Google tells me that Coinstar charges 12.9% for cash back from your coins. I always take my change to my bank, which charges me nothing.
However,
that may not be an option in the future.
I don’t use cash much these days and avoid coins as much as possible. I still end up with a pocket full, and I take them to my local coffee shop and drop them into the tip jar by the register. It’s usually a few dollars’ worth, and they seem to appreciate me doing that for the worker bees.
Yes, that was the list I had looked at before. I don’t go out to restaurants or the movies, play online games, or just about anything else they offer. I occasionally send out for meals at DoorDash, and there’s a Lowe’s near me where I buy home supplies. So my options are limited.
I’m wondering about these mythical self-checkout stations which accept coins. Or bills for that matter.
IME they’re all card or tap or fuggedaboudit.
The self-checkout with coins are probably most common at grocery stores. I also remember being able to use coins at the Walmart self-checkout. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the ability to pay with coins is slowly removed from these machines as well. Not only are coins less common, but I would guess that there’s a lot of maintenance issues with the coin mechanisms.
Good guess. But it’s not just coins. Note acceptors are also notoriously fiddly. The last thing a self checkout needs is more stuff that fails and needs staff intervention.
Better to let the people who want to pay cash go to the staffed checkout. There is a big overlap between people who use cash and those who can’t do things in the order necessary to have a smooth checkout experience.
I use quarters to wash heavy items such as comforters at my local laundromat.
Being in Canada, where we have one- and two-dollar coins (loonies and toonies, respectively), I mostly use those at the local racetrack. I’ll either use them to bet with the human at the betting window, or I can use them to buy a credit voucher that I can use to bet at an autotote machine. Note that bets can only be placed using cash, or a credit voucher that has been purchased with cash.
Smaller change tends to get tossed into a tip jar at the coffee shop, or it collects in a jar at home.
After the jar on my dresser gets too full or too heavy, I take it to one of my banks, where they have a Coinstar-like, but free, sorter. The balance is credited to one of my accounts.
A welcome side-effect: the machine separates slugs, foreign coins, pebbles, paper clips, and dog biscuit from my pocket change. The lint it seems to keep. Maybe that ends up with my lost socks.
Quarters go in the little bag where I keep them until laundry day as the machines in my building still require quarters. All quarters except one, which I keep in a change purse for getting a cart at Aldi’s
All other change accumulates in said change purse until I decide there is too much, in which case I feed it into the self-checkout machines at the grocery store, then pay the balance with a card.
On the rare occasion I end up with any cash/change, this is how I get rid of it.
Damn, I think you’re right. I recall the self checkouts at Target accepting coins in the past, but I think they changed them to card only recently (I think at the same time they started limiting them to 10 items or fewer).
They’re at supermarkets. Specifically around here, Safeway. They’ll take anything, even pennies.
Today I had a bit of erranding to do here in the Greater Miami metroblob. As a public service I decided to stop at various stores along my path & survey the self-checkout facilities as to cash, coins, or cards.
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Grocery: We mostly only have Publix as a dedicated grocery chain. Winn-Dixie is shutting down. There wasn’t an Aldi along my route. Self-checkout is card-only at the two Publix I stopped in.
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Big box general retail: Target and Walmart: Both kinds of store had all their self-checkout stations accepting card, cash, and coins.
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Drugstore: No Walgreens have self-checkout. CVS has self checkout with a mix of card-only and card+cash but not coins.
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Hardware: Home Depot has self checkout with a mix of card-only and card, cash, and coins. Lowes was too far away to visit.
So there’s one small data set covering about 4 zipcodes ranging from working class to snooty class.
Earlier in this thread I said that I used to use my coins in the vending machines at work. What I didn’t mention was that at some point while I was working from home during the pandemic, they got rid of the traditional vending machines and replaced them with a couple of shelves full of snacks and coolers full of some prepared food and drinks, and a self-checkout machine. Think something like the grab-n-go kiosks you might find at an airport. And I’m not sure that self-checkout machine takes cash or coins. I’ll have to check the next time I go to the break room.
Thanks for giving me ANOTHER reason to think unfavorably about your state! 
You were one busy guy today!
We appreciate your service.
Change goes in my change purse. I like to carry close to £10 when we’re out - over the course of most weekends, Mrs T and I will have lunch in a cafe once or twice, and we use change in the tip jar on the counter.
(Do I need to clarify that tipping rates in the UK are (I believe) lower than in the US? 10% is the norm.)
Also, I use change for small purchases. For example, couple of days ago I bought a pack of adhesive plasters - that was with cash.
j
I carry cash and get coins back after purchases.
Most coins go in a old coffee can. I keep a couple dollars in quarters and dimes for cash purchases in my pocket. I like being able to pay cash for purchases under $15. It’s satisfying to pull out $3.60 for a purchase.
I empty the coffee can a couple times a year and roll the coins. I bought a coin sorter from Ebay. Cuts the time drastically.
Coinstar is a nice option but I find rolling coins relaxing.
From December of 2005 until December of 2023, I collected just over $2000 worth of spare change. That represents almost every single coin I had in my possession from the time my daughter was born until she turned 18.
