I guess this is mostly for people in the Chicago suburbs, but hey, if you know the answer for your area, join in.
I have a bunch of change that I want to go to a bank to have them count up and give me the paper equivalent. Around here, my bank has most of its locations in Jewel-Osco grocery stores and have CoinStar machines in them that do this. The problem there is that CoinStar automatically takes 10% of the money for their use. Seeing as how the banks in my hometown used to count it all up for free, I’d like to see if normal brick-and-mortar banks in my area or around you still do it.
I go to the CoinStar and just get Amazon credit codes instead of cash. They don’t take a percentage for that, and given my Amazon habits they’re as good as cash for all practical intents and purposes.
Mine does, with the provisos that (a) you’re not there at a busy time and holding up a queue of people, and (b) you’ve sorted the coins into £1/£5 bags of single denominations (although it doesn’t have to be official bank bags of any kind).
Of course, if it’s funds for a charity from a fundraising event etc., they’re far more lenient. In that situation, the balance between being a good service to you vs. being a good service to others shifts, because of the PR benefits.
When I was living in Chicago I once took a jarful of coins to the local Jewel to have them converted to a gift card for later use, because they don’t charge the counting fee for that. After dumping all the coins in and getting the total money count I selected which type of card I wanted, only to be told that it wasn’t able to dispense the card and that I would have to get one of the slips to take to a cashier. And, of course, pay the fee. I complained about this and was told to call the 800 number on the machine. When I did so, they apologized and sent me a check for the amount of the fee.
I had also comented on this to one of the tellers at the TCF Bank in the Jewel (I assume this is the bank your talking about) and was told that since I had an account with them I could have brought the coins to them and they would have counted them for free, without me having to use the CoinStar machine.
I bank at a local credit union. They have a coin counting machine in the lobby. You dump in your coins and the machine spits out a receipt, which you then present to a teller for cash. No fee.
Banks still accept coins, but none of mine will count them for you…they’ll give you wrappers, and you have to write your account number on eaach wrapper. then you count an dwrap yourself.
I bank at TCF, and, around here, they have coin-counting machines like A.R. Cane describes. If you don’t have an account, they do charge you for using it, but if you have an account, it’s free. I’ve never seen a Coinstar machine.
My bank has always accepted our can full of mixed coins to dump into their magic counter, no fee charged. I live in the sticks of Wisconsin, and this is a locally owned bank.
The last time I wrapped coins and took them to a bank, I was told ‘sorry’, they no longer accepted rolled coins. I suspect there are too many con artists trying to pass off slugs.
I am not in Chicago, but last time I did this, the teller was quite willing once I told them that they could count the change and credit my account at their convenience. While they could have short-changed me, I strongly doubt they would and besides, if I had prevailed on them to count the change while I waited, how would I have detected any problems? It isn’t like I could follow them into the back where the machine is. So, give them the time to take care of it and I suspect the bank will be helpful.
The first one was a nationwide (USA) concern. Their policy was to provide the customers with free paper coin rolls, but to require the customer to roll the coin themselves. We’d write the customer’s account number on the roll, and use it as normal. If it later turned out to be short/over, we’d debit/credit the customer’s account by the difference.
The second one was a local bank. They accepted loose coin from customers with no stipulations. (Big magic coin-counting machine in the back.)
I roll my own and then take them to the bank (TD Canada Trust) and they accept them without charge. Long ago I was asked to put my account number on the rolls, so I have always done so since then - I assume I would still be asked to if I forgot to.
I don’t know whether they provide free wrappers; I’d guess they probably do. I find the flat paper wrappers to be a total pain in the ass, so I fork out a little bit of money at a store (relative to the value of the coins going inside them) to buy the paper tubes that you drop the appropriate number of coins in and then just need to mush down the open end, rather than trying to keep control of a bunch of coins as you are trying to wrap a piece of paper around them. That’s too much like work.
My bank will take coins but only if you have counted them and bagged them up in advance (here in the UK coins don’t tend to be “rolled”). You have to bag them up to set values as marked on the bags, and can’t mix denominations in any one bag. (1p and 2p coins: £1; 5p and 10p coins: £5; 20p and 50p coins: £10; £1 and £2 coins: £20)
Each time I pay in a load of bagged coins I pick up some empty bags ready for next time. (Which reminds me, I currently have ~£150 in various denominations ready to be paid in).
Does anybody remember passbook savings accounts? Once upon a time my little home town bank would let you drop off your book and a jar (bag, box, rolled in a sock) of coins and when they had time they would dump it in the sorter and mail your book back to you.
Alas the little fees were piling up and I switched to a credit union. They only take two rolls of coins at a time. Besides with direct deposit I only go there once a year or two if I have an odd check to deposit.
I’ve been dipping into the giant Mug-O-Coins and spending them in my day to day life.
Slight hijack, but don’t bring those rolls of coins to Las Vegas - few, if any, machines even accept coins now. (I think the Sahara has the last of the coin machines on The Strip) Now they only accept paper bill currency and, should you win or cash out, you get a print out ticket and redeem it at a machine or have one of the cashiers cash it out for you.
Almost every supermarket here has a Coin Star machine - but 10% seems a bit steep to charge.
I make a point to always leave the house with exactly 99 cents in change in my pocket so whenever I make a cash purchase, I am guaranteed to have the exact change. My stack of coins in the tray near my bed has gone down considerably since doing this.
My credit union cashes in coins for free. I’ve never gone in with more than about $25 which only takes a few seconds in the machine, so no idea what they would do if someone came in with a wheelbarrow filled from the wishing well.
Last time I took in my Tootsie Roll bank. The teller said I was the third person that day with a Tootsie Roll bank. I told her (with a smile) thanks for making me feel special.
My husband bought himself a coin sorter, and every so often he sorts his coins with it. It onlly takes a few coins at a time, so we can’t just empty the whole sugar bowl into it at once, but it’s easy to feed a few coins in while watching TV. I’m willing to throw my change in, except for the quarters. I seem to always need quarters when I’m running around on errands.
