Where to exchange saved coins to dollar bills? This is a no-brainer for some, who just use the local branch of their bank, credit union, etc. But banks frequently require their customers to bring in change in rolled form, not loose coins in bags or other containers. This can be, frankly speaking, a right pain in the backside for those who tend to let their loose change pile up until it gets into the $100 or above range. That’s a lot of coins to roll. What are the alternatives?
Before we head into the rest of this article, let’s save time upfront–for most who need to exchange coins for dollars, the best thing to do is to simply Google “Coinstar near me”. We’ll explain why below.
Retailers Who Let You Exchange Saved Coins to Dollar Bills
There are a lot of frugality and money-oriented blogs publishing lists of retail stores where you can exchange your saved coins to dollar bills for free. And a lot of them hastily amend their articles or headlines to add “…or for cheap”. And the reason is, a lot of the retailers these bloggers list? Including the following:
- QuikTrip
- Walmart
- Kroger
- CVS
- ShopRite
- Hy-Vee
- Meijer
- Albertsons
- Harris Teeter
- Hannaford
- Cash Wise
- Target
- Kmart
- Lowe’s
The problem with this list? These bloggers won’t get to the point upfront (some people believe the longer your article is the better it may perform on Google, which may be true but it’s infuriating to read things written for Google to love rather than for humans to read.) which is that the stores themselves likely won’t be bothered accepting your loose change. Instead, the store employees will point you toward a Coinstar machine instead.
And when you search for coin machines near you, the Google results you’ll get are absolutely dominated by Coinstar. It’s entirely likely that you won’t have another alternative unless you live in a major city. And what should you know about Coinstar?
Using Coinstar To Exchange Saved Coins to Dollar Bills
Here’s another area where finance and frugality bloggers fell down on the job. If you search for articles about using Coinstar, you’ll be confronted with plenty of results warning you of Coinstar’s 11.9% fee AND “how to avoid the fee”.
These articles him and haw for a while til you get to the bottom of the section about Coinstar fees and learn that the only way to avoid paying nearly 12% of your coins in exchange for dollars is to accept the exchange in the form of a gift card. Which some might be into, but if you need the cash instead, you basically have to choose between eating the fee or not getting the paper money.
Joe Wallace specializes in personal finance, military affairs, and consumer protection topics. Since 1995, his work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and collects unusual vinyl records, which gives him an excuse to write the vinyl blog Turntabling.net.
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