If you are like me and every other person, you have a ton of loose change laying around….some on your coffee table, some in your junk drawer, etc…The average person has about $100 in change laying around the house. Some folks, like myself, use their spare change as a savings tool. I am in the practice of always using bills to pay for items, even if I have the change in my pocket. At the end of the day, I put all of the change into a jar until it is filled.
The problem that I encounter is when I am ready to turn my change into cash. To deposit this into my credit union account, I must count and organize the change into rolled amounts with my account number on each roll…With about $100 in change, I see that as a waste of time even though I am itching to deposit this money into a interest bearing account. Think about it, by having a $100 laying around the house, you are basically turning away $3.00, assuming a 3% yield for the 1st year.
So with that said, I am a big fan of the Coinstar. You know, those big green coin counting machines you see in the local supermarket. The way it works is simple, you deposit your change and convert it to cash…the catch….Coinstar charges you 08.9 cents per dollar counted…Ouch! that is a steep 8.9%…but wait there is a way around this charge….
If you decide to convert your change to a gift card of various retailers, there is no 8.9% charge. There are many popular gift card options ranging from iTunes, Starbucks, Amazon, and so on…Take a look at the Coinstar website to see which retailers are available in your neck of the woods.
I just recently converted approximately $329 worth of change into an Amazon e-certificate. We used this as partial payment for a new flat screen TV. So as you writing down your list and checking which coupons you have for you next supermarket trip, don’t forget to bring your change and convert it to cash.
Also to note, in completing my research for this post, I found out that Coinstar is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ with the ticker of CSTR.
Author Disclosure: At the time of posting, I do not own any shares of Coinstar (CSTR).
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via email
4 responses so far ↓
1 Budgets are Sexy // Jun 18, 2008 at 2:05 pm
That’s the way to do it my man - i’m with you all the way! I used Coinstar last month and it pumped me out one healthy $ voucher!
I can’t remember all the way (i guess i should check my blog posting on it), but i believe i got back like $200-ish.
very sexy indeed!
2 pfstock // Jun 20, 2008 at 4:18 pm
This “coins to cash” thing always rubbed me the wrong way. I’ve never been a fan of Coinstar, and I’d never pay them 8.9% to count up my coins. Their marketing is very effective because they’ve somehow gotten people into thinking that coins are no longer viable legal tender.
Let’s back up a moment and think about language here. Aren’t “coins” considered to be “cash” by definition? Since when are coins not acceptable as legal tender, for all debts public and private? I’ve had half a mind to bring in a big jar of coins to pay for my groceries just to protest the Coinstar machine. If they refuse my money, I could claim discrimination…
Gift cards, as you have written before, are not cash either. You stated that they routinely sell for 10% less than face value. In any case, when you compare this “counting fee” versus what you get at the bank, that is nearly 3 years worth of interest that you are losing out on.
If Coinstar wishes to be truthful, they ought to change their slogan to “turn your cash into a voucher or gift card that is worth less than you put in”.
3 Frugal Canadian Living // Jun 29, 2008 at 6:19 am
Coinstar machines charge you money to change your money. There are many better ways of getting rid of your change. You can even use a vending machine.
http://www.frugalcanadianliving.com/2008/05/depositing-your-change.html
4 Little Lugs // Jul 1, 2008 at 9:13 am
My husband and I also put our change into a jar every day, and about every three months when the jar is full (usually about $125!) we take it to a nearby branch of Commerce Bank. We used to use Coinstar, but then I learned that Commerce offers no-fee coin-cashing to anyone, even if you are not a Commerce customer! Unfortunately Commerce is not a nationwide chain - they have banks in NY, NJ, CT, PA, and FL only.
Leave a Comment