Took several years worth of accumulated change to the bank today to cash in today. Mainly because I'm tired of looking at it.

Can't go into the bank these days so pull up to the drive up teller with the drawer.

The teller was excited when he was told that some change was being cashed in. Then he offered some unusual information (or so I thought), none of the bank branches in my major national bank chain have coin counters anymore!

Apparently they were removed 2-3 years back. I figured it was a fluke and called another branch who also confirmed they no longer had coin counters.

Called my credit union, no coin counter.

The solution according to my bank is that the coins go home and get counted and rolled and then the bank will gladly take them after they are in rolls.

Or I can take them to a Coinstar kiosk at Walmart or a grocery store and pay 11.9% off the top for the privilege of converting my own money from one form to another that is lighter and less bulky.

Is this common nationwide? Seems insane to me that a bank can't or won't count coins, especially in a "shortage".

I'm also shocked that a bank would accept pre-rolled coins. Years ago they never would as they didn't trust that you weren't giving them a roll of washers with a coin on each end.

Strange.

If you are an Amazon customer, look at that Coinstar machine again. Our local one, at the grocery store, gives Amazon credits at face value of the coins.

It’s been like that around here for years. Most of the banks will onLy take rolled change if you have an account with them. I usually roll $30 to $50 worth of change every few months and turn it in. Since the branches were closed or by appointment only for inside that rolled change accumulated to over $150. I just brought it to the branch last week. I stopped accumulating years of coins when I had to start wrapping it myself. It was too overwhelming.

Not surprised they got rid of coin counters at the bank. I doubt hardly anyone was bringing in a bunch of change until now, so they were probably rarely used. Even now, there are probably few people turning in lots of coins; you’re probably an exception, OP.

quote:

Originally posted by motor59:

If you are an Amazon customer, look at that Coinstar machine again. Our local one, at the grocery store, gives Amazon credits at face value of the coins.

Does this work with coins?

The coinstar website indicates bills:

quote:

How it works:

Select Cash Services on the Coinstar home screen

Enter the phone number associated with your Amazon account

Insert bills into the cash acceptor totaling any amount between $5 and $500 -the cash value is immediately added to your Amazon Balance

Shop on Amazon.com

I tried to bring a 5 gallon water bottle full of coins (without any pennies). They said they could count them by weight if I sorted them separately.

The next day I brought boxes of nickels, dimes, and quarters. They gave me a wad of cash in about four minutes.

Ask your bank if they are able to calculate your coins value by using a scale.

The 2 banks I use both have coin counting machines.

They are out in the lobby, dump your coins in, take the receipt printed to the cashier and you can either take cash or make a deposit.

I used to always roll my own and bring them into the bank for cashing. A few years ago the bank manager told me they no would not accept any more customer rolled coins but I could bring in my coin jars and they would use their machine to count them.

It seems backwards to me that a bank would accept customer rolled vs. using their machine.

quote:

Or I can take them to a Coinstar kiosk at Walmart or a grocery store and pay 11.9% off the top for the privilege of converting my own money from one form to another

I've been offering my change to anybody who wants it at face value plus 10% since there's a shortage. Supply and demand baby!

My local bank stopped providing coin counters because of a law suit. Some lawyer did a video counting out some change. Did it multiple times. There was in my view a relatively modest under count of the change to the bank's advantage. So there was a class action law suit. The lawyer got a nice settlement. I got $1.27 deposited into my account as compensation for my "loss."

I saw an article the other day about a bank in Wisconsin or something paying people like 5% more for their change so they would be able to distribute to the local businesses in their community.

But banks around here haven't taken non-rolled coins for a while, although I haven't checked lately. I would suspect banks would be 100% onboard with the "cashless society" crap they are pushing. If cash didn't exist every dollar anybody made would have to pass through a bank of some sort, which makes them money. They wouldn't have to deal with a bunch of micro cash transactions, which saves the bank a bunch of money on tellers.

Maybe I'm overlooking something, but I can't really think of a reason a bank would want cash to exist.

I just converted $550 of unrolled, sorted change. Our local branch won't take rolled coins. I told the cashier I thought it would be nice to help the community. She laughed and said there is no shortage here. Whatever.

Lots of stores in our area are taking credit/debit cards only. Some of this is due to Covid, some due to coin shortages. Last two times I needed change at a restaurant, they had no $5.00 bills, had to take singles!

We take ours to a grocery store with a Coinstar and get Amazon credit, no commission.

Another excuse to quit offering customer service.

Ask me about U S Bank

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by motor59:

If you are an Amazon customer, look at that Coinstar machine again. Our local one, at the grocery store, gives Amazon credits at face value of the coins.

Does this work with coins?

Yep, I do it all the time.

I think there may be Coinstar machines that don't have the Amazon option, but the ones I use give you a printout at the end with a code that works at Amazon like a gift card number for the full amount of coins they counted.

I just took my daughters full piggy bank to our bank. My bank has the sorting machine in the lobby. Self serve and prints out a receipt to take to a teller. They charge their members 5% and non-members 7%.

I don't understand the coin shortages. Where did all the existing coins go to? I don't use cash so my coin dish has almost nothing in it. I imagine a bunch of the millennials don't use cash either. It makes no cents to me.

Think about a "cashless" society !!! Think about how much it "actually" cost to make/produce the coinage/paper money. How much do banks actually spend on labor cost for their tellers to actually handle the cash money?? Remember back a couple of years ago when some banks were charging walk-in customers a fee(service charge) to actually talk to a "live" teller. Several years ago while on a work trip in northern California and tried to pay cash ($100 bill) at a major home improvement (lumber) store. Cost was less than $75 but it took 3 cashiers and 2 store managers to complete transaction . they were like deer caught in the headlights . hate to say and see it coming but the cashless society is coming so get ready for it. ...........................................drill sgt.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:

Ask me about U S Bank

OK, tell us about U. S. Bank.

They have several e-card partners in addition to Amazon.

https://www.coinstar.com/giftcards


Lowes, Southwest, restaurants, etc