coinstar

[azlegends]

Does anybody ever use any of the free offers? I can't find a bank with a coin counter in my area, which usually isn't a big deal, but sometimes with bigger orders of nickels or pennies its really inconvenient. So I looked at their offers in my area and im still kinda iffy on it. Opinions?

 

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[Gilmore Happy]

Are you saying that Coinstar has free offers?

 

[azlegends]

Are you saying that Coinstar has free offers?

Yeah they have a bunch of gift cards to some pretty big places.

 

[Numismaniac]

I did one time when I was on a road trip and had a bunch of halves to dump. I have a BOA account since they are about anywhere -- for dumping, but they had closed already and I didn't want to haul 30lbs of halves with me

So, I used a coinstar and got a Home Depot gift card for no fee. I knew I had to spend some money there anyways, so it worked out fine. I wouldn't normally do it unless I knew for sure I had to spend some cash at a place anyways.

It did work without a problem though.

HH

 

[azlegends]

I did one time when I was on a road trip and had a bunch of halves to dump. I have a BOA account since they are about anywhere -- for dumping, but they had closed already and I didn't want to haul 30lbs of halves with me

So, I used a coinstar and got a Home Depot gift card for no fee. I knew I had to spend some money there anyways, so it worked out fine. I wouldn't normally do it unless I knew for sure I had to spend some cash at a place anyways.

It did work without a problem though.

HH

Awesome, I was wondering how smooth this went. I've done similar free offers that were so inconvenient that it wasn't worth it. I have to go double check, but I think they had my grocery store on there, which would be sweet.

 

[mentalvirus]

I have a few times while on the road for work and I need to dump before I fly home. You can check online which location offer what gift cards. For some odd reason they don't all offer the same thing, like the walmarts I have been to do not offer overstock.com or amazon.com. I buy enough stuff online that I am not worried about using them. I also tell anyone in my family if they are going to be buying anything large to let me know. I'll dump and use the gift cards and then have them just write me a check. My parents just bought a new TV and stand so I bought it from Amazon for them, $1800 in halves Me and my wife needed a new vacuum so a new Dyson D25 Animal is on the way from Overstock.com, $500 in halves

I figure the less I have to dump at my local FCU's the better. I also spend halves on all the shipping we do, groceries, gas for my wife and I, and a lot of thing that I buy at Walmart (household stuff and groceries). The Walmarts around me take halves in the self checkout machines

 

[azlegends]

I have a few times while on the road for work and I need to dump before I fly home. You can check online which location offer what gift cards. For some odd reason they don't all offer the same thing, like the walmarts I have been to do not offer overstock.com or amazon.com. I buy enough stuff online that I am not worried about using them. I also tell anyone in my family if they are going to be buying anything large to let me know. I'll dump and use the gift cards and then have them just write me a check. My parents just bought a new TV and stand so I bought it from Amazon for them, $1800 in halves Me and my wife needed a new vacuum so a new Dyson D25 Animal is on the way from Overstock.com, $500 in halves

I figure the less I have to dump at my local FCU's the better. I also spend halves on all the shipping we do, groceries, gas for my wife and I, and a lot of thing that I buy at Walmart (household stuff and groceries). The Walmarts around me take halves in the self checkout machines

Yeah I did notice that the different machines have different offers, kinda weird. Im glad to hear that this works so well. Looks like I now have an easy dump for all the nickels and dimes. This is about to save me a few hours a week.

 

[ivan salis]

many coin machines will not take halfs

 

[mentalvirus]

many coin machines will not take halfs

That may be but the "Coinstar's" most certainly do...

 

[mws_1984]

So what are these offers? I'm gonna go check the site anyways to see if I can find out more. But would it be free processing if you take a gift card of some sort? I'd consider doing it with my pocket change at least or if I got into buying more coins at the bank. But right now my limit is small so I recycle $50 looking thru coins.

 

[azlegends]

So what are these offers? I'm gonna go check the site anyways to see if I can find out more. But would it be free processing if you take a gift card of some sort? I'd consider doing it with my pocket change at least or if I got into buying more coins at the bank. But right now my limit is small so I recycle $50 looking thru coins.

You are correct, no fees if you receive a gift card.

 

[mws_1984]

So what are these offers? I'm gonna go check the site anyways to see if I can find out more. But would it be free processing if you take a gift card of some sort? I'd consider doing it with my pocket change at least or if I got into buying more coins at the bank. But right now my limit is small so I recycle $50 looking thru coins.

You are correct, no fees if you receive a gift card.

That's odd that you say no fee if you get a Gift Card. On the site it has videos on how to do the different options. I paused it at this point when watching the Gift Card transaction video. It still says 9.8 cent processing fee counted. Are they still charging a fee if you get the GC when it says free coin processing? I took a screen shot as well.

 

[azlegends]

Im not sure, I haven't done it personally, but its clearly marked free all over the coinstar in my local walmart. They had a little promotional sign next to it and everything, so I don't know. I will be trying it on Tuesday and will report back.

 

[mws_1984]

Im not sure, I haven't done it personally, but its clearly marked free all over the coinstar in my local walmart. They had a little promotional sign next to it and everything, so I don't know. I will be trying it on Tuesday and will report back.

Because if they do mark it free if you get a GC then thats false advertising if it does take out the fee. I guess the only way to know for sure is if you count what you have and then find out what gets removed. And how do you take out 9.8 cents per dollar? They may as well say 10 cents per dollar.

 

[Bentfork]

The Coinstar machines in Walmart and most grocery stores allows you to count free if you take a credit from one of their sponsers. The Coinstars in banks are not that way. I haven't used a Coinstar machine for a few years, but I did regularly when I lived in CA when I handled the snack bar account at work. People have this misconception that Coinstar machines are evil menaces that take your money and charge you 10%. That's because they don't know anything about them except what they have been told. When I handled the snack bar money I would take an Amazon credit and pay back the snack bar out of my own money. We use Amazon quite a bit like many people do, and the credit doesn't expire. You can use the credit for anything sold on Amazon. Same with the Lowe's, Old Navy and other sponsors.

Check it out....

http://www.coinstar.com/FreeCoinCounting

BTW, you are given two chances to get your money counted free. Once before you start and then again the offer is made before you cash out. Even when it's finished you can still change your mind and get a gift card or credit. They are not playing some stupid head game making you wonder if they are still tapping you for a fee.

HH

Bentfork

 

[mentalvirus]

Yeah, I don't know what the confusion is, it's not a mystery or a 'trick' and I've done it several times at different locations all around the country as I travel a LOT. No need for trail and error or experimenting by anyone to find out, it's pretty simple.

If you take "cash" then it prints a receipt and takes 9.8% which you can cash in at any register. It will clearly show what was put in and then your take after the 9.8% fee even while you are still loading coins. IF you chose to use a 'gift card' then there is NO fee, they collect a fee from the retailer that you are getting the card for. Just be check their website to be sure that the gift card that you want is available at the location you plan to go to. If you look at their 'locations' map on their website and then hold the mouse over it, it will show you which gift cards are available at that location. For some reason the coinstar's at Walmarts have very limited choices but most others allow Amazon and Overstock.com which between the two cover about anything you could possibly want to purchase online and at a decent price.

 

[mentalvirus]

Im not sure, I haven't done it personally, but its clearly marked free all over the coinstar in my local walmart. They had a little promotional sign next to it and everything, so I don't know. I will be trying it on Tuesday and will report back.

Because if they do mark it free if you get a GC then thats false advertising if it does take out the fee. I guess the only way to know for sure is if you count what you have and then find out what gets removed. And how do you take out 9.8 cents per dollar? They may as well say 10 cents per dollar.

Yeah and why is Premium unleaded gas 3.99 and 9/10ths? Might as well be $4/gal no It's just marketing and it's rounded, doesn't make much difference either way though as I don't think many people into this hobby would be into dumping thousands a week at coinstars...doesn't matter if it's 9.8 or 10, it would be quite expensive It is good to get giftcards at face value though and like I said in my situation it comes in handy if I'm on the road for work, do a road trip and pick up $300 in halves that I don't want to fly home with. Just hit the nearest coinstar, dump and I have a few hundred dollars credit at Amazon

 

[azlegends]

I was never confused or in doubt about hidden fees, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't one of those hassles where the machine gives you a receipt to mail in and then you get a voucher to take to the store and they give you a ticket to redeem online, etc. I've dealt with plenty of" free" stuff that was more of a hassle then its worth.

 

[TCOZY13]

You can also dump, get a very popular card, sell it on Craiglslist in one night, then reinvest the money in more coins . This is the way to go if you dont have a FCU with a coin counting machine.

 

[madwest]

I dump to coinstar every few weeks - whenever I know I will be doing a Lowes, JCPenny, or Amazon purchase. The credit never expires, you don't have to use it all at once. There is no catch.

BTW, the reason the machines in Walmart do not have most options is that Walmart does not allow ANY sort of competitor presence in their stores. It's like when McDonald's had the Best Buy bucks with its Mc-Monopoly game. The MCD's in Walmarts didn't give out those game pieces. Walmart considers almost every other retailer a competitor.