If you are like me, you have a place for lose change. Now that I think about it, I actually have six places around my house. I belong to a federal bank and federal credit union, so what do you do with all that change?

Several years ago I discovered Coinstar. It is a company which operates self-service kiosks which convert loose change into cash. Additionally, the kiosks can be used to donate to charities or to purchase gift cards. The kiosks, which are green and the size of a vending machine, are found mostly at grocery stores, but can also be found at drug stores, larger merchants, banks and a variety of other retail locations. There is a usage fee of about eight cents on the dollar for using Coinstar when converting coins to currency, but not when exchanging for gift cards or making donations.

I truly believe time is money and there is nothing faster than pouring a jug of change into the green machine and getting cash or a getting a gift card rather than sitting and counting and rolling coins. Coinstar has a huge impact on the US Treasury in that they put coins back into circulation which results in less coins that need to be printed.

Labels: Coinstar, money saving tip

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