and deduct surcharge from what I should get).
I felt I was cheated at that moment. They give you an option not to pay them surcharge, however, that option is not working !!
October 13th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I just went to Chevy Chase bank in downtown DC for their “free” change to cash machine. Their deal is that it’s all free if you have one cent - $5.00 in change. I you have 5.01 - $100 they charge $3.
I didn’t want to pay $3 for my ~$10 of change so I tried to put in just $5. The machine told me I had put in $4.96 so I put in four more pennies… and after waiting a few seconds the count ticked up to $5.01. What?! There must have been a penny that hadn’t been counted yet??
At the teller I asked for just $5 cash back (they can keep my $.01 at no additional cost
) but she said she couldn’t do that. All she could do was charge me $3 for my $5.01 of change. After much back and forth and bringing a manager to discuss it she suggested in hushed tones that I give my $5.01 credit to a bank customer who would be able to get the money out at no charge. I promptly thanked her and the gentlemen behind me in line graciously just gave me $5 out of his wallet and took my $5.01 credit to the teller.
Thank you nice people! and beware super strict rules. Who knew $.01 could cost me $3?!