I’ve never used those ubiquitous Coinstar machines because they extract a fee for counting your change. But I just found out that if you elect payment via gift certificate, there’s no fee.
Hey, it beats rolling a billion pennies.
4 Comments
Andrea
on December 1, 2006 at 7:47 am
Coinstar is great, especially after Halloween when you can donate your $ directly to Unicef without a fee! I clicked your link and they are offering some great stores on these gift cards/certificates.
Ellen DeGeneres just started a charity drive through CoinStar to benefit America’s Second Harvest. You punch the “donate” button and then choose from several charities, including “Ellen’s Small Change Campaign” and 100% goes to the charity.
Groovecatmom
on December 1, 2006 at 11:34 am
Don’t most banks with a coin machine (that is, branches not in supermarkets) offer free coin counting to customers? Mine does. U.S. Bank.
Coinstar is great, especially after Halloween when you can donate your $ directly to Unicef without a fee! I clicked your link and they are offering some great stores on these gift cards/certificates.
Other options to avoid rolling change include–
If you have a Commerce Bank in your area:
The Penny Arcade is a free coin counting service provided for both Customers and Non-Customers. http://www.commerceonline.com/glossary/showContent.cfm?subtopicid=1096&searchText=coin
Or in the Washington DC area:
Chevy Chase Bank Change Express provides free
self-service coin counting for both Bank customers
and those who are not yet customers. http://www.chevychasebank.com/promo/change_express.html
Ellen DeGeneres just started a charity drive through CoinStar to benefit America’s Second Harvest. You punch the “donate” button and then choose from several charities, including “Ellen’s Small Change Campaign” and 100% goes to the charity.
Don’t most banks with a coin machine (that is, branches not in supermarkets) offer free coin counting to customers? Mine does. U.S. Bank.
My bank only takes your change if it’s rolled.