New (Bad) Coin Machine Policy

[blueberra]

This week I received very unpleasant news from my dump bank.

Sign on the machine : Beginning 1 November 2026, non-customers will be charged a 7% fee, customers will only be allowed to cash in $100 per day with no fee, subsequent coins will be subject to a 7% fee.

Translated : if I dump $500 in halves, I'll be hit with a $28 fee [7% of ($500 - $100)].

I talked to my friend who works there and she gave me the e-mail address of a VP that she claimed is the right person to complain to.

So. I sent said VP an e-mail on Thursday (and blind copied my bank friend) with my concerns which included a thinly-veiled threat to go elsewhere if this policy does, in fact, go into effect. I do have an account at a different bank that does not charge to dump coins, so it's not a bluff.

No response yet.

I spoke to the bank VP today and the bottom line is that there will be no exceptions to the new policy.

My wife and I are actively pursuing a new bank -- one with unrestricted use of the coin machine for customers and also with safe deposit boxes. Once we do it's adios to the current one. BTW, there are a LOT of banks in the area.

 

[CTwoods]

Well, you are having them get you countless rolls of coins at no profit to them, and are doing this unrolling for profit, ....and now you expect the bank to have to deal with the unrolled coins in bulk for free? Get a grip on the reality of what you expect the bank to do for you, for free!

 

[Fred Finder]

Well, you are having them get you countless rolls of coins at no profit to them, and are doing this unrolling for profit, ....and now you expect the bank to have to deal with the unrolled coins in bulk for free? Get a grip on the reality of what you expect the bank to do for you, for free!

I agree. Please don't ruin it for others✌️🙂

 

[blueberra]

Well, you are having them get you countless rolls of coins at no profit to them, and are doing this unrolling for profit, ....and now you expect the bank to have to deal with the unrolled coins in bulk for free? Get a grip on the reality of what you expect the bank to do for you, for free!

My dump bank is NOT my procurement bank.

Rule #1 don't use the same bank to dump that you obtain the coins from.

 

[MIhunter]

As Coin Roll Hunters, most of what we do is a liability to banks. If costs banks to acquire or dispose of coins. The one exception to this is if you can find a bank that gets a lot of rolled coin in and has to pay to send it off. That bank will thank you for coming and taking it away. Generally we survive by flying under the radar.

 

[GMan00001]

What others already have said... What CRHers do typically costs banks on both sides (pickup and dumping) unless you roll the coins for them and they can use the rolled coins directly. In other words, you threatening to bring your business elsewhere unless you can dump unlimited coins will likely only matter if you have substantial deposits with them that they are making money from that you are threatening to pull. Even then, I would suspect the deposits would need to be quite substantial before they would even care. And if you have minimal accounts there, they will probably be happy you are gone.

On the other hand, if you hunt cents, you can still dump 4 boxes per day for free, or 1 box of nickels if that's your preference. If your wife is considered a different customer, double those amounts as you could each do that. Not saying that you should, just that you could.

Personally, when I was super active at CRHing (3 Million+ coins a year active), I always liked keeping a low profile. I used many different branches of the same bank for dumping as I could drive near at least a dozen different branches between home and the office depending on which route I took that day. If I was still super active today, I would need to find new pickup and dump banks as both sides have changed the rules from what they were, but that is just part of the game. It is always changing. You just have find a way to make it work for you within the framework of what the system allows you to do.

 

[blueberra]

What others already have said... What CRHers do typically costs banks on both sides (pickup and dumping) unless you roll the coins for them and they can use the rolled coins directly. In other words, you threatening to bring your business elsewhere unless you can dump unlimited coins will likely only matter if you have substantial deposits with them that they are making money from that you are threatening to pull. Even then, I would suspect the deposits would need to be quite substantial before they would even care. And if you have minimal accounts there, they will probably be happy you are gone.

On the other hand, if you hunt cents, you can still dump 4 boxes per day for free, or 1 box of nickels if that's your preference. If your wife is considered a different customer, double those amounts as you could each do that. Not saying that you should, just that you could.

Personally, when I was super active at CRHing (3 Million+ coins a year active), I always liked keeping a low profile. I used many different branches of the same bank for dumping as I could drive near at least a dozen different branches between home and the office depending on which route I took that day. If I was still super active today, I would need to find new pickup and dump banks as both sides have changed the rules from what they were, but that is just part of the game. It is always changing. You just have find a way to make it work for you within the framework of what the system allows you to do.

I guess I'll have to take a page out of your book and open a couple of accounts at dump banks. Maybe cycle 3 or 4 banks so that I don't become a fixture that elicits the Pavlovian effect from the tellers : "It's the guy who fills up the half dollar bag" every time I come in.

One bank I've used in the past had a half dollar bag with $500 capacity. Guaranteed fill-up every time.

Soon-to-be-ex bank has $1,000 sized bag. 50/50 that I fill it up. Another customer at that bank does what I do, so, depending upon timing, it could be every time or I could go a few weeks without filling the bag.

I did ask the VP about the bank's cost from Loomis for filled bags of coins and he didn't (allegedly) know the breakdown. Does Loomis charge per bag for handling, per dollar, or just a flat fee independent of the amount?

If I knew the incremental burden I place on a bank when I dump $500 of halves, I might be more sympathetic to their cost of providing this benefit.

This could go one of two ways -- either banks start charging everyone for using the coin machine or there are holdouts who continue to offer it for free.

Remember when the first airline offered frequent flyer miles, it didn't take long for all others to follow suit. Same thing with new car warranties.

As my friend in the bank said, "If something is free, it can always be taken away."

 

[pepperj]

I do scratch the at you're all so lucky to even be still able to this in this day and age.
20 yrs ago we would have to put an order then pay a fee for change

Some of the banks limit the amount of cash even, and we have to sign a paper for the bank not being responsible for us taking out the cash.

 

[djackson7348]

This week I received very unpleasant news from my dump bank.

Sign on the machine : Beginning 1 November 2026, non-customers will be charged a 7% fee, customers will only be allowed to cash in $100 per day with no fee, subsequent coins will be subject to a 7% fee.

Translated : if I dump $500 in halves, I'll be hit with a $28 fee [7% of ($500 - $100)].

I talked to my friend who works there and she gave me the e-mail address of a VP that she claimed is the right person to complain to.

So. I sent said VP an e-mail on Thursday (and blind copied my bank friend) with my concerns which included a thinly-veiled threat to go elsewhere if this policy does, in fact, go into effect. I do have an account at a different bank that does not charge to dump coins, so it's not a bluff.

No response yet.

I spoke to the bank VP today and the bottom line is that there will be no exceptions to the new policy.

My wife and I are actively pursuing a new bank -- one with unrestricted use of the coin machine for customers and also with safe deposit boxes. Once we do it's adios to the current one. BTW, there are a LOT of banks in the area.

I would be happy they continue to allow $100 for free. If that bothers you that much, you can always take your coins to the local Walmart Coinstar machine and pay their fees for every coin. Your bank is giving you something they don't have to so be grateful.

 

[blueberra]

I would be happy they continue to allow $100 for free. If that bothers you that much, you can always take your coins to the local Walmart Coinstar machine and pay their fees for every coin. Your bank is giving you something they don't have to so be grateful.

It's a cold day in hell when I pay a fee to cash in change.

I live 5 miles from the gym. On the way home today, I counted 5 different banks. Without working hard, I could have added 2 or 3 more had I taken a slightly different route.

Banks are EVERYWHERE where I live. One would think that in the digital world of on-line banking, banks would be reluctant to spend the money for a brick and mortar presence, but a new one seems to open every other month.

A banks need to distinguish itself from the legions of other banks. How do they do so? By offering services that others don't. You can open a checking account at any bank, get a car loan or a mortgage from any bank, buy a CD from any bank, bank on-line from any bank.

Not all banks have safe deposit boxes or coin machines or drive-thru windows (which I learned during COVID when banks were closed except for branches with drive-thru windows).

I used to have a saying back when I was still working -- the customer is not always right but the customer is always the customer.

I'm the customer. If the bank wants to play hardball, then I'll find a different bank that will be more accommodating.

 

[GMan00001]

Sometimes when I had an especially large amount of coins to dump, I would use a bank I rarely visited to get rid of them. Either further from home or just a less standard route.

In my case, the national bank chain I used switched to the large self serve bulk coin bins instead of bags for most coin machines when I was active, so it would typically take many bags to fill them up and I didn't have to annoy the tellers with heavy bags. My largest dump "volume wise" filled ~2.5 of these large bins with mostly cents and nickels and took like an hour. Interestingly, while they had the machine open I noticed that there were coins everywhere inside where they didn't belong. Since some of them were mine as there was a broken seal near the top, they let me claim all of them. I think I ended up with like a $20 profit on my dump as well. Sometimes, they would let me take the stuff from the hidden reject slot inside the machine too. It was mostly lint, dirt, and oddball items, but plenty of small foreign coins and damaged coins typically were mixed in, even the occasionally silver dime. Never did find anything that was actual gold like I had hoped... Only some branches would allow me to do that though.