Maybe you’ve used one of these machines; I never have. However, I will be starting soon.
If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, the Coinstar machines can be found in several locations, usually grocery stores. You can take all that spare change you’ve been emptying out of your pockets and put it in the machine (you don’t have to count it beforehand, the machine does the counting for you). You then trade your coins for dollars.
Here’s the kicker: when you put your change in and trade for dollars, there is a service charge of 8.9%. In other words, for every dollar in change you get back roughly 91 cents.
Here’s the anti-kicker – if instead of taking dollars for your change you elect to take a gift certificate, there is no deduction – you get the full value of your change! I was recently made aware of this by some discussion on a message board. My interest lies in the fact that one of the gift cards offered is from Amazon, but there are many different places from which to choose (just a few include Lowe’s, J C Penney, Starbucks, Borders).
If you go to the website coinstar.com, you can put in your zip code and find a list of all the locations in your area where there is a machine. Note that not all locations offer the gift cards, so be aware of that. When the locations are listed, there will be symbols under the address that tells what’s available at that location.
So gather up all those coins that have been piling up and get some use out of them!
