Question about coin machine in supermarket

[poppy1973]

Just wanted to check before I go along to my local supermarket.

The coin change counting machines, do they accept 1p and 2ps. We didn't realise but we have over £10 in 1ps and 2ps and dont have a bank near us. I believe the machines take a %.

Yes they take them. Not sure on what percentage they take.

I think our coinstar is not far off 10% now.

Yes they do, we just took a massive jar last weekend although it didn't like 5ps! If it's a 'coinstar' they take 10.9% if I remember correctly, we got £109 back from £123.

That's ridiculous. Save them until you're near a bank.

The Coinstar one in my Sainsburys does take a percentage - but only if you ask for cash. You can also take the money as a voucher to spend in store, which either takes a lot less % off or none off at all (not 100% sure which sorry). So if you'd be spending it in the supermarket anyway, that's a better option maybe?

OP, some banks are now a bit picky about taking small change so if you want to go down that route, it's worth checking with the branch first.

If you decide to use the Coinstar machine, don't get caught out as I did and overlook the fact that you have to spend the voucher you get THAT SAME DAY in the supermarket...

I think a lot of banks won’t accept change now. I bought a Holiday Spends jar & DH asked me what I was going to do when it was full as the banks wouldn’t take it

Our bank has a coin machine inside. It counts your coins then gives you a receipt to take to the cashier to pay into your account.
No commission taken

A lot of them have restrictions on how many bags they'll take a day. This is what coinstar cashes in on - the fact that few people can make repeated visits to their "nearest" bank (ie ten miles away as all the others shut down) which is only open on the thirty second arse of the month when the moon's aligned with Jupiter or whatever.

As an aside, banks refusing money is fucking ridiculous.

@FrancesFryer What bank is that?

Banks will often take it from children to put into their account, so mug a kid, take a tenner and give them your coin jar. Alternatively I take it and pop it in the self service machine at the supermarket. Probably not £10 at a time, but a fair amount. Also corner shop type shops will sometimes take a load from me as if they are selling lots of things for 1.99 then they get through loads of 1 and 2 ps.

Anyone who uses one of these machines is crazy and throwing money away.

Any supermarket big enough to have one if these machines will also be big enough to have a self-service till.

Self-service tills have a hopper for paying with coins. The machinery within is exactly the same as the machinery in the lobby that takes a 10% cut. If you use your jar of coins to pay for some shopping you get to enjoy 100% of the value, no cut is taken.

The only reason the machines still exist is that they were installed before self-service tills were a thing and old habits die hard.

I thought banks wanted you to count it out and put it into plastic bags before handing it in?

And you don't have to spend in that store - you can take it to the till and get the cash back.

Metro Bank branches all have the machines that you empty the coins into and you take the receipt to the counter to get the full amount. Some larger HSBC branches also have them.

My Natwest local branch has a machine where you tip all loose change in and get a receipt for the amount which the cashier then credits do your account. It's super fun tipping all the coins in!

I agree with tenor

We stopped chucking coins in jars years ago. All our shrapnel is now used to feed self-service checkouts. It makes far mor sense than either making special trips to the bank or paying coinstar.

But who wants to lug a bag of coppers around the whole time just incase you pop into the supermarket for some bread and milk?

Nat west

For a smallish amount like a tenner or so, I would just chuck it in the Coinstar and get a supermarket voucher if you can use it that day or take the cash and the percentage hit.

For the sake of a pound life's too short to be bagging it up, in the right amounts and you'll always have loads left over, and getting to a bank during opening hours for most people. I've never seen any of these loose change machines in any of my local banks.

PUtting a tenner's worth of coins in the do it yourself till will probably take forever, but I now do what Bonnie does and chuck any lose change I have each time I shop and pay the rest on card. Stops it building up and becoming a chore to count, bag and bank it.

My Natwest has a coin counting machine. But it can only be used by Natwest account holders as you get a printed voucher which you then have to pay in to your account.
But I think banks are generally happy to take coins if they're counted into money bags in thr right quantities. They just weigh them to make sure it matches what it should be and it's almost as quick as paying in notes. I'd much rather spend half an hour counting than lose 10% in a Coinstar machine.

I actually LIKE counting coins into coin bags... I know I know.

So find a friend like me, invite me round for dinner or TV and a glass of wine and let me loose at your loose change and coin bags!

Funnily enough I didn't want to sit counting £123 worth of mainly 1 and 2ps into coin bags hence why I went to a coin star or use it to pay for £123 worth of shopping at self service for that matter. And those saying just use change as you go along, it's nice to have a little cash boost in the run up to Xmas each year (we normally get around £200 this year the jar wasn't full).

I used Nat West too.

Tip: the first time round quite a lot of the coins came out as 'rejects', although they looked normal. I threw the same coins back into the machine and about half of them registered as normal coins.

The true rejects were foreign coins, probably given to me in change, and some genuine looking fake coins, presumably also given to me in change.