Seems More People Playing "The Penny Arcade" At TD Bank
So like I said I got $120 from the Penny Arcade this weekend, but I was far from alone. Here is the crappy cellphone picture I took of the line. All those people on the right (plus the dog) are waiting for their turn at the spare change counting machine.
There was a bird-like lady in front of me, clad in soft designer blacks. The Penny Arcade counted up her change. "You won!" I said. "Not really," she replied flatly. She got $19. When I took my ticket up to the counter to get my money, I looked back and there were at least seven people lined up to use the Penny Arcade. The woman at the front of the line was dumping an entire purse of change into the machine. It was the busiest I've ever seen the Penny Arcade. Don't know whether that's just what people do on a Sunday or the R-word, but people are cracking open their piggy banks and scrounging under their couch cushions. Above is is the crappy glarey cellphone picture I took. All those people on the right (plus the dog) are waiting for their turn at the spare change counting machine.
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I thought this was a article about the web comic.
@ThatIdiotJeffrey_GitEmSteveDave: If you're going to do that, why not put them in rolls and take them to a bank? I thought that was the entire reason for using the machines; to save the trouble of counting it up.
I love the Penny Arcade! It beats paying the 8%+ fee that coinstar takes out
Um, I think calling it "Playing the Penny Arcade" is very misleading.
There's a very popular web comic out there with the same name. Maybe you've heard of them, they were just recognized by the US Congress for their good deeds.
When I would wait tables, I would always end up with a lot of change, so I would use the arcade every month, at the time, it worked out to be my cell-phone payment.
Why is "Playing the Penny Arcade" misleading? You click on it expecting the web comic, but it's not. Okay, you move on.
And you can't really play a web comic, so it's kind of moot.
The title was definitely misleading. My first thought was that someone had found an actual Penny Arcade or something similar, and was going to tout the inexpensiveness of the entertainment.
Example: The Pinball Museum in Las Vegas, with playable games, makes $20 last longer than anywhere else in the city.
What am I looking at in that Pic?
^ The coin-counting machine at TD Bank is called "The Penny Arcade." Maybe if more people saved their loose change and knew which bank to take it to to get it counted for free instead of reading (admittedly fantastic) web comics, our economy would be in better shape.
$737.84 from the Penny Arcade about 2 months ago. I WIN!!!!
@cabjf: I consider the rolling/buying the rolls/writing your account # on them to be more of a pain. You can weigh loose coins and/or set up a "model" stack, and make matching stacks w/o counting them, or use an cut in half old paper towel tube marked with a set amount to quickly "count" your coins.
I'm also VERY cheap. ;)
@Ben Popken: It was also called the "Penny Arcade" back in the Commerce days, which was when I frequented it. I remember when I worked at a supermarket in '01, we would refer people there rather than take their change, as sometimes our safe was JAMMED from a recent armored car delivery, and we had no room for more.
BTW, is that Jeffrey holding the dog?
Looking at that photo is like playing Where's Waldo. Where's the dog? I do see something that kind of looks like a weird panda...but I'm wondering why someone was allowed to bring their dog into the bank. It's kind of floating in midair (if what I'm seeing is a dog).
ummm why did they post that pic?
Back when it was Commerce, the Penny Arcade at my nearest branch in Philly always had a bit of a line on weekends (about 5 people). This was a while ago, so the coin-cashing thing may not be due to the R-word; maybe the line just became more noticeable?
Or the R-word hit West Philly early.... or that area's customers were already hoarding their pennies. I know I was!
In my case, I've been depositing coins because I'm using cash more often. Has nothing to do with poverty, actually. Instead, since I started paying in cash, my position has improved markedly and I've paid off one credit card (and cancelled it - Discover, Bye Bye).
@pecan 3.14159265: They're allowed to bring the dog in because there's no handwritten sign outside forbidding them from doing so.
[consumerist.com]
That picture reminds me of when a film camera would accidentally overlap multiple exposures.
@cabjf: I don't know if this is still the rule, but back when it was Commerce, they don't allow you to do that. They made me open the rolls to put through the machine. It was off and they told me the manager would count the change at the end of the day and give me a call. They've never ever done that, and it's happened 3 times. The machine definitely is not accurate though so I'd only do small amounts.
That's the second post in a few days that has TD Bank in it. are Canadian banks becoming more popular in the US now?
i know RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) is there too...
BTW in case you didn't know TD stands for Toronto Dominion.
FYI we have only 5 major banks in Canada; RBC, BMO, TD, CIBC and Scotiabank. we do have a few insiginificant banks owned by corporations that suck and a handful of credit unions.
I think I see something in that picture that might be a dog. Or, a raccoon. Could she have been visiting the bank with a raccoon in her arms?
I bought one of those coin sorting banks at Radio Shack ages ago and use it to sort and wrap change. I get the tubes at the dollar store and just do it at home.
B1663R: The Canadian bank merged with a U.S. one. So TD Commerce is also a U.S. bank now.
@AfraidOfVelcro_GitEmSteveDave: Nah, defeats the purpose of the machine and my sanity and time are worth WAAAAAY more than a couple bucks in change.
I have not seen any banks in Milwaukee that charge you to cash in change, TCF, US Bank, M&I all let me bring in my change for cash free. Interesting maybe they charge depending on the market?
Coinstar will also give you back 100% if you take it in the form of a gift certificate. You can get them for places like iTunes, Amazon.com and Home Depot. Last time I used Coinstar, I got $760 in Amazon.com gift certificates.
My mom broke our local TD Bank's "penny arcade" the other day. I guess it wasn't all filled with pennies.
@SunnyLea: I was unemployed at the time, so I took a few hours one afternoon while watching Star Trek to count everything out, then tally it. A few dollars then was a big deal, and if I didn't care about the "small stuff", I wouldn't be the kind of person who looks downward when walking, and has found over $40 in bills, unknown amounts of change, and a gold chain in the past 3-4 years. It all adds up.
@B1663R: Since TD took over Commerce, they doubled their presence in some areas, and NY being as bank heavy as it is, there are A LOT of TD's now.
I hit the Penny Arcade last week, mostly because my Jack Daniels bottle couldn't hold any more change. A 1.75L of JD will hold about $215.
I enjoy counting them into rolls over a an episode of bad tv.
It also saves you the service fee those machines charge. Something like 11%?
@pecan 3.14159265: I see the dog. He appears to be gliding down a stripper pole (at least that's what the glare in the picture makes it look like).
For those of you missing the "Commerce Bank" name, it still lives on for whatever reason in Central PA. Same buildings, same Penny Arcade, but they were an entirely separate company from the NJ and Southeastern PA...ones. I can't use my TD-Issued Commerce card there any longer though and it's the closest bank to my school :(
I wish TD Canada Trust's in Canada had this machine.
The bank is from Canada and we still have to do it the old fashioned way, sigh.
@JayDeEm: Yeah, some places in Downtown "old" Vegas have them, thankfully. Mermaids comes to mind, though not for long, the way they plow drinks in to you!
This whole idea of free change counting by banks is great. I originally thought that it was a method for the banks to drive up their deposits.
I have two jars of coins: Quarters and everything else. Guess where the quarters go? For everything else, I put it into a jar, and I am currently seeing how much I can get in one year.
@B1663R: TD's bought out basically any bank around New England that hasn't gotten out of its way yet. Trying to catch up on my statements (checkbook's about three and a half years out of date) reminded me why I greeted TD as liberators when they absorbed Hudson United Bank and Their Onerous Fee Structure.
@ThatIdiotJeffrey_GitEmSteveDave: back before Wachovia was bought by First Union, they would give out paper coin rolls for free. i think bank of america may still do that, not sure
@SunnyLea: A couple of bucks, maybe, over $100, definately not. My mom forced the bank teller to close and hand count over $300 in change because we counted it the night before and knew, to the nickel, how much was there (it was only nickels, dimes, and quarters). The machine was over $100 off. After the teller counted it, and subtracted for a couple of non-coins that we missed, she found out my mom was right, exactly. After that, they didn't question her when she brought change it. If there was a difference, my mom won every time.
I, of course, did not read ALL of the comments...however, I saw that people were questioning why a dog was allowed inside TD Bank. Ever since TD was Commerce, the bank has encouraged Customers (see the capital C - LMAO) to bring their dogs inside the bank. I tied my dog outside once and the teller told me to bring him in. TD has kept up this tradition. They even give out treats. I hardly ever use this bank, but when I do...Parker goes with me.
While I agree with your point that the title wasn't intentionally misleading you can actually play penny arcade,
Penny Arcade (the comic) have released a series of episodic games called "On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness"
@oneandone: Hey, that was my branch too. And you're right, there was always a line at the coin machine on weekends.
I guess the question I have is why didn't the author of this article call up TD and ask them if they're seeing larger volume of people using it and higher amounts of money involved.
@Sean Tapscott:
Also, you do realize that the web comic Penny Arcade took their name from, you know, penny arcades of old and is hardly the first entity to be using the name.
I work at the TD bank IT helpdesk (1 of 3). The branches are supposed to do a 17.50 test every morning. (1 roll of each coi denomination) if it does not come out correctly they call us, and we can diagnose it over the phone with the problem, missorting, debri, etc. The machine only miscounts coins if it has not been cleaned. they get very dirty. We have found bullets, blood, used condoms, human feces, nail clippers, etc in them.
If the mahcine does miscount, The branches close the penny and we send a tech out (from a 3rd party that manufacturers the coin counter). The techs are usually out in 1 - 2 days and are very well trained.
The main problem it debri in the machines, so please clean your coins before pouring them in. Also, dont push the touch screens so much they break, they are expensive and take a while to replace.
The Penny can be off if the previous person had dirty coin or dumped junk (paperclips, nails, screws, bullets, pebbles, plastic beads, glass, dirt, etc) in the machine. You can ask someone if they can clean it because it didn't count it right last time.
I would advise counting your money before letting the machine. When I went a few years ago, it was off by a little over a dollar. I told the lady and when she asked me how much it should have been, I pulled out the paper I had the amount written on, and subtracted the coins it spit out. She gave me the correct amount. I was only doing a coffee can, so it might multiply up.