What to do with spare change
Do you have a bunch of change all over your house and car that you keep thinking you'll roll up and take to the bank, give to charity, or cash in at a grocery store coin machine? I did, so finally this morning I threw it all in a jar and took it over to my local Food City to toss in the Coinstar machine. Those machines take about 11 cents out of every dollar which is a bit steep but better than spending time rolling it up (unless you have an eager kid who likes to do it but the excitement wears thin in no time). Anyway, I was happy to see that I could choose the option of an eCertificate with free coin counting to Amazon.com, Starbucks, iTunes or Circuit City.
I chose an eCertificate to Amazon.com, came home and ordered a pair of earrings
(I lost mine on my recent trip to NYC) with some of the money and it was so easy, even those who are computer illiterate could do it. I plugged in the redemption code where it asked for the gift certificate number and voila! my earrings were paid for and it was incredibly simple. So if you have spare change, this is a great way to clean up the mess in your house and also reward yourself with something fun or something you need. The machines also let you donate the money to charity if you are so inclined. And with Christmas shopping coming up around the corner, these eCertificates are a painless way (depending on how big a change jar you have) to pay for gifts and shop online all without the hassle of setting foot in a store.
I chose an eCertificate to Amazon.com, came home and ordered a pair of earrings
(I lost mine on my recent trip to NYC) with some of the money and it was so easy, even those who are computer illiterate could do it. I plugged in the redemption code where it asked for the gift certificate number and voila! my earrings were paid for and it was incredibly simple. So if you have spare change, this is a great way to clean up the mess in your house and also reward yourself with something fun or something you need. The machines also let you donate the money to charity if you are so inclined. And with Christmas shopping coming up around the corner, these eCertificates are a painless way (depending on how big a change jar you have) to pay for gifts and shop online all without the hassle of setting foot in a store.Labels: money saving techniques, organization
posted by Helen at 4:12 PM
45 Comments:
If you have a Commerce Bank near you - they have coinstar machines that do it for free - and you don't have to be a customer. I THINK WaMu does to, and a few others around here do now too...
You could also get something like this: a coin sorting and counting machine. Depending on how long it lasts (and how much change you collect), it could pay for itself quite easily.
I'll confirm Commerce - they have an (unbranded) machine that takes money and gives you full credit. No need to be a customer - I dumped about $15 in pennies and nickels into one the other day.
In Knoxville and the surrounding area, any Home Federal Bank will count your coins at no charge. A few Credit Unions give that 'deluxe treatment' as well. Banks hate coins, it seems, considering coin counting as a labor-intensive activity that doesn't give them much revenue.
Earrings? No. Absolutely not. I draw the line at shoes.
I've done that too - I figure at 11% it's still better than letting inflation erode it away (I had years of coins) but the Amazon thing is totally painless.
That sounds fun, however, 10 years ago I used coins I rolled-up for one full year to make a down-payment on my first house.
I don't ever break a dollar now... all coins go into our savings account. It's amazing how much you can save this way.
Where I'm at, my banks have counting machines where they give you 100% of your money.
Plus, you're not tempted to spend it on products you probably don't need. Is this a fast disappearing courtesy at banks across the nation, or are you aware of this option too? -- no rolling required.
Way back when Mary, most banks had big old clunky counter/rollers behind the tellers and they did it for free. No more though.
My bank branch does have a CoinStar machine now though, that's free for customers. My particular change mix of pennies, nickels and dimes (I keep the quarters for use), nets about $20 per filled pint sized egg drop soup container.
I took a tour of the LA Federal Reserve branch (actually a sub-branch of the San Francisco FRB)about a year ago.
One of the most facinating things I learned is that pennies cost more to produce than they are worth. Not only that, but everyone tosses their pennies into a jar each night, so the average life in circulation of a penny is measured in weeks, if not days. A $100 bill usually circulates for 3 or 4 years, and of course costs virtually nothing to produce.
So the FRB and the U.S. Mint have a huge problem with these pennies; they send them out into circulation (at great cost) and the disappear within days into fishbowls and other household glassware.
We should abolish the Penny.
I role my change in late November as extra Christmas money. My bank, a small branch of ScotiaBank, doesn't have a coin counting machine, but they do give out free tube type wrappers. Counting and rolling while watching TV is no big deal if you use the tube wrappers.
In a typical year I get fifty something dollars.
Today's pennies are basically copper plated zinc. Dimes and quarters are a combination also. Not sure of the exact composition. It is, however, available (the actual composition of the coins)to read on U.S. mint sites.
None of those coins are worth the metal they are stamped from, if pure.
I have had problems with the newest dimes being unable to trip the mechanisms in some older soda and candy machines. That's tough on us junk food lovers.
I am in favor of folks throwing lots of coins in those machines. When we take the family to the grocery store, the seven-year old always checks in and around the change machine for loose coins. Almost always, he finds $.35 or more in loose change. It makes the kid estatic, and always wanting to help mom or dad go to the grocery store (since have our hands full with babies).
Hooray for free money!
Way back when Mary, most banks had big old clunky counter/rollers behind the tellers and they did it for free. No more though.
Funny, they still have those machines at the banks where I keep my money, and there is no cost.
Perhaps it is where you live, where you bank, and/or how long you've had a relationship with the institution.
Between Chase Banks in Chicago and Commerce Bank in New York, I've never had to pay for coin counting and cannot imagine doing so.
Washington Mutual, on the other hand, is particularly unfriendly to coins in New York. Not only don't they provide a counting service, even at a fee, but the branches in Manhattan will not even allow you to deposit more than three rolls at a time without charging a fee just for taking them. Maybe that's changed in the last couple of years; I wouldn't know. I just go to Commerce now.
I try not to have loose change around. I either spend it or save it before it builds up too much. If you don't have a lot of self-control about saving, then maybe it is helpful. I don't even use a wallet, but keep currency in a "piggy bank" (actually a jar).
Anyway, I was happy to see that I could choose the option of an eCertificate with free coin counting to Amazon.com, Starbucks, iTunes or Circuit City.
I wasn't sure what you meant at first, but that's cool that it will count your money for free if you choose a gift card. There is local bank in Utah called Barnes Bank and the tellers have some mechanical device that counts your coins and then they just exchange it for bills. It is a very helpful service. I was shocked when I went to other banks and they didn't have those devices.
suzie: 10 years ago I used coins I rolled-up for one full year to make a down-payment on my first house.
Did you have over 10k?
Yes Mary, I'm sure all of those things apply, especially geography. I'm in the northeast.
I think it was about the mid 80s when I saw the last of those machines, it was about then that the rise of the new machines (ATMs) gained greater momentum.
I recall all the PR about how great they'd be to lower the bank's costs and they'd work real good for free. Of course, that then morphed into fees to help pay for the machines :-)
Our first vacation ever after 7 years of non-vacationing was paid for by rolls of coin. My husband is the KING of frugal and coin rolling living. He has those tubes and every night puts all his change in his pockets away. Once a week he shakes me upside down and gets the coin from my pockets and pocket book. YAY! then he rolls it and shakes it and bakes it and even- tuall-ee there we have it.......vacation money. He is the BEST!!!!
Another thing I learned on my tour of the Fed is that they are behind the appearance of these coin counting machines. They want all of those coins back in circulation, rather than having to make more. I can't recall the discussion of how much various operators of the machines charge, I believe they leave that up to the machine owner, which receives the machines for a very minimal charge. The actual cost of the machines is heavily subsidized by the Fed.
There's a business opportunity for any ambitious readers.
Then there are those of us who consider rolling their own coins a character-building exercise. :-)
One thing to be aware of is that not all Coinstar machines have the Amazon.com option. A friend told me about the Amazon thing back in March, but the machine I usually used didn't seem to have the feature. I went to Coinstar's website, and they actually have a map letting you know where machines are and what features each machine has. I found a local machine with the Amazon.com feature and used loose change to pay for more than half the cost of an 80-gig iPod (back when they were the most expensive).
FYI: Right now Coinstar and Amazon are running a special offer. If you put $30 in coins in the Coinstar and choose an Amazon certificate, I think you get a mail-in certificate for an extra $10 Amazon gift card.
While working in pre-Euro Europe, I collected $1875 worth of change on top of my fridge in less two years (back then, you couldn't convert change at normal currency exchange counters). What to do? I ended up segregating it by country and making a stop at fourteen banks across Europe before leaving. Now that was a pain.
voilà = wha-la
I ended up segregating it by country and making a stop at fourteen banks across Europe before leaving.
I'll bet that bit of travel cost at LEAST $1876!
Money is for spending, not putting in mayonnaise jars, so these machines are well worth the premium -- though I've always seen the charge to be about 8.5%.
Last trip to Bank of America I asked if they had a free coin machine.
"No, but just bring in your coins, and we ship them to San Antonio, where they get counted. And then you'll know in about 3 days how much change you had." Er, thanks for nothing.
Yes it is WAY past time to discontinue the penny and use the nickel as the lowest unit coin.
re: abolishing the penny
Back in the 70s, I was in the Air Force and stationed at a base in England. We used American money on base, except the penny. All totals were rounded to the nearest five cents, either up or down. It worked great.
Bill,
Oh, it's a husband's job to buy earrings? What next, I'm supposed to be buying him cufflinks? Did I miss all this in the marriage contract somewhere?
If you have the receipt you can still do this - at Coinstar machines, exchange $30 of your spare change for an Amazon.com gift certificate and get an extra $10 Amazon.com gift certificate for free by mail. Plus, the coin counting fee is waived. Print out a receipt, fill it out, and mail it in to receive the $10 certificate in the mail. http://www.coinstar.com/US/WebDocs/A1-3-1
Huzzah! Thanks for the info, Doc. I hate having those machines suck up so much of my cash - but if I can 100% at Amazon....
I have my four year old daughter help me count my change. It is both educational and productive. Then we put it in a treasure chest and play with it before taking it to the bank and putting it in her account.
I did this once myself--to help defray the cost of a digital camera I wanted.
I turned out to have enough spare change to buy the camera, an extra memory card, and a spare battery.
I LOVE to count coins. I'm sure that says something about me psychologically. lol But I find it relaxing to do in front of the TV. The last time I counted and rolled coins we had over $150!!! Hubby is a change creator and always has at least $0.50 a day or more.
And Helen...might I suggest you don't purchase earrings from Amazon. Buy a handmade custom pair! :) I can recommend a *cough* jeweler *cough me* :) Support indie artists!
I should probably count our change again. May be enough for a good dinner.
Castocreations,
Do you make those earrings? I took a look at your site and they are really pretty.
"wha-la"?
I think the word you're looking for is "voilà" (accent mark optional).
(It's not "viola" or "walla", either.)
Another option, if there's no line at the supermarket U-Scan (!), just feed a handful of coins into the machine in partial payment, and then select ``other form of payment'' and pay the balance with a credit card or whatever.
At a handful a day, you soon don't have any more coins, and nobody takes 10% from you.
At least until the supermarkets get onto it.
Forget abolishing the penny -- just knock 10% off the value of the dollar. A 2-liter of coke will cost no more than $.20, a steak dinner will be less than $5.00 almost anywhere you go, Madonna's house will sell for $400,000, and Illinois can keep to their penny-accepting ways in peace. Gas for $.27/gallon! Who's with me?!
(Admittedly it'll be a blow to hourly employees who realize they're making less than $10.00/day, but I think $.01 Ramen will make them feel better.)
(seriously: my purse weighs several pounds thanks to the coinage I get; making correct change annoys the people behind me when I'm in line, so I only do it during quiet times of day. I use my bag as a potential means of self-defense, and light-resistance exercise device when I'm traveling. Little receipts don't feel like money to me, and I'm semi-boycotting Amazon at the moment. ^_^)
One of the benefits of life in Las Vegas was that the casinos count coins for free out of necessity. The only catch is that you still had to segregate the denominations for that to work (no dime slots I know of, and penny slots are pretty much a Fremont Street thing only), so you walk in and go up to the counter as if you just hit on a slot machine.
Regarding the October $10 extra offer: limit one per household. They don't tell you that, though, except on the printed receipts themselves. So don't waste your time cashing in $200 of change in $30 installments like I did.
When I did that I found about $3 in Canadian change sitting there, including a $2 coin. Not a bad find now that the C$ is worth more. An Iranian penny also made its way in there somehow.
Regarding the Fed being behind these machines, anybody want to bet they are using them to pull the older copper pennies out of circulation? The value of the copper in there has exceeded $.01 for a while now I suspect, and with the dollar's plunge, look for that to get worse shortly as the inflation works its way through the economy.
"Wha-la"??????
::cringe::
Please tell us you used that tongue-in-cheek. Please.
Just today I dropped off at my bank the contents of my change jar (a Ball jar) where I throw my change every night. I enjoy lightening my purse and watching my jar fill up, which takes about two months. The bank pours the coins in a sack with my deposit slip. In a few days, BAM! -- there's $100 in my account!
My sister a few years back decided she was gonna start rolling up this huge jar of pennies I had so she went to Target and bought this box of funnels for rolling up change. Just keep pouring 'em in until they reach the little open slot on top that allows the overage to spill out, stick in the roll, close and that's it. Simple and easy. Cost like two or three bucks.
Thanks to those who corrected my typo--it is now fixed.
I got annoyed at the hassle for turning in coins (less than face value in exchange, write name on wrapper, etc.), so I brought my change jar to the Salvation Army. They counted it later and mailed me a receipt.
That's what my dad does— all change found on walks is end-of-year donation.
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