Coinstar.com : Grab Your Loose Quarters, Dimes and Pennies Then Go Shopping Online
The Coinstar Center features Coinstar brand Coin Counting plus a variety of new products and services. The popularity of Coinstar has grown, grown and even grown a lot more just this week. They are an amazing and innovative company.
I also must confess, we often use this machine, at least once a month or so by hauling to the grocery store a big plastic bag of pocket change. It is a bit of a humbling experience carrying your change around in a plastic bag but read on…..
Just in case you have never heard of or seen one of these fine machines, they are green, about the size of a small soda machine and usually in the front area of a grocery store. This is how it works, you bring in your spare U.S. coin change, pour it into a large slanted plate on the front of the machine and gently feed/tilt it higher as the coins disappear into the inside of the machine. The machine counts the coins and during this process it displays the growing balance on a small video screen. Its a bit like winning on a slot machine without the flashing lights! When you have completed your ‘deposit’ and all the coins have been counted your final balance is displayed and the machine shoots out a small receipt. **Make sure you take this receipt when you walk away!
With paper receipt in hand, simply stroll over to the cashier and exchange it for green cash money, which is a lot less heavy and much more convenient than all those nickels and quarters. This is a super way to get rid of the 20-30lbs of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies which you have socked away somewhere in your home or garage (and don’t try to deny it, “Oh not me”… we all do it)
The Coinstar machines are great time savers and also if you are grocery shopping at that store you can apply your change receipt balance at checkout time just like cash. It is very convenient, popular and sometimes there is even a line. Now I’m going to share a personal moment with you readers, for some of us underpaid and over worked professionals, that “spare change exchange” can deliver a nice meal or two before the next pay check arrives. (see comments)
Coinstar’s Online Connection
Over the past few years Coinstar has been a very busy company (counting about $2 billion in coins a year). In a brilliant move last year, Stored Value Systems, now Comdata, announced an agreement with Coinstar which will enable consumers to redeem their spare change not only for paper money receipts but also for retail gift
cards.
Coinstar estimates that consumers are holding around $10.5 billion in spare change and its just sitting around the house!
Prior to Coinstar’s ‘change’ program and since PCs, don’t have coin slots on them to drop quarters into like a soda machine, there was no simple way for consumers to spend this money (change) online. However since then, Coinstar and others such as Amazon.com have made agreements and created one of the first self-service methods for using cash (change) to make purchases on the Internet.
In 2005, Coinstar launched their “Coin to Card” program, which allows users to exchange loose change for prepaid gift cards or online e-credits good at all of these stores: Borders Bookstore, Starbucks, Pier 1 Imports, Hollywood Video, Amazon.com, iTunes, Linens & Things and Virgin Digital. In fact just this week, Eddie Bauer was announced as the latest addition to the Coin to Card program.
When you exchange your coins for an Eddie Bauer eCert, you will also pay no coin-counting fee. This is also true when converting change to a variety of other nationally-branded gift cards & eCertificates through Coinstar Centers.
Eddie Bauer is the first apparel eCertificate in the Coin to Card program and that offer is available at more than 6,500 Coinstar supermarket and drug store locations across the United States.
My simple advice is with a cold winter on the way, drag your change out and get something warm from Eddie’s store. Be sure to check your couch cushions, ours hold a small fortune!
Peter Rowan, Vice President of New Business Innovation at Coinstar, Inc. states “Using idle change or found money to make online purchases brings ’shopping freedom’ to consumers who either prefer to use cash or don’t have access to credit.” Sounds familiar doesn’t it, consumers exchanging physical cash for digital money to spend and shop online. (e-gold, Moneybookers, Pecunix, VirtualCreditCard, WebSecretCard) However, the automated kiosk loose change twist on the ‘Coin to Card program’ is shear brilliance.
We have a prepaid digital gold currency card for e-gold, pecunix & 1MDC. It is my sincere hope its only a short time before these machines will be carrying such a product, even if it is not ours, its much needed.
Coinstar even offers a prepaid reload able MasterCard. No interest, no late fees, no hassle…its prepaid. Empty your change to the large tilting slot, tally up your balance, swipe the card right there at the machine and recharge your MC balance… these guys thought of everything.
More Good News
This week Coinstar announced a new ‘Coinstar Direct Coin Deposit’ service. This innovation allows bank and credit union customers to electronically transfer coin deposits directly into their personal accounts. In addition, Coinstar’s making available a new “Madison” coin-counting kiosk specifically designed for retail financial institution branches (not truck stops). I’m assuming this one will be very quiet and rather professional looking.
Finally & Most Recently
West Coast Bank is now offering its banking customers the Coinstar line of gift card, prepaid wireless, cash card, and phone card products. According to a press release issued this week, included in the products being offered are gift cards from food, entertainment and retail businesses including Chili’s, Borders, Starbucks, Circuit City, AMC Theatres, KB Toys, and Timberland along with Green Dot prepaid debit cards.
Coinstar at last count in February, 2006 had more than 57,000 retail locations throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, which include supermarkets, drugstores, restaurants and truck stops. The Coinstar Inc headquarter offices are located in beautiful Washington State.
Coinstar Inc. • 1800 114th Avenue SE. Bellevue, WA 98004
Customer Service: Send us your questions or comments to info@coinstar.com or call 800-928-CASH. To locate Coinstar Centers or just learn more please visit their web at www.coinstar.com.
Consumers can also visit this huge page to locate a Coinstar near you: http://www.coinstar.com/us/html/A4-2
Get that change out Christmas is coming.
Source: Various including http://www.paymentsnews.com/
Record Breaking Determination
I’ve never been much of a saver. That’s before I discovered Coinstar. The first time I tried it I cashed in some $150 in coins. That was great! It was enough incentive so I started saving all my change to beat my record. The second time I used Coinstar I had about $450 in change. Excellent! Determined to break that record, I saved and saved all of my change…
Making a Difference, One Piggy Bank at a Time
My six year old son Matthew has just made me incredibly proud. Inspired by his class’s community involvement at the local food bank and their Thanksgiving food drive, he made a list of items to buy and donate. I thought he might volunteer a few dollars from his pocket money; instead he emptied his entire collection of “special” (state) quarters out of his piggy bank, totaling $50, and handed it to me. We went to the Coinstar machine in our local QFC grocery store to turn the quarters into cash. He poured in his money and with great excitement we watched the total whiz up to $67.63. He spent the entire amount and will be going to school tomorrow laden with food for the drive. As we were walking out of the supermarket he announced; “I feel really good about myself!” So he should! He could have donated the quarters directly to the local food bank, but receiving his own voucher from the Coinstar machine and presenting his own “money” at the checkout made the whole experience much more real for him.
A New Tradition, a New Soul Mate
Just about a year ago, I took a friend with me to Save Mart. I brought along a box I use to store all my extra change. We emptied into the Coinstar machine and I received $63.41 and a soul mate. I have been seeing this girl for over a year now. She is the love of my life and our first official date was to COINSTAR! So now once a year on that exact day, I empty a year’s worth of change as I did the first time. Thank you Coinstar for the convenience of not having to count my own coins and thanks for helping me find my soul mate!
Inspired By Coins
I have a few 16oz containers of loose change that I’ve wanted to take in for some time. The change is from whatever is left in my husband’s pants pockets at the end of each day. I remembered seeing Coinstar in supermarkets on previous shopping trips. So, I went online hoping that there would be a website for the company directing me to the location of my nearest Coinstar. It was so easy. When I went to the website, I simply typed in my zip code and got a list of several locations that were convenient for me. I also saw this article “Pennies Become a Fortune When Ohio Collector Cashes In” and decided to read it. I love this story! It was so uplifting to read a “happy” news story, with all that is going on in world news these days. This inspired me to write you this letter of thanks and really start collecting all that loose change around our house! Thanks Coinstar for making my day!
A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned
I use cash to pay for things and save the change in my daughter’s piggy bank. I take that change to a Coinstar machine and then deposit the cash into a savings account for her. I average about $50 a month in the account so she’s got a great savings so far!
Find a Penny, Pick It Up
I went to the store and saw a Coinstar machine and knew I had a lot of change at home, but thought it was all pennies. So my girlfriend and I got all the coins and went back to the store to cash them in. She thought it would be under $10, but I thought it was at least $15. The total was $80.77. WOW! I was so surprised and now we have money to spend on our trip. Now when I’m walking and see a nickel or a penny, I always pick it up as before I would only pick up certain coins. Thanks Coinstar.
Worth Every Cent
I save all my change from week to week and usually have anywhere from $10 to $60. I used to count and roll my change, but now the local banks are getting so picky about accepting rolled coin. Now I cash my change in at the Coinstar machine and sometimes I pay for my groceries out of the change I’ve collected. I would rather pay the small fee that it costs for the machine to count the change rather than have to sit for hours and count and then not knowing if the bank is even going to accept it or not.
coinstar you need to work out the bugs.my visit was very upsetting.