Douglas writes, “Coinstar wants you to ‘recycle’ your coins in their machines, and save the environment! Minus their 8.9% fee of course.” They even have a little wizard on their website that estimates how many parts of the environment—water, energy consumption, and geological waste—you save by putting those coins back into circulation, instead of hoarding them like the polar bear murderer you are. They don’t provide any source for these estimates, though, and we’re not convinced you’re doing anything “green” other than lining Coinstar’s pockets.
From Coinstar’s website:
Think of it as a new form of recycling—when you reuse your change instead of letting it sit idle in your coin jar, fewer coins are produced. And that translates into environmental savings by reducing hte need for limited natural resources used to create new coin.
We’re deeply skeptical of any one-to-one benefit statement like this, not least because it ignores the total cost of running the Coinstar company, which is a key component of any coin recycling “movement.”
If you’re going to cash in your spare change, look for a Commerce Bank branch nearby first. Their change machines are free and you don’t have to be a Commerce customer to use them.
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@RandomHookup: Those people should send the quarters to me, my apt washing machine only takes quarters and there’s no change machine
My change (except the quarters) goes into a tin and I figure once the tin is full I’ll get it counted and go do something fun with however much money I get out of it.
@Mike626: I’ve certainly heard of worse campaigns to tout green. Now that it costs the Mint more money to make a penny than it’s worth, I’m all in favor of the government reusing pennies rather than minting new ones.
There’s nothing green about it. They’re just jumping on a trend bandwagon.
However, I did really like the Coinstar commercial where the tooth fairy falls down the stairs.
@ludwigk: Like with Molson Ice and curling?
Don’t go too crazy, eh?
I am skeptical about this article’s skepticism. If not supply and demand, what else would the government base minting on? Minting is expensive, especially for the negative segniorage ones (Pennies and nickels)–which are the exact coins likely to collect dust at your house because no one uses them to buy things because it would take so damn many of them to amount to anything!
So if more coins are essentially out of circulation, don’t you think the government notices that? Coinstar no doubt takes your coins straight to a nearby bank every time they empty the machine. The bank then gives those coins out in rolls to McDonalds, the grocery store, etc. The coins they get from CoinStar offset coins the bank would otherwise be ordering from their local Federal Reserve Bank, which would be trucked in from much farther away, as well. Thus meaning they order fewer coins. Thus the government has to mint fewer coins! I’m pretty sure the government looks over their coin orders from the previous time period and says, well we got orders for $50 Billion in pennies last (month/quarter/whatever), so let’s make $50 Billion more for the next period.
And finally, yes, letting Coinstar keep part of your money is asinine, so you should use the “fee-free” option to get a gift card for somewhere you were going to purchase from anyway. Amazon, JCPenney, iTunes, Starbucks.
Or they could, you know, de-monetize those worthless pennies and nickels, allow people to cash them in for their metal value (which is higher than their face value), and be done with this nonsense.
And I was just saying on another post (using cash at home depot) about why grocery store self-service lanes do not have a small bin to dump change into versus that little slot. Of course it is because alot of stores have a coin star machine…
@DeanOfAllTrades: get ya one of those little rubber flat lemon shaped coin holders like all of the old guys have….
actually coinage doesn’t stay around me alot as i process it quickly, in fact i’ll grab for any silver in the leave a penny use a penny tray on the counter…
here’s a rash idea – actually use the change to, you know, pay for things with exact change! i use one of these to carry my change – much easier than fumbling thru a pocket to find a nickel (the cover flips open into a tray so that the coins can easily be sorted).
one of the easiest ways to stretch a dollar is to make sure you’re not breaking one when you only need a quarter.
& i don’t use coinstar, but i know many people who consider the service invaluable. if it’s worth 9¢ on the dollar to them, so beit.
I save up my change and used to roll it then put it in the bank..but my credit union kept giving me crap when I’d bring in 20 rolls of coins plus they didn’t like giving me the empty rolls. Raley’s has one of the coinstar machines that gives you a gift cert instead of cash and Amazon is one of the places. Since I shop there it’s a good deal; I don’t have to roll my coins and when I do cash them in I can go shopping.
It was fun dumping the $20 of pennies into the machine…
I see people using the Coinstar change machine at the local grocery story all the time. I agree with the previous commenter who called it the Stupid Tax.
This is green-washing, of course, and quite silly.
However, to dismiss concern for the environment on account of green-washing is akin to dismissing families aa meaningless because many companies once used the “family-ness” of their food as a selling point. Does anyone remember when Saltines were “The Family Cracker”? Don’t let your reaction to marketing BS obscure your perception of whether something is actually important.
There is a hack for getting around the 8.9% fee. Google Coinstar hack. It involves unplugging the telephone cable.
Y’all know Commerce Bank got bought out by TD Banknorth, right? Dunno how that’s going to affect the coin-counting, but they’ll be known as just TD Bank now (TD Commerce Bank got shot down for some reason).
I throw my spare change in there, buy gift cards for Amazon and donate them to the fire department. Seems to work out well, no extra fees and the fire department can get some much needed equipment (tape recorders, office supplies, kitchen goodies, you name it).
It is true though that when people hoarde change the government has to make more. Just keeping it in circulation is a huge help. (So try not hanging onto it until you have enough to buy a car.)
Almost all banks let you bring in your change and “cash it in” for free.
This might be OT, but when the Coinstar machines were first installed in the local grocery stores around town, they waived the fee if you took the pay out in the form of grocery store credit. The first year my (now) wife and I were set to host Thanksgiving, I cashed in my change to cover the major grocery bill. For the next 2 years, a year’s worth of coins became the “Turkey Fund” until the store credits were replaced with Gift Cards. Haven’t used the counters since.
@cockeye: If you’re willing to take the time to roll it first, and then stand at the teller while they break open every single roll to make sure that there really are 50 pennies and not 49.
As for these machines that everybody’s bank seems to have, I haven’t seen a single one anywhere in my stomping grounds, so oh well.
Call me stupid if you want, but nine cents per dollar to not have to sit and wrap pennies all evening is a fair trade, IMHO
Wouldn’t a new form of recycling be actually *spending* the coins?????
@rainmkr: My bank (Bank of Texas) has free coin counters in the lobby. It’s a great bank, no fees for anything and they cover foreign ATM fees!
@HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak: You don’t find counting and rolling coins relaxing????
@AD8BC: No, I find it tedious and mind-numbing.
@HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak: Pennies? When we lived in an apartment and had to use quarters for laundry, we learned very quickly to break open every single non-bank-wrapped roll, because every single non-bank-wrapped-roll was short, or had slugs, or had Canadian quarters in them. One quarter may not seem like much to you, but they add up. Particularly when you need one more damn quarter to finish your laundry for the week.
Some banks will let you drop off your coins to be run through their machine, if you accept their count. Just don’t be the moron who comes in with a shoebox full of loose coins expecting the teller to hand-roll them for you.
Come on now guys, this is way more green than sending all of your change off to the landfill like we’ve been doing.
@HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak: I have to agree. I’ll roll quarters, dimes and nickels (I hate rolling dimes) but pennies? no way, they go to coin star. I’m another one of those who’s bank does not have coin counters
Some retailers that have the Coinstar machines waive the fee if you take credit and use it there (Kroger and Harris Teeter are the two I know about).
Also, I’ve seen credit unions that have the coin machines, but not sure if you have to be a member or not to use them.
My sister and her boyfriend just took their coins to the bank and totally bypassed the Coinstar machine. They funded a trip to the beach and probably still “saved the environment” the way Coinstar claims. I don’t think she had to roll the coins.
Now she and her boyfriend collect all their change in a piggy bank that keeps track of the amount of money you’ve dumped in. Gives them an idea of how much they’ll get on their next trip to the bank.
My dad gives my kids all the change he collects from paying tolls throughout the year at New Year’s every year. It runs on average about $70/yr and they split it. For years now, I’ve run it through Coinstar at work and got the gift card and paid the kids cash.
Beats taking it to my (former) credit union. They charged 13.5% percent off the top to count coins if you deposited it, 16% if you didn’t. That’s one of the many reasons I walked away from them and never looked back.
I really still do not understand why people are not just spending this money???
In Japan, people make every effort to pay with exact change. If something costs 546 yen and you have a 500 yen coin, a 50 yen coin, and a couple of one yen coins, you will hand the cashier 551 yen so that you can get a 5 yen coin back instead of 4 ones. I never have more than 20 coins in my possession at any time because they get used before I use bills. Then again, the smallest bill is 1000 yen, so that kind of makes sense.
You might notice that they advertise FREE coin counting now on billboards.
The catch is that you have to apply it to a gift card to starbucks, amazons, or other selected places. It is not a bad deal really.
That said, the billboards certainly dont put an asterisk or disclaimer next to the FREE part…
@Jesse in Japan: I try to do the same thing. Kind of annoying to get looks when you pay $11.35 for something that’s $6.35.
@mythago: As I’ve already mentioned, none of those banks are in my area.
Ouch. A little harsh on coinstar. If you use itunes or amazon (or somewhere else where they give a gift certificate at coinstar with free counting), coinstar rocks. Yes, totally dumb to use if you’re going to pay 8.9%, but that’s what we call the stupid tax.
@brandyk:
Yep. (The certificates work even if you buy used books, which are a great deal even in themselves.)
I use Coinstar with all of my change. I get an Amazon card with it (no fee). I then load the card into my account. That is all the money I allow myself to spend at Amazon.
I try to use exact change if possible, or at least get change in a silver coin denomination (eg 5, 10, 15, etc cents). I use a tiny coin purse, and it works a charm! No need for any coin counting machines or rolls.