Banks With Free Coin Counting Machines & Coin-Counting Alternatives
– Coin Counting Machines –
Banks With Free Coin Counting Machines: Recall the days you could take your coin-filled piggy bank to the nearest savings institution and get them counted out for crisp bills or deposits. Sometimes those coins could add up to hundreds of dollars – with annual amounts rivaling cash rewards from cashback credit cards. Fortunately, those days aren’t entirely gone.
In today’s largely cash-free society, spare change seems particularly useless. Coins are cumbersome and using large amounts of change to make purchases is just plain inconvenient.
Happily, you can transform pesky change into crisp paper money with the help of coin-counting machines. These handy machines can be found at certain banks, credit unions, and stores. Best of all, some of them are free to use!
Which Banks Have Coin Counters?
Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank, BB&T, and other major national banks no longer provide coin-counting machines to customers or to non-customers.
The reason has been that the big banks claim that these machines cost more to maintain than the value that is delivered to customers.
The financial institutions that are most likely to operate coin-counting machines for the public are local community banks and credit unions (often known for providing better personal customer service).
Additionally, you might need to be a customer in order to use these machines.
Otherwise, expect to pay a small fee for using the service as a non-customer.
Banks With Free Coin Counting Machines
| Bank | Customers | Non-customers |
|---|---|---|
| JBT | Free | 5% fee |
| Manasquan Bank | Free | – |
| Home State Bank | Free | 10% fee |
| First County Bank | Free | – |
| Shelby Savings Bank | Free | – |
| TCF National Bank | Free | 8.9% fee |
| Cape Bank | Free | Free |
| Hancock County Savings Bank | Free | – |
| Republic Bank (NJ/PA) | Free | Free |
| People’s United Bank | Free | 8% fee (to increase to 11%) |
| American Eagle Federal Credit Union | Free | Free |
| Westerra Credit Union | Free | – |
| Chase | No Counters | |
| Citibank | No Counters | |
| Bank of America | No Counters | |
| Capital One | No Counters | |
| TD Bank | No Counters | |
| PNC Bank | No Counters | |
| BB&T | No Counters |
Exchange Coins For Free At Banks
Although every bank will give out free coin wrappers, not every bank will accept your rolled coins if you are a non-customer. Chase Bank happens to have rather generous policies for non-customers, who can exchange up to $200 in coins as long as they’re in coin wrappers.
If you’ve got more than $200 in coins, there’s a simple trick: just visit multiple Chase branches. While Chase will happily accept your coins, other banks I contacted will not.
Most of them have a policy of not converting coins to bills for non-customers. In actuality, however, tellers would perform the coin exchange if the coins were wrapped and for a small amount between $10 to $20.
Again, you can use the same trick here by going to multiple bank branches. If you have hundreds of dollars in coins, be prepared to make trips to many different banks.
Otherwise, your other option would be to just open an account with a bank that has a coin counting machine — not exactly the best option I must say.
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Stores With Coin Machine
With cash transactions happening all the time, it makes sense that these machines are readily available at these stores.
Note: Every single store, even if it’s under the same chain, may not have a machine. If you’re thinking about making the trip, we suggest calling the store first.
However, the list of stores with coin machines includes:
- Wal-Mart
- Winn Dixie
- Food 4 Less
- Vons
- Ralphs
- ShopRite
- The Food Emporium
- Safeway
- Acme
- Kroger
- Jewel
Coin-Counting Alternatives With Coinstar & Other Stores
Coinstar is a company that offers kiosks for counting coins. You can turn the coins into cash, electronic gift codes, or charitable donations. Coinstar kiosks can be found most often in major U.S. supermarkets.
Coinstar charges a fee of 11.9% if you want the coins converted to bills. If you just want cash from your coins, banks are the cheaper option. But, as mentioned above, if you convert those coins into branded gift cards through Coinstar, it is completely free.
How it works
- You can bring your coins without having to have them sorted or wrapped. They simply have to be free of dirt, debris, and other obstructions that could block the machine from accepting the coins.
- Select the exchange option that you prefer.
- For cash, you’ll get a paper voucher that you bring to the cashier. The electronic gift code, it will be printed on your receipt. However, for donations, you’ll receive a receipt of your donation for tax purposes.
1. Save Time for the Things That Matter
You may still need to sort your nickels and your dimes, but once you’ve done so, it’s time to let the coin counter spring into action. The machine effortlessly counts coins of the same denomination, and it will finish the tallying before anyone else on your team can do it.
Simply set a target amount and let the counter get to work. The machine will stop when it hits the target, and you can add more coins to keep the process rolling. The counter will also give you a running total as it counts up your coins.
2. Improve Your Accuracy
To err is human, or so the old saying goes. If you’re still letting your team count up coins manually, you know this to be all too true. It may not happen every day, but the more time you spend counting coins, the more likely a mistake is.
The bigger problem is that it takes time to sort out those mistakes. One small error can multiply into much more wasted time as you try to spot the error and correct it.
3. Decrease Costs and Losses
Coin counting mistakes cost you more than time. They cost you money too. All that change adds up to a bigger problem in your books. Now multiply that loss over a week or a year.
Your new coin counter is far superior to anything humans can do, so you don’t have to worry about losing out on your hard-earned cash.
4. Keep Your Hands Clean
It’s no secret that cash is dirty. Coins are passed from hand to hand, and they’ve likely touched a lot of filthy surfaces before dropping into your till. Keep your employees’ hands clean and germ-free by letting the machine handle the coins.
5. It’s Accessible for You
Making sure technology is available to you when you need it is important. Suppose your laundromat is open late. While that’s great for your customers, you have a problem when you close up shop.
Where are you going to find a coin counter at this time of night? When you invest in your own, you’ll never need to ask this question or resort to manual counting again.
While most national banks don’t offer coin counting machines, you can still find them in many regional and local banks and credit unions. If you’re a bank customer, this service is often free. You can also exchange your coins for dollars using Coinstar kiosks at supermarkets and big-box stores around the country.
Though Coinstar charges an 11.9% fee for this service, you can bypass this fee by electing to exchange your change for e-gift cards, store credit, or charitable donations.
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