Cash in Your Coins for Gift Cards with Coinstar

You’ve probably seen the green Coinstar kiosks in your local grocery store or retailer. But have you ever taken advantage of them?

The handy machines are designed to take your loose change and exchange it for cash or even gift cards. All you have to do is bring your change to a kiosk, pour it in, and the machine handles sorting and counting the money. When the counting is complete you have the choice of choosing cash or a gift card. There is a fee if you choose to receive cash, but with Coinstar’s “Coin to Card” function there is no transaction fee when you cash in for a gift card. You can choose from retailers such as Amazon, Sears, Lowes, JC Penney, Old Navy and the Gap, or restaurants such as Appleebee’s and Chili’s. The great thing is you don’t lose one penny when you make the transfer.

Did You Know?

• Around $10 billion in loose change sits idle in American households.
• Each Coinstar machine accurately counts about 600 coins per minute.
• Nearly 90% of the U.S. population lives within five miles of a Coinstar machine.
• It would take more than 197 billion stacked nickels to reach the moon.
• 84% of women and 74% of men would pick a penny off of the ground.

If your family is like mine, you probably have a coin jar or dish sitting around that you drop loose coins in on a daily basis. My husband is the worst about using coins, so every time he gets some at the store he just puts it in his pocket which then ends up in the wash, on our dresser, or on the kitchen counter. I, of course, pick it up and put it in our little coin jar to save for later. It’s always surprising when we count it up and have way more than we thought.

The other day we decide to take our loose change to one of our local Coinstar machines to trade it in for some gift cards. The kids had so much fun dumping the coins in and watching the total on the screen go up. When it was all said and done we had a total of $43.69, which was much more than we thought!

We were given the option to use our total towards cash or choose from a selection of gift cards. We had originally planned on getting an Old Navy or Gap gift card, but when we saw a gift card for Chili’s, one of our favorite restaurants, we decided to trade it in for that instead. Once we selected the gift card, it took a couple of minutes for the machine to print out the e-gift certificate. The great thing is when you choose a gift certificate, it is ready to use right away!

Our Coinstar experience was a lot of fun for the whole family. It was great to show our kids that every penny counts and it was super nice to be able to take our family of five out to dinner at Chili’s and still have money left on the gift card for another visit!

With back-to-school season underway and holiday shopping just down the road, make sure you take advantage of everything Coinstar has to offer. Whether you need the cash, or you prefer gift cards, Coinstar makes it easy to turn your loose change into spending money. Find a local kiosk near you.