Coins Away (Coinstar)

Member Name: bluemoon37

Product:	Coinstar
Date:	19/09/09 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, Easy,

Disadvantages: Charge to use it

I first noticed coinstar in Asda and had no idea what it was, it just looked sort of like an instore atm to me. Until one day I was chatting with a friend about what she did with all her 1p's and 2p's, she introduced me to coinstar.

So I collected the familys savings, we have a big jar that throughout the year we all stick any loose change in and then give to charity at christmas (we do give to charity throughout the year). We never bother to count how much.

So off I went to Tesco, the machine is hidden away in our Tesco and you would not know it was there unless you were specifically looking for it. It sort of looks like a noisy atm, you can hear all the coins being poured inside it.

The machine is completely touch screen and you have a choice whether you want a voucher for the store you are in or you can choose cash, where you recieve a voucher and then have to queue at customer services for them to exchange it. The one thing you have to agree to is Coinstar taking 7.9 pence of every pound you put in. This does seem quite alot but it saves heaps of time. Think how much time you would have spent counting and bagging up for the bank or separating foriegn currency. The company still needs to make money out of this service at the end of the day.

There is a metal grill which you pour your money on tip of and this lifts upp and the money slides into the machine. As it lides in, you get an on screen balance of the money being counted. The machine takes a while to count and asks you to stop pouring so it can catch up, also sometimes the coins get stuck on top of the grill going into the machine and need a slight nudge. Usually the whole process takes me a good 10 minutes but it is still quicker than counting. At the end, the machine spews out you voucher and any foriegn coins.

Well I think I should tell you our total was £77.64 from a year and this all got split up between us for a little treat. It really is surprising how much all those pennies add up to. I better mention the machine takes any coin up to the £2 value, so you really can just pour them in.

Overall, I really like it. I despise the fact that it takes 7.9p but you are paying for a service.

Summary: Coins to cash in record speed