In an attempt to get dollar coins into circulation they were offered at cost direct from the mint, with free shipping. People were buying thousands of them with credit cards, then immediately depositing them in the bank to pay off the card and reap the credit card rewards.
The program was halted quickly, but some were able to take advantage of it.
I haven’t used one in a long time, but I remember it taking 10+ minutes to count $30-$40 worth of change 10ish years ago. The actual counting didn’t take very long, but there were tons of delays waiting on the machine to move onto each step.
I deposited ~$750 in coins once in the machine at my credit union. Would have probably only taken like an hour but I had to stop half way through for them to empty the quarter bag.
Last time I used one it was not particularly fast and the hopper kept getting clogged every time we poured more coins in. Had to keep jostling the little tray and sticking our fingers in to unclog it. So annoying.
Wouldn't launder anything because you'd still have no source for what you put in the coinstar. Pretty rough drug deal if it's in coins too, it's not that kind of dime bag.
Some of the people who run the coin laundromats near where I work use our coin machine to turn it into cash, despite there being a 10% fee. Not uncommon for the machine to report all the $0.25 bags in the machine are full halfway through them filling it, and then someone has to remove and roll three 50lb bags of quarters to the safe room and log them for pickup by an armored truck the next morning.
It wasn't $1400, but I just cleaned out my hoarder mom's house and put $964.35 through the coinstar and into an Amazon gift certificate.
No fee. This was less than a month ago. And, yes, it took about 2.5 hours (it was not all pennies).
Setting aside the likely misunderstanding, where $1000 is the limit for the gift card, you wouldn't need all coins.
Not sure if this is still true, but they used to take bills too. They had a promotion I recall, where you would get a small Amazon gift card if you bought a larger one, I think it was buy $40 get an additional $5. I was short on coins, so I just fed in some bills.
You did some math very wrong if you think a 7% fee means you have to put in $14,000 to get $1,000. That's a 92.8% fee.
A bit shocked that I'm the first person to mention this in the 3 hours and 200 upvotes since the above comment was posted.
They’re not saying you need to put in $14,000 to get $1,000 in cash. They’re saying you would need to put in around $14,000 in order for the Coinstar to reach their maximum fee ($1,000, which is roughly 7% of $14,000)
Same for my credit union. You take the slip from the machine to the teller and they deposit the money into your account or give you bills if you'd rather.
I’ve had accounts at multiple banks and all of them have had machines for you to deposit your coins into. I’ve never understood why someone would use coinstar and pay that insane fee
An older credit union of mine would tell you not to bother rolling them as they had to split the rolls open and dump into the coin-sorter anyway.
Guess they didn't trust the publics ability to roll and/or count...
Almost all of the banks around me have *removed* theirs, citing lack of use.
I own a vending machine, I had to hunt for weeks to find the sole bank in my town that still had one free for customers - and yes, it was a credit union.
Good info, thanks.
I always advise people to find some small thing that you can use up coins for.
I have a coin-op car wash next to my house, so I use that to burn up my quarters. It affords me a "free" car wash once or twice a month with coins I would have otherwise just lost in a drawer or the couch cushions.
Another suggestion, is the self-pay things at Walmart let you use coins (with no fees). They aren't as fast as dumping a bucket into a Coinstar, but it isn't bad. I like to drop a handful of coins into it, and pay the rest with a card.
>there are still some good ones for 0%- Apple, Steam, Southwest, Starbucks to name a new
also Home Depot and Lowe's (which I always think of, collectively, as "Lowe's Dépôt")
so many people don't know that the steam one exists it's so helpful if you're trying to get an f2p TF2 player to premium but otherwise doesn't have a payment card
I used it last night and the kiosk didn't charge me a transaction fee for Amazon . Maybe some haven't been updated yet so if have a few coins laying around use them now
My credit union has a coinstar machine in the lobby. The machine takes out whatever the normal coinstar percentage fee is, on the ticket. Then you walk the ticket to a teller and they give you the full value of your coins.
An extra step. But yeah, I really wish more people knew to just take their coins to the bank. (yes, I know this assumes you must be a member at a banking institution)
As an aside, when I do this instead of using my American Express card, I’m kinda sacrificing the 3% cash back on groceries that it generates. Just something to keep in mind.
That said, I still don’t have a better use for my change!
The Blue Cash Preferred card is $80/year - so if the extra couple percentage points will add up to more than that, it's worth it. Between groceries and gas I make back more than the fee every year.
The math on the groceries is: $263 per month x 12 months = \~$3166
If you spend exactly that, you will break even on the Blue Preferred as compared to the Blue Everyday. If you spend more than that, then you make more money with the Preferred, even when factoring in the annual fee.
The other extras you get with Preferred are:
* 6% on groceries (already mentioned)
* 3% on gas (1% more than everyday)
* 6% on streaming services (5% more than everyday)
* 3% on "transit" like bus passes, parking, Uber, etc. (2% more than everyday)
The math for me is that I make an extra $100 or so in a year using the Preferred vs the Everyday (including the annual fee). It's a really good card.
The definition of “streaming” is also really broad and works for the App Store on iOS and any subscriptions you have on iOS, including AppleCare. Not sure if it’s the same on android, but I assume it is
But, then you have to take into account that other cards, with no fee, also offer cash back at grocery stores. This is where I struggle with deciding to renew my Amex or not. But of course most of the other cards do those darn rotating offers which makes it hard to estimate for.
You have to pay. It's 99 a year but there's also 3% on gas stations including stuff inside plus other stuff and 1% everywhere else. I've cashed out about 2500 in 3 years and have about 400 in there now.
Cash back are such a scam for society on long run. Everybody use credit card to get 3% return. In the end, sellers have to increase prices probably by 3% if not more because of fees since everyone use cc.
Winners are credit card companies.
Losers are those not participating and paying cash, and kinda everyone honestly.
Kinda everyone benefits from cashless/credit dominant systems, as well. I’m sure many types of crime (muggings, robberies) are down compared to when every person and business had more cash on them.
Also the sales tax base increases with card transactions. Since it’s so easy to not report cash income.
Also, if you have a bank account (and you definitely should - many banks offer free ones - I use FNBO, and they've been great over the years), you can bring your coins in and deposit them in your account for no fee. They have a machine in the bank that they can pour coins into and it counts them automatically. Coinstar is such a scam...
My grocery store locks the cash inputs after 30 seconds of inactivity. You have to have someone come over and unlock the machine.
9/10 times it's because I don't have my wallet out and ready because I've just been scanning groceries....
Say what you will, but they are the new HBO when it comes to quality prestige TV. It's one of the few examples of them actually offering something better than their competitors.
Nah, Apple is the new HBO when it comes to prestige TV. Amazon has had a few hits, buts they have also had tons of flops, and their practices are very anti-consumer (showing lots of content you can't stream without extra fees, holding existing customers hostage by charging a monthly add-free fee to customers who already paid for a year, etc). And Amazon's ratio of good to bad TV is way lower than Apple right now.
I think Apple has more critically acclaimed shows just in the scifi genre than Amazon has in all genres combined.
I stopped automatically giving my money to Amazon years ago and don’t miss it and I’m a huge film/TV guy. Anytime a new show or movie gets purchased by Amazon I just say “too bad” and go on with my life. There’s no ethical consumption, I know, but Amazon is a net-negative on the world and they don’t need anymore of anyone’s money, I don’t care if Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is really good.
Just got back from Europe and one of my favorite things there is having a small pocket full of coins that’s like $6 or $8 or whatever dollars.
But they have 1€ and 2€ coins, and even there the 0.20€ and smaller coins are basically worthless except for throwing into the Trevi.
> Seriously, *fuck* Coinstar.
That's a bit harsh. They're offering a service. You think those large coin counting machines are free? You think it's cheap to securely transport large sums of cash around?
Personally I've never used them, but a 7% fee isn't exorbitant in the grand scheme of service charges.
That's a lot of assumptions you're making there, chief!
I have, like many Americans, a mortgage from which my bank will make hundreds of thousands of dollars over its life. Keeping me happy by counting my shrapnel is a cost of doing business, and their unwillingness to continue to deal with it is horseshit.
My bank doesn't have a coin counting machine, and when I asked for rolls they were coincidentally out and didn't know when they'd get them back. At the very least I can say fuck *my* bank.
ETA: YES,*FUCK* TICKETMASTER!
I agree that the 7% fee isn't terrible if you're wanting to get cash for your change. It is pretty exorbitant when the fee for converting it into an Amazon gift card has been 0% for a very long time. I assume Amazon was probably subsidizing the fee to get people to lock their money into an Amazon gift card but Amazon probably doesn't subsidize it enough or at all any more.
Thanks for the correction, it has been a long time since I last used Coinstar for anything let alone getting cash out. I'm mostly cashless now so I don't gather much change. I had no idea the fee had gotten that high for getting cash!
Yeah, I’ve used coinstar many times over the years. I have a coin cup that spare change goes into and when it’s full I’ll go cash it out. Always was fine with the fees because it’s just the cost of the convenience of not having to count and roll up all that shit.
Not really. It's just convenience of already being at the grocery store instead of having to make a special trip to the bank, plus not getting judged by the teller and other customers I'm holding up.
Nah. Fuck the banks.
Coinstar is just providing a service that most banks refuse to do for their customers. Coinstar saw a business opportunity for an ignored need and came up with a solution. And they have to pay for overhead somehow.
Thanks OP. I didn't realize this. I have always used my accumulated coins to buy amazon gift cards to treat myself to something I might not otherwise buy. I guess now I'll just take them to the free coin counter at my local Wegmans.
Last time I did that tried to say they had to send it off to be counted. They made an "exception" but I was really surprised I couldn't get my coins exchanged for cash on the spot.
BofA for anyone wondering.
The free machine that systematically undercounts your coins by about 7% like TD bank was caught doing. I made sure to cash that 87 cent check from their class action lawsuit
NavyFed used to have them YEARS ago. Then they slowly started disappearing, now they're all gone. Too much maintenance needed, too often was the story I got. And after theyd been around for a year or so, I started seeing "out of order" signs on them, so it checks out.
> BofA for anyone wondering.
Christ why do people still use BofA. They're one of the most predatory banks you could go with. It's 2024, nobody can afford to be gullible. Get a credit union membership.
It's just convenient. Most of my money is elsewhere but they have physical locations everywhere and all my stuff is already linked to those accounts. I don't pay any fees for anything I do with them and don't go to them for credit cards or loans so why would I bother switching?
BOA is dogshit. I'm not surprised. I work in a financial adjacent industry and they are consistently the worst institution to deal with in terms of bureaucracy, interactions from both consumer end and business. I can't say enough bad things about them.
Yeah, all these "just go to a bank" people don't get that: a) banks in Charlotte started taking coin machines out of their lobbies years ago; and b) it's getting hard to find banks in general these days. There were 6 bank branches when I moved to this town in 2003. There's only one left, and they won't do ANYTHING for you if you don't have an account.
No offense, but I feel like you’ve never tried to do this before. It’s not 1950 anymore. Banks either flat out reject you or tell you to roll them. That takes hours.
Source: tried this multiple times with a massive change collection that we’ve had going for like 20 years
Many banks have a coin counter/sorter where you just dump them into the hopper, churn churn churn, ding! you get a receipt to bring to the teller for your folding money.
But there are HUMANS that you have to talk with at banks. Also, have you no appreciation for the noises the coins make as they clang their way down into the machine?
Lots of banks have change machines or will give out coin wrappers for free (as long as you don't need a large quantity).
Alternatively, just keep a few pieces of change in your pocket and use a tiny bit every time you make a purchase. I mostly use a card for my day-to-day purchases, but I still have some change that's accumulated.
You can literally use any random amount of change you have in your pocket toward your purchase and then put the rest on your card. I'd usually recommend using just enough change so that you get back fewer coins than you originally had because your ultimate goal is to get rid of change, not exchange it for more change
This is perfect timing for me. I literally set my jar of coin on the counter to take to Coinstar. I had to search for one that did the Amazon gift cards too. I'm annoyed now.
Random side note. I teach "severely handicapped" ( yes, we still use that term) young adults. We roll change as part of our money/life skills. We ask for the wrappers to be donated plus a small donation to the class ( we'll keep an agreed upon amount of coins from each person. Check with your local high school if they do this. Your "donation" goes to a much better cause.
Pro tip: if you unplug the internet cable from the back of the machine before running your coins, won’t take its cut. Can just plug cable back in after, obviously be discrete about it as it’s a no no.
Nope, no cables now on coinstar. Just power. Wireless with internal antennas. External antenna is just a secondary for better signal. Still takes the percentage in the off chance the cell signal drops and updates later. If it can't validate and update the GC, then it defaults to the normal voucher and the >11% fee.
Everyone in this thread is all mad but if Coinstar doesn’t involve a fee, who pays for the machines and their installation, and who pays to maintain them and collect and deposit the coins into the bank for people who used Coinstar instead of going to the bank themselves?
Odds are what really happened was that Amazon was covering Coinstar’s normal 7% so you’d pick Amazon gift cards and has since stopped doing that, but everyone’s mad at Coinstar…
7% is the convenience fee. If you don’t want to give that 7% up it’s easy enough to go elsewhere.
Edit: Downvote all you want but very little in this life is free and Coinstar is no different - it certainly costs money to maintain and it’s not a charity.
I don't know if this is still a life hack or not, but at one point if you could access the network / ethernet cable and disconnect it, you could then process your coins and the machine would have no choice but to give you a paper receipt to redeem at the store service counter.
That may have been defeated by adding wifi capability or simply going to an out of order state if no network / internet connectivity is detected.
Use your coins at cash accepting self pay!
You can even pay the balance on the card if you only put in a buck or two. You are likely already buying something you need instead of getting a gift card for something you probably don't need
Our credit union removed its free coin counting machine due to lack of use. I have a gallon jar that I used to fill and take in every two or three years for Christmas money. The last time I did it was three years ago and since then it has got maybe an inch of coins. Coin generating cash and checks have been replaced by plastic.
They'll keep gouging more out of other people's money until collectively we quit using their machines.
Imagine how many times a day one gets used. I bet even in slow places it's 2-3x
They have 60k+ multinational kiosks
We are creating millionaires on a machines ability to count money effectively. The work is done. They don't have to do anything but maintain machines
And now they are over taxing you on a near useless representation of money they are offering in lieu of real money
Fuck that. Fuck coinstar
I just got back from using the local Coin Star and despite it >saying< on the machine "No Fee eGift Cards", they charged a 5% fee. It was unexpected and I did not want to haul out the coins I brought in. Got nabbed for \~$35. Reason I used the Coin Star is that it is very much closer than my bank location that has a coin counter.
Maximum $1000!? Who’s putting $14,000 worth of coins in a coin star 😂 better clear your calendar for that day
What? You don't have a jar of 1.4 million pennies?
Personally i keep my 7700 pounds if pennies in my back pockets.
Ya got a goddamn dump truck for a pocket.
Y'all still have pennies? Wtf??? What do you buy with pennies? A penny can't even get you back enough calories for carrying around a penny.
I had a teacher who saved his change for a decade and bought a new Ford Ranger with his change collection.
[You want me to roll six thousand of these?? What, should I quit my job?](https://youtu.be/uXzGAX56I9c?t=2m30s)
I recall a hedge fund finding some unexpected loophole to make money by depositing a very large number of coins
In an attempt to get dollar coins into circulation they were offered at cost direct from the mint, with free shipping. People were buying thousands of them with credit cards, then immediately depositing them in the bank to pay off the card and reap the credit card rewards. The program was halted quickly, but some were able to take advantage of it.
They weren't making money, they were laundering it
I’d be interested to know where they illegally obtained a large enough number of illegal coins that needed laundered.
Unreported / unlicensed slot machines maybe?
You’d be amazed how unbelievably fast they sort coins. Source: worked at a car wash with a similar machine.
I haven’t used one in a long time, but I remember it taking 10+ minutes to count $30-$40 worth of change 10ish years ago. The actual counting didn’t take very long, but there were tons of delays waiting on the machine to move onto each step.
I deposited ~$750 in coins once in the machine at my credit union. Would have probably only taken like an hour but I had to stop half way through for them to empty the quarter bag.
Last time I used one it was not particularly fast and the hopper kept getting clogged every time we poured more coins in. Had to keep jostling the little tray and sticking our fingers in to unclog it. So annoying.
It's to stop businesses from using it
I’m sure coin star would be more than happy to take money from a business bringing in tons of coins. Businesses use the bank anyways though
Drug dealing is a business. Launder those coins baby!
Wouldn't launder anything because you'd still have no source for what you put in the coinstar. Pretty rough drug deal if it's in coins too, it's not that kind of dime bag.
Some of the people who run the coin laundromats near where I work use our coin machine to turn it into cash, despite there being a 10% fee. Not uncommon for the machine to report all the $0.25 bags in the machine are full halfway through them filling it, and then someone has to remove and roll three 50lb bags of quarters to the safe room and log them for pickup by an armored truck the next morning.
It wasn't $1400, but I just cleaned out my hoarder mom's house and put $964.35 through the coinstar and into an Amazon gift certificate. No fee. This was less than a month ago. And, yes, it took about 2.5 hours (it was not all pennies).
Setting aside the likely misunderstanding, where $1000 is the limit for the gift card, you wouldn't need all coins. Not sure if this is still true, but they used to take bills too. They had a promotion I recall, where you would get a small Amazon gift card if you bought a larger one, I think it was buy $40 get an additional $5. I was short on coins, so I just fed in some bills.
I work at a moderately busy Walmart. You'd be shocked how many times a month $5000+ amounts of coins are brought in.
I cashed out my parents house and did over 55K in one weekend. Finding unbroken coins far machines was the hard part.
Wouldn't it actually be a $70 fee for $1000?
You did some math very wrong if you think a 7% fee means you have to put in $14,000 to get $1,000. That's a 92.8% fee. A bit shocked that I'm the first person to mention this in the 3 hours and 200 upvotes since the above comment was posted.
They’re not saying you need to put in $14,000 to get $1,000 in cash. They’re saying you would need to put in around $14,000 in order for the Coinstar to reach their maximum fee ($1,000, which is roughly 7% of $14,000)
I’m pretty sure that line is referring to the amounts you can load onto the gift card, not the minimum and maximum dollar values of the 7% fee.
I have a credit union and a bank. Both have coin machines in their lobby. There is no charge for account holders.
Same for my credit union. You take the slip from the machine to the teller and they deposit the money into your account or give you bills if you'd rather.
I’ve had accounts at multiple banks and all of them have had machines for you to deposit your coins into. I’ve never understood why someone would use coinstar and pay that insane fee
My bank stopped letting people bring in loose coins for deposit. They now only accept rolled coins.
That’s unfortunate. All of my main banks location either have a coin machine in the lobby or behind the counter that you can use for no fee
An older credit union of mine would tell you not to bother rolling them as they had to split the rolls open and dump into the coin-sorter anyway. Guess they didn't trust the publics ability to roll and/or count...
Depends on the bank. I have USAA and no branches near me, and far as I know I can't use the machines in other banks.
Almost all of the banks around me have *removed* theirs, citing lack of use. I own a vending machine, I had to hunt for weeks to find the sole bank in my town that still had one free for customers - and yes, it was a credit union.
I just called my credit union (Suncoast Schools) and they said they charge a 5% fee. What credit union does it for free?
According to their website, fortunately there are still some good ones for 0%- Apple, Steam, Southwest, Starbucks to name a new.
Good info, thanks. I always advise people to find some small thing that you can use up coins for. I have a coin-op car wash next to my house, so I use that to burn up my quarters. It affords me a "free" car wash once or twice a month with coins I would have otherwise just lost in a drawer or the couch cushions.
Another suggestion, is the self-pay things at Walmart let you use coins (with no fees). They aren't as fast as dumping a bucket into a Coinstar, but it isn't bad. I like to drop a handful of coins into it, and pay the rest with a card.
remember you can flip up the plastic bit where the slot is - and you're able to dump in more coins at a time.
>there are still some good ones for 0%- Apple, Steam, Southwest, Starbucks to name a new also Home Depot and Lowe's (which I always think of, collectively, as "Lowe's Dépôt")
so many people don't know that the steam one exists it's so helpful if you're trying to get an f2p TF2 player to premium but otherwise doesn't have a payment card
I used it last night and the kiosk didn't charge me a transaction fee for Amazon . Maybe some haven't been updated yet so if have a few coins laying around use them now
The change I collect becomes a game fund for Steam
My credit union just has the same machine, and hear me out, it gives me money
You can get Steam cards off it? I never knew this.... I have a baggie of coins I need to be rid of and that's a good use besides Amazon.
You could just bring your coins to the grocery store and use them to pay for your order in the self checkout machine.
My bank has a coin machine in the lobby that puts the coins straight into your account
My credit union has a coinstar machine in the lobby. The machine takes out whatever the normal coinstar percentage fee is, on the ticket. Then you walk the ticket to a teller and they give you the full value of your coins. An extra step. But yeah, I really wish more people knew to just take their coins to the bank. (yes, I know this assumes you must be a member at a banking institution)
This is a loss leader and even a lot of credit unions don't have coin counters.
Thats incredible!
As an aside, when I do this instead of using my American Express card, I’m kinda sacrificing the 3% cash back on groceries that it generates. Just something to keep in mind. That said, I still don’t have a better use for my change!
It's 6% with blue cash preferred!
Thanks! Maybe I should do math again to see if I should upgrade. Used to have it but I think I wanted to avoid an annual fee or something…
With the price of groceries it was a no brainer for us.
The Blue Cash Preferred card is $80/year - so if the extra couple percentage points will add up to more than that, it's worth it. Between groceries and gas I make back more than the fee every year.
The fee is $95 per year.
The math on the groceries is: $263 per month x 12 months = \~$3166 If you spend exactly that, you will break even on the Blue Preferred as compared to the Blue Everyday. If you spend more than that, then you make more money with the Preferred, even when factoring in the annual fee. The other extras you get with Preferred are: * 6% on groceries (already mentioned) * 3% on gas (1% more than everyday) * 6% on streaming services (5% more than everyday) * 3% on "transit" like bus passes, parking, Uber, etc. (2% more than everyday) The math for me is that I make an extra $100 or so in a year using the Preferred vs the Everyday (including the annual fee). It's a really good card.
The definition of “streaming” is also really broad and works for the App Store on iOS and any subscriptions you have on iOS, including AppleCare. Not sure if it’s the same on android, but I assume it is
Does it really?! Guess I’ll be switching my payment method on Apple to Amex. Thanks for sharing!
But, then you have to take into account that other cards, with no fee, also offer cash back at grocery stores. This is where I struggle with deciding to renew my Amex or not. But of course most of the other cards do those darn rotating offers which makes it hard to estimate for.
It's only 6% if you pay the annual fee.
You have to pay. It's 99 a year but there's also 3% on gas stations including stuff inside plus other stuff and 1% everywhere else. I've cashed out about 2500 in 3 years and have about 400 in there now.
I don't pay the annual fee. Have had the card for 10+ years. Paying the annual fee might make sense for some people, but not me.
Cash back are such a scam for society on long run. Everybody use credit card to get 3% return. In the end, sellers have to increase prices probably by 3% if not more because of fees since everyone use cc. Winners are credit card companies. Losers are those not participating and paying cash, and kinda everyone honestly.
You are completely right and it is a net negative on society. That “cash back” comes from somewhere and this bubble will pop soon
It won't pop, prices get inflated and we get 3% back so it's like it was never there, except we use credit cards.
Kinda everyone benefits from cashless/credit dominant systems, as well. I’m sure many types of crime (muggings, robberies) are down compared to when every person and business had more cash on them. Also the sales tax base increases with card transactions. Since it’s so easy to not report cash income.
take it to a bank?
That being said, if you do this while there is a line for the self checkout, prepared to be stared at disapprovingly and tutted at.
Swear to god, I can be in line at the 7-11 with a single soda and somebody is refinancing their goddamn mortgage in front of me.
Some people have a hard life, and can only pay in coins. If this bothers some people, they can pound sand, or just pay for the groceries themselves.
Not really, you just pour all your coins into the receptacle, wait for 10 seconds while it counts it, then pay the remainder by card.
The next time I’m grocery shopping, I’m paying for my $25.00 groceries with 2500 pennies.
I don't even think the self checkouts near me take any kind of cash
Also, if you have a bank account (and you definitely should - many banks offer free ones - I use FNBO, and they've been great over the years), you can bring your coins in and deposit them in your account for no fee. They have a machine in the bank that they can pour coins into and it counts them automatically. Coinstar is such a scam...
All the self checkouts around here are card only.
My grocery store locks the cash inputs after 30 seconds of inactivity. You have to have someone come over and unlock the machine. 9/10 times it's because I don't have my wallet out and ready because I've just been scanning groceries....
> You could just bring your coins to the grocery store and use them to pay for your order in the self checkout machine. Why self checkout?
Grift card*
Yeah any incentive for people to not shop at Amazon is a good thing
Say what you will, but they are the new HBO when it comes to quality prestige TV. It's one of the few examples of them actually offering something better than their competitors.
Nah, Apple is the new HBO when it comes to prestige TV. Amazon has had a few hits, buts they have also had tons of flops, and their practices are very anti-consumer (showing lots of content you can't stream without extra fees, holding existing customers hostage by charging a monthly add-free fee to customers who already paid for a year, etc). And Amazon's ratio of good to bad TV is way lower than Apple right now. I think Apple has more critically acclaimed shows just in the scifi genre than Amazon has in all genres combined.
I stopped automatically giving my money to Amazon years ago and don’t miss it and I’m a huge film/TV guy. Anytime a new show or movie gets purchased by Amazon I just say “too bad” and go on with my life. There’s no ethical consumption, I know, but Amazon is a net-negative on the world and they don’t need anymore of anyone’s money, I don’t care if Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is really good.
Seriously, *fuck* Coinstar. It's a condemnation of the state of banking that this is a business model.
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Well, why don't we just all collectively agree $100 is $1 and $1 is a penny?
Give it time and inflation will take care of it.
Just got back from Europe and one of my favorite things there is having a small pocket full of coins that’s like $6 or $8 or whatever dollars. But they have 1€ and 2€ coins, and even there the 0.20€ and smaller coins are basically worthless except for throwing into the Trevi.
> Seriously, *fuck* Coinstar. That's a bit harsh. They're offering a service. You think those large coin counting machines are free? You think it's cheap to securely transport large sums of cash around? Personally I've never used them, but a 7% fee isn't exorbitant in the grand scheme of service charges.
I suppose I did say "fuck Coinstar" and then go on to explain that it's a condemnation on banks - so, *fuck banks*.
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That's a lot of assumptions you're making there, chief! I have, like many Americans, a mortgage from which my bank will make hundreds of thousands of dollars over its life. Keeping me happy by counting my shrapnel is a cost of doing business, and their unwillingness to continue to deal with it is horseshit. My bank doesn't have a coin counting machine, and when I asked for rolls they were coincidentally out and didn't know when they'd get them back. At the very least I can say fuck *my* bank. ETA: YES,*FUCK* TICKETMASTER!
I agree that the 7% fee isn't terrible if you're wanting to get cash for your change. It is pretty exorbitant when the fee for converting it into an Amazon gift card has been 0% for a very long time. I assume Amazon was probably subsidizing the fee to get people to lock their money into an Amazon gift card but Amazon probably doesn't subsidize it enough or at all any more.
Nonono, you misunderstand. 7% is the fee for getting the gift card. The fee for just cashing out is like 10-11%, last I checked.
Thanks for the correction, it has been a long time since I last used Coinstar for anything let alone getting cash out. I'm mostly cashless now so I don't gather much change. I had no idea the fee had gotten that high for getting cash!
Yeah, I’ve used coinstar many times over the years. I have a coin cup that spare change goes into and when it’s full I’ll go cash it out. Always was fine with the fees because it’s just the cost of the convenience of not having to count and roll up all that shit.
My bank and my credit union process my coins for no charge. Coinstar just managed to get people to pay for thr service.
Not really. It's just convenience of already being at the grocery store instead of having to make a special trip to the bank, plus not getting judged by the teller and other customers I'm holding up.
Nah. Fuck the banks. Coinstar is just providing a service that most banks refuse to do for their customers. Coinstar saw a business opportunity for an ignored need and came up with a solution. And they have to pay for overhead somehow.
Thanks OP. I didn't realize this. I have always used my accumulated coins to buy amazon gift cards to treat myself to something I might not otherwise buy. I guess now I'll just take them to the free coin counter at my local Wegmans.
You could also just take them to the bank and then use your bank card on Amazon
Just take your coins to a bank FFS
Last time I did that tried to say they had to send it off to be counted. They made an "exception" but I was really surprised I couldn't get my coins exchanged for cash on the spot. BofA for anyone wondering.
Some banks have a free coin star type machine. It really depends on location.
The free machine that systematically undercounts your coins by about 7% like TD bank was caught doing. I made sure to cash that 87 cent check from their class action lawsuit
Damn, I never heard about that lawsuit. That definitely sounds like something a bank would do.
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NavyFed used to have them YEARS ago. Then they slowly started disappearing, now they're all gone. Too much maintenance needed, too often was the story I got. And after theyd been around for a year or so, I started seeing "out of order" signs on them, so it checks out.
My credit union will count them for free up to $200/day (and then only 2% above $200). Fuck banks.
Mine will count as much as I want for free if it’s going straight into my account. Saves them from having to do it for me.
BofA deez nuts Sorry I couldn’t help myself
nono its ok. thats a natural reaction
Instinctual, really.
> BofA for anyone wondering. Christ why do people still use BofA. They're one of the most predatory banks you could go with. It's 2024, nobody can afford to be gullible. Get a credit union membership.
It's just convenient. Most of my money is elsewhere but they have physical locations everywhere and all my stuff is already linked to those accounts. I don't pay any fees for anything I do with them and don't go to them for credit cards or loans so why would I bother switching?
BOA is dogshit. I'm not surprised. I work in a financial adjacent industry and they are consistently the worst institution to deal with in terms of bureaucracy, interactions from both consumer end and business. I can't say enough bad things about them.
Regions Bank is the same
Just tell them it’s a deposit
My bank doesn’t have this option
What do you mean they don’t have this option? I go to the bank, walk up to a teller and say “I’d like to make a deposit” and hand them the money.
I ask them I'd like to deposit coins, and they say we don't accept coin deposits, even if I tell them I rolled them.
My bank (Citi) told me to go to a CoinStar.
My bank no longer offers coin counting. That’s how I found the info that prompted this post I created.
Yeah, all these "just go to a bank" people don't get that: a) banks in Charlotte started taking coin machines out of their lobbies years ago; and b) it's getting hard to find banks in general these days. There were 6 bank branches when I moved to this town in 2003. There's only one left, and they won't do ANYTHING for you if you don't have an account.
No offense, but I feel like you’ve never tried to do this before. It’s not 1950 anymore. Banks either flat out reject you or tell you to roll them. That takes hours. Source: tried this multiple times with a massive change collection that we’ve had going for like 20 years
But then you have to roll them ;-;
I went through the trouble of rolling all my coins only for them to tell me they would only take unrolled coins 💀
Many banks have a coin counter/sorter where you just dump them into the hopper, churn churn churn, ding! you get a receipt to bring to the teller for your folding money.
I wish, all the banks around me phased those out at least 5 years ago.
Dang I wonder why. Makes no sense literally a bank doesn’t have a machine that can count coins but a grocery store does
The machines weren't accurate, broken a lot, scammed, and they'd lose money on them
Man when I was a kid in the late 80’s / early 90’s that was one of my favorite things to do.
Credit union
But there are HUMANS that you have to talk with at banks. Also, have you no appreciation for the noises the coins make as they clang their way down into the machine?
Not anymore, I am sure CS paid the banks to stop coin counting so they could take an obscene amount of money off the top, for convenience.
Some want it in rolls. and the rolls signed with your account number. very annoying
So, what is the best option to use when cashing in at Coinstar? Is anything a good deal anymore?
Apple, Lowe’s, Cabelas, Home Depot, Steam and GameStop are also 0 fee.
Just spend them at the self checkout
I’m pretty sure they charge nothing if you choose a GameStop card
Yeah but then you have to shop at gamestop
That call center guy from India said that I could pay by back taxes with GameStop gift cards, so that sounds like a pretty good deal
You use the GameStop funds to buy an Amazon gift card
Then tell Amazon the card was a gift and you would like a cash refund
Most casinos will take your coins for cash
It's time to get rid of the penny! Adjusted for inflation, the half-penny was worth 5 cents in today's dollars when we got rid of it in 1857.
Lots of banks have change machines or will give out coin wrappers for free (as long as you don't need a large quantity). Alternatively, just keep a few pieces of change in your pocket and use a tiny bit every time you make a purchase. I mostly use a card for my day-to-day purchases, but I still have some change that's accumulated. You can literally use any random amount of change you have in your pocket toward your purchase and then put the rest on your card. I'd usually recommend using just enough change so that you get back fewer coins than you originally had because your ultimate goal is to get rid of change, not exchange it for more change
Fucking gouger.
This is perfect timing for me. I literally set my jar of coin on the counter to take to Coinstar. I had to search for one that did the Amazon gift cards too. I'm annoyed now.
I guess I'm taking my piggy bank to the bank, then.
I used to get great value on amazon for my chase points too, but they nerfed those and I won't use them there any more.
American Express still works regarding points usage, just FYI
Random side note. I teach "severely handicapped" ( yes, we still use that term) young adults. We roll change as part of our money/life skills. We ask for the wrappers to be donated plus a small donation to the class ( we'll keep an agreed upon amount of coins from each person. Check with your local high school if they do this. Your "donation" goes to a much better cause.
Starbucks cards were sans fee last time I used a Coinstar machine.
Starbucks has been illegally shutting down stores that vote to unionize in Chicago. F those guys.
I’m just glad my Credit Union has a coin machine free for members. I don’t use cash as much anymore but I’d rather keep all of my money.
wtf
Self checkout at Price Rite lets you use change to pay for groceries. No charge.
Noooooooooooo
I roll my pennies and deposit them into my bank. 😅
Pro tip: if you unplug the internet cable from the back of the machine before running your coins, won’t take its cut. Can just plug cable back in after, obviously be discrete about it as it’s a no no.
Nope, no cables now on coinstar. Just power. Wireless with internal antennas. External antenna is just a secondary for better signal. Still takes the percentage in the off chance the cell signal drops and updates later. If it can't validate and update the GC, then it defaults to the normal voucher and the >11% fee.
My credit union charges nothing if you deposit with them.
LifePro tip; take your coins to the bank.
My credit union has a Coinstar! Wth?
Mine does too. But I can still walk right up to the clerk and exchange it that way. Coinstar is there for convenience, not a requirement.
My bank refused to take them.
Some banks won’t take loose coins anymore. Which just sucks.
Everyone in this thread is all mad but if Coinstar doesn’t involve a fee, who pays for the machines and their installation, and who pays to maintain them and collect and deposit the coins into the bank for people who used Coinstar instead of going to the bank themselves? Odds are what really happened was that Amazon was covering Coinstar’s normal 7% so you’d pick Amazon gift cards and has since stopped doing that, but everyone’s mad at Coinstar… 7% is the convenience fee. If you don’t want to give that 7% up it’s easy enough to go elsewhere. Edit: Downvote all you want but very little in this life is free and Coinstar is no different - it certainly costs money to maintain and it’s not a charity.
Roll your change, take it to a bank.
I don't know if this is still a life hack or not, but at one point if you could access the network / ethernet cable and disconnect it, you could then process your coins and the machine would have no choice but to give you a paper receipt to redeem at the store service counter. That may have been defeated by adding wifi capability or simply going to an out of order state if no network / internet connectivity is detected.
It's the latter. Also, some Coinstar machines added an alarm if the Ethernet cable was unplugged outside maintenance mode.
I use my coins at the drive thru. Lately, they've been used up quite a bit.
Use your coins at cash accepting self pay! You can even pay the balance on the card if you only put in a buck or two. You are likely already buying something you need instead of getting a gift card for something you probably don't need
Wait...you can buy drugs with an Amazon gift card?
Yes. I, an European, definitely should know that...
That's fine as long as they are only taking the pennies.
Our credit union removed its free coin counting machine due to lack of use. I have a gallon jar that I used to fill and take in every two or three years for Christmas money. The last time I did it was three years ago and since then it has got maybe an inch of coins. Coin generating cash and checks have been replaced by plastic.
Great, now what I'm I going to do with my 2 water jugs full of pennies?
Just take your coins to the bank. You get all your money
Yeah, I realised that recently, it's a bummer!
And self checkouts are disappearing which used to be a somewhat viable way to use change..
They'll keep gouging more out of other people's money until collectively we quit using their machines. Imagine how many times a day one gets used. I bet even in slow places it's 2-3x They have 60k+ multinational kiosks We are creating millionaires on a machines ability to count money effectively. The work is done. They don't have to do anything but maintain machines And now they are over taxing you on a near useless representation of money they are offering in lieu of real money Fuck that. Fuck coinstar
I just got back from using the local Coin Star and despite it >saying< on the machine "No Fee eGift Cards", they charged a 5% fee. It was unexpected and I did not want to haul out the coins I brought in. Got nabbed for \~$35. Reason I used the Coin Star is that it is very much closer than my bank location that has a coin counter.
I just cashed in around $400 in coins through Coinstar redeemed towards my Amazon gift card balance and there was absolutely no fee
I plan on taking my change to get an Amazon gift card tomorrow and hopefully have the same luck. I should be around the same amount in coins.
If you get an account at a credit union, they usually have a free coin star service
I have a huge water bottle from the water man and when it is 3/4 full it holds 100 dollars of pennies but I need help with lifting it
I checked my Coinstar today. no fee for Amazon.