Counting coins is such a bore.
We'd rather be sitting around the pool, or getting ready for the holidays. What about you?
Reading Liz Pulliam Weston's Money Talk column in Sunday's L.A. Times, reminded us to mention a resource that agressively takes-on that boredom: Coinstar Kiosks:
"Loose change can really add up. If your bank doesn't offer free coin counting, consider taking your change jar to a Coinstar kiosk. Found in many grocery stores, [Coinstar] normally charge[s] a 8.9% fee to count your coins and convert them into a more convenient form of cash. But you can avoid the fee if you exchange your coins for gift certificates or gift cards from vendors including Amazon, Starbucks and Eddie Bauer. You get full credit for your change and you can give gift cards as presents or use them to buy family members stuff they'd actually want."
Clients generally don't need any more gift certificates around, so most of the time, they pay the minor fee and keep the cash. You can also donate the coins to a charity.
We particularly love the service because you don't need to pull out foreign coins (the machine automatically spits them out a reject department.) Coins are very dirty (en mass) so wear rubber gloves. What's the most our company has ever turned-in for cash? About $600.00 – and it took about 45 minutes to dump all the coins and collect the cash from our local Ralphs.
You may now cross coin-counting boredom off your to-do list.
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Liz Pulliam Weston – personal website
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Coinstar – corporate website
Have you used Coinstar?
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