Comments on: Cashing in Change

By: twiggers

twiggers — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:24:34 +0000

Amazing how the little things add up! Unfortunately, most of our change goes towards tolls since my husband uses the toll road every day!

By: FlatGreg

FlatGreg — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:14:57 +0000

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.

By: Evan

Evan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:20:31 +0000

Ever sell unwanted gift cards to free the cash inherently stuck in them?

By: Rob Madrid

Rob Madrid — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:08:42 +0000

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.

By: Deby

Deby — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:32:37 +0000

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.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:47:13 +0000

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 The money had already been accounted for when it was withdrawn from the bank…so it is a mini savings account, without interest.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!

By: Tricia

Tricia — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:25:32 +0000

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.

By: Joy Smith

Joy Smith — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:54:18 +0000

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.

By: JenniferW

JenniferW — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:43:16 +0000

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!

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:22:11 +0000

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.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:55:59 +0000

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.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:13:28 +0000

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.