Are you a Coinstar? (Coinstar)

Member Name: Lakerfanster

Product:	Coinstar
Date:	16/03/09 (178 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get cash, good way of saving for something

Disadvantages: 7.9p fee per £1?? might have to wait in line

**Introdcution**

I'm sure that you have all saved your spare change up until you have enough coins that you want to take to cash in somehow. There are a few ways that you can cash in your change. You can take it to the bank and cause a few grumpy looks from the people waiting in line behind you, you could change up with a friend or you could think to hell with it and spend all your coins in the slot machines but if you are saving your coins to cash in your money then Coinstar maybe the right one for you.

**Coinstar**

Coinstar was started 15 years ago by a man called Dave Cole, It started in the United States and has processed more than $12 billion dollars in change over 350 million transactions worldwide. There are currently just over 1000 Coinstar machines in the United Kingdom and Ireland put together and the Coinstar business is growing all the time with new machines popping up around the country. The machine is also known as "The Big Blue Machine" and you will find it in Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons. I have also seen these machines in a number of shopping centres and I'm sure there are other places where you can find them.

**How It Works**

You will probably have seen them in the major supermarkets but if you havent, they are big bulky blue things. On the front of the machine there is a touchscreen which gives you the instructions and once you have started the process the tray below will be able to be used as you need to start the process otherwise the coins will not go through the machine. All you need to do is then empty your box or whatever you carried the coins in and put all your coins onto the tray and they will then slide down into the machine to be counted. I find this process quite fun as if you look at the screen you can see the coins being counted up into each different value. 1p,2p,5p,10p,20p,50p,£1 and £2. Once it is done calculating it gives you a list of all the coins you have successfully cashed in as some coins will be rejected due to not being recognised. Once you are done you are able to see a total amount after the 7.9p per £1 cashed in has been taken away.

**Getting your Cash**

Once you have finished the process on the machine you will get a ticket which shows the total amount you have and it will tell you on screen hiw to cash it in. There are a number of ways you can get use your money. The most common one is for you to take your receipt to a checkout where the cashier will give you the money to the value of the total. Another option is that you can use it towards your shopping bill, in order to do it like this you just hand it over at the till when you have taken your shopping to the till and they will take the value off your shopping. And finally there is the way I prefer which is to take it to the customer service desk only and they will give you the money for the total amount due. This is a much better idea than having to find an empty checkout or having to wait in line for one.

**Donating to Charity**

I feel that this option is good if you feel bad for not giving to charity when you walked past someone who was collecting for one of your charities. There is an option to donate to charity and Coinstar works with a number of well known charities including the likes of The British Heart Foundation, The British Red Cross, Cancer Research Campaign, The Children's Society, UNICEF and The World Wildlife Fund (WWF). This is also a good option because you can keep money aside which you donate to Charity so it could be some extra cash that you can afford to give to charity at the end of the month for instance.

**Overall**

If you have a load of change then why not count it out and then take it to one of these Coinstar machines to get a crisp note for your change. I cashed in for a £10 recently and will use a coinstar machine again when I have enough change to make it worthwile. Why not Have a look around the house and you may just find a bit of extra cash you didnt know you had. It all adds up and you could treat yourself to something nice.

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