Coinstar experience
Coinosaurus
Posts: 9,645 ✭✭✭✭✭
My bank stopped accepting loose change and I was not going to roll it up. I figured the 10% Coinstar charge was worth it. Observations:
There was a guy sitting next to the machine doing nothing. I am sure all he did all day was wait for people to leave the machine and retrieve the scraps.
The machine goes slow if you put too much in. You have to slow it down to get the optimal rate. I had $100 and it took a few minutes.
The machine eats Ike dollars. I'm sure I put in more than one and only got credited for one (which may been an SBA, actually). The Ikes were not in the rejecto slot.
Machine correctly rejected a 2-cent euro coin and 10 centavos from Brazil.
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Comments
Man, you need a new bank...or better yet a credit union!!
Hopefully you chose the option to get 100% of your $$$ in the form of a gift card.
My one credit union got rid of their independent machines and contracted to Coinstar. The machines are free for credit union members but they are just as slow and miserable to use as the regular coinstar machines. At least I have a couple of other CU's that are still free and have fast machines.
Two out of the last three times I’ve used it, for approx $150-$200 in change, it kicked out two silver Roosies. Love these machines!
Dave
Never found nothing. Ever.
I have a special relationship with a coinstar machine. She loves me.
That's what I do, get a gift card for 100% of my money. I get an Amazon gift card since I will be spending money there anyway but there are lots of other great gift card options.
Amazon gift card. No fee and you get rid of a big pile of coins. Man, non collector coins are annoying!
He who knows he has enough is rich.
One time I went to use the constant machine, it was "broken", it could not give out gift cards, so if you wanted to continue, they let you choose to get your money in cash without the 11% penalty, that was nice
With all due respect to the OP, why take a 10% hit on your money? I can roll coins in my sleep - it is not a big deal. And if my bank stopped taking loose coins I'd want to dump rolls on them out of spite.
If the amount of coins is not that large, dump them into the self-checkout machines in the supermarket.
If you can leverage the fee-free gift cards in the Coinstar like others have suggested, that is another option.
As for me, I am way too "thrifty" to surrender 10% of my money just to cash it in.
But I do always visit the Coinstar machine to see what other people have left behind. Once I helped clean up about $14 face value in 90% silver that some unknown previous customer had left behind in the reject tray. I like to do my party to keep things clean and orderly - I guess it's the humanitarian in me.
Some dillweed left me $10 in silver quarters in the reject slot once. I find enough non-collectable that I am able to funnel $25-30 a month in donations to Children's Miracle Network.
Tell you what, if you come to my house and roll them for me, I'll give you the 10%
Wow....I never use a coinstar machine...just check the reject slot whenever I pass...Sometimes treasure, mostly nothing. Cheers, RickO