Cashing in Change

During our last visit with my family, my mom decided to give my son some change and a while ago my son “cashed” it in to the bank of mom and dad. They were sitting around the house so yesterday I decided it was time to roll them up and cash them in at the bank.

Well, you learn something new every day. My husband gave the penny rolls to the bank teller and she told him not to roll the change. They plop them in their coin counter machine and it does all of the work. My husband asked the question that was on my mind when he told me about this…”Does it cost anything?”

It turns out that it doesn’t cost anything at my bank. I’ve heard that some banks do charge for cashing in change, so we are fortunate. Especially because we do not have any Coinstar machines near us.

So before you spend the time counting (and double counting if you are like me!) and rolling your change, give your bank a quick call to see if you need to do that. I could have saved some time if I had known about my bank’s change cashing policy.

How much did we cash in? $9.00 worth of change ($7.00 in pennies). Now we’ll have some cash on hand for my son’s allowance

Posted by Tricia on March 6, 2008 at 10:37 PM in Making Money | 12 Comments »
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Dan responded:
Posted: March 6th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
I was a bank teller when I was in college. When we got rolls of coins, we had to unroll them. A machine sorted and counted them (and made sure they were all real coins).

I’ve written about Coinstar on my blog. People put money in the machines and get a little less money back. Coinstar has made over $100,000,000 with this concept. I wish I had thought of that as a business. Your bank doesn’t charge when you want five $1 dollar bills for your $5 bill and they don’t charge to count coins and give you paper money. If it does, it shouldn’t be your bank anymore.
Joe responded:
Posted: March 6th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Most of the branches of both of the credit unions that I use here in the Portland area have had machines available for account holders at no charge for several years.
I just made a deposit this morning of $116.
Steve responded:
Posted: March 7th, 2008 at 1:22 am
See, now you’re just showing your age. Those of use that remember the fondness of rolling your own, quarters.

I have noticed more banks around the country offering this as a free service to bring people in to the bank.
JenniferW responded:
Posted: March 7th, 2008 at 2:43 am
Since I have been reading pf blogs I have been wondering about this too. I live in Japan and when I have change saved up the bank dumps it all into a machine which counts it, and I had assumed banks in most countries did this- I could never figure out why US banks would want people to roll their coins when presumably they count the money using the same method!
Joy Smith responded:
Posted: March 7th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Your son’s allowance? I’m confused.. I thought the change came from grandma for him.

I don’t understand why banks charge their customers for cashing in change. I guess it’s just another greedy way for them to make a profit.
Tricia responded:
Posted: March 7th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Joy – my son originally cashed in his change at the “bank of mom and dad.” So mom and dad ended up with the container of change. It was time for mom and dad to cash it in and we rarely have cash around the house so we’ll use the cash for his allowance.
Cynthia responded:
Posted: March 7th, 2008 at 9:47 am
In my household, we always empty our pockets into a bucket or container. (We have 3-4 of them throughout the house). I started doing this out of a matter of convienence. But soon, I found it didn’t take long before there were hundreds of dollars worth of coins sitting there…in a matter of months! We tend to take the coins into the bank when we are ‘behind’ a bit in our budget or if there is something ‘goofy’ we want to buy. More often than not, we cash it in before trips for spending money for the kids. The money had already been accounted for when it was withdrawn from the bank…so it is a mini savings account, without interest. Although it is a mental game, it seems easier to let the kids buy what they want with “found” money and not be so concerned with the cost. After all it is a vacation!
Deby responded:
Posted: March 7th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I put my silver change (anything besides pennies) in a little container which we then use at the water vending machine (we refill 5-gallon water jugs @ 25 cents a gallon for drinking water). My BF, however, empties his change into a box, which he rolls and cashes at the bank a couple times a year. Last time he had only about $70, but before that it was well over a hundred. It’s a great way to save for people who otherwise don’t think of saving at all.
Rob Madrid responded:
Posted: March 7th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
When I lived in Germany my local bank had a “change” machine and I used to love going in with a whack of coins (the one and two cent euro coins are way too small) and see how many pennies I had.

7 dollars in pennies is quite impressive.
Evan responded:
Posted: March 7th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Ever sell unwanted gift cards to free the cash inherently stuck in them?
FlatGreg responded:
Posted: March 7th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
My credit union doesn’t have a change counter, so i love coinstar. It’s no fee too if you take your money in the form of many of the gift cards, I usually select amazon which I end up purchasing from regularly anyways.
twiggers responded:
Posted: March 9th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Amazing how the little things add up! Unfortunately, most of our change goes towards tolls since my husband uses the toll road every day!