If you’ve been to the grocery store any time recently then you probably saw a commercial sized change counter and may not have even realised it. These fantastic devices offer good services to people at a very small cost (depending on the location). If you don’t have your own personal change counter you can use these to count your change so that you can put a number to it. In most cases this will only cost you around fifty cents to a dollar and in some cases the service is even free. If you’ve ever seen a Coin Star change counter that is commercial sized at the grocery store, you may not have known what this was used for. Basically if you have any amount of change, you can use the coin star change counter not only to count your change but to turn it into actual cash. This is a great way to turn your coins into cash or put it into your bank account as it’s easy and convenient and they only charge you a small percentage of the money that was counted.
The coin star change counter works by first asking you to pour your change into its large compartment change counter. This is much larger than the compartment you would have if you own a personal change counter; this large compartment allows you to pour more change in at one time and therefore is much faster at counting. The great thing about it is you don’t have to sort anything out, you can just dump it in and the machine does the rest of the work for you and with great accuracy. Once you pour your change in you will notice a small handle on the side of the change holder compartment. You can use this to wiggle the change down into the counter as room becomes available. Once the change passes into the coin start, it calculates what type of coin it is and then adds it to your current talley of money that you have going. The amount of money is then updated to a screen that you can see so you can view how much cash you are making. This is actually pretty exciting to see your change converted into a number that is recognizable, you’ll feel like you’re at your very own wheel of fortune and may feel the need to shout “big money!”.
Once the change is totaled and put into a number, the percent that the coinstar takes is deducted from that amount. This is typically only about 2-5% of what you made that the coinstar changes. While it may not sound good to have to give up some of your change, take into consideration the alternative ; going to the bank with a big bag of coins and putting it up on the counter while a long line of people who are impatient let out a large groan as they know this is going to take some time. Besides, you’re not going to feel too cool and probably will feel a little desperate bringing a bag of coins to the bank. The coinstar saves you time and hassel that you probably don’t want to invest in such a thing. Once the coinstar has your money added up you just click a “cash out” button located on the change counter at which time a receipt it printed out for you. If you take this piece of paper up to the front service counter and give it to them, they will give you actual cash for it. It’s a great feeling when you just took a bunch of seemingly useless change and turned it into cash that you can then use to grocery shop with.
So a coinstar offers advantages because it immediately converts your change into actual cash, where as if you have a change counter at your home it only gives you the amount of change that you have and nothing more. You will still have to take that change to the bank where it will be counted again, most likely with a commercial change counter anyway!
