Filed under: iTunes
iTunes 101: From a jug of coins to an iTunes Gift Certificate
Last time we dropped off a jug of change at our local charitable organization, the people there mentioned that they now preferred receiving bills. Apparently, they're getting charged for counting coin donations. With that in mind, we brought our family's donation box over to Coinstar today. We used their locator service to find a nearby machine, which turns out to be at our local Albertson's.
Since Coinstar charges a fairly hefty 8.9% counting fee, we opted to cash out in an iTunes gift card and donate the equivalent amount in bills. With iTunes, you get a 100% transfer of funds; no fees. We brought over our pennies, nickles, and dimes in a cup. (No quarters, mind you. They're too handy. I personally bought out all the quarters from the jar in advance.)
This was the first time I ever used Coinstar, and I was surprised to learn that you can load bills directly into the machine as well as coins in order to build up a gift certificate. Given that you can buy pretty iTunes gift cards at the grocery's cash register no more than 10 feet away, I'm not entirely sure why people do this.
It took far longer to process our gift certificate than I expected. After pouring in the coins (the fun part!), we were there waiting for about 5-10 minutes. Finally, an iTunes gift certificate printed out and we were on our way.
The code was a bit longer than the normal redemption codes I'm used to. I entered it into iTunes and it worked fine. My account was credited immediately after.
Although the whole stand-and-wait portion was a bit annoying (my helper child got quite antsy), it's something I can easily see doing a few times a year. In the end, we are happy with our iTunes credit and the organization will be happy with the bills instead of the coins.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
shawn said 3:43PM on 8-17-2009
Why wouldn't you just take your change to your bank and get cash?
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coyo t said 3:48PM on 8-17-2009
many banks required that you count and roll your own and will not do it for you in fact very few banks will accept a bucket of coins in the way coinstar does
thenderson81 said 3:50PM on 8-17-2009
Bank of America now charges even if you are an account holder. Found out the hard way.
shawn said 3:54PM on 8-17-2009
Odd, I've cashed in change at a number of banks and never been charged. Most recently at Chase earlier this year.
Edicius said 3:21PM on 8-17-2009
"Given that you can buy pretty iTunes gift cards at the grocery's cash register no more than 10 feet away, I'm not entirely sure why people do this."
Because most stores don't allow you to hold up their lines while the cashier adds up your bucket of random coins and then sells you an iTunes card. Hell, most banks won't even let you deposit your coins into your own account unless they're rolled.
And here's a neat Coinstar trick, unplug the data cable from the back and then choose an iTunes card. It will say the service is down and then give you cash without charging "hefty 8.9% counting fee"!
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Ryan Trevisol said 10:06PM on 8-17-2009
Wow, that sounds unscrupulous.
Ryan S. said 3:25PM on 8-17-2009
While the data plug thing works, I'd prefer a Amazon or iTunes card myself. I've done it a few times, and I've been able to get some pretty awesome apps. :D
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HazyCloud said 3:29PM on 8-17-2009
This. I prefer to get Amazon cards. Amazon just has so much stuff to chose from.
Larry said 3:52PM on 8-17-2009
I use Coinstar about once a month to get rid of loose pocket change. Usually turning change into about $20 of Amazon or iTunes certs. Never had to wait 5 to 10 minutes for processing though. At most maybe two minutes.
And the reason people do it is because no one really wants to deal with change anymore, especially banks.
It's a pretty decent service
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Devin said 3:41PM on 8-17-2009
CoinStar for cash is for suckers. Your bank will do the same thing without charging you a service fee.
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coyo t said 3:46PM on 8-17-2009
actually most banks require that you roll your coins with those paper tubes
kylemg said 3:52PM on 8-17-2009
I've been doing this for years. Coinstar even had a holiday $10 mail-in bonus this past December. Loose change is the only money I spend on apps/music.
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Brian Allen said 3:58PM on 8-17-2009
This coin counter machine don't handle large amounts of coins without jamming.
Anything less than $50 should work, but larger amount are very iffy.
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Farris said 11:40PM on 8-17-2009
I one time loaded one of these machines at 11 pm and stood around waiting for about 15 minute while it counted... I got 176.something in cash, AFTER the 8.9% fee.
Also, Coinstars have been able to do iTunes gift cards for at least 2 years (that I know of).
Scott said 1:55AM on 8-18-2009
I just did the coinstar thing this weekend with about 4 years of accumulated change. I got $430 in amazon credit. Took about 15 minutes at the machine, I think. Most difficult was carrying around over 40lbs of change.
Fun fact: any combination of dimes and quarters that weighs 1 lb is worth $20.
http://twitpic.com/e5s9c
Yakov Hadash said 4:06PM on 8-17-2009
If you live near a TD bank, you can get your coins counted and cash out in American greenbacks, for free, whenever, no account required
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Galley said 4:13PM on 8-17-2009
I've been doing this for a couple of years, although I get Amazon gift certificates since I prefer CDs over digital downloads.
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moeskido said 4:41PM on 8-17-2009
Seconding #13. TD Bank, which merged with Commerce Bank has branches in the Northeast and Southeast. Coin machines are free to use, and you don't need to wrap anything.
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YodaMac said 4:45PM on 8-17-2009
Same here - visited the CoinStar during the holidays to both get rid of several jars of accumulated "spare change" and get the $10 bonus! :)
Those coins would've sat there untouched for years without this. Instead we bought Apps and music, rented movies, etc. all with those extra pennies.
It's perfect, and I can't wait to fill up those jars again! Last year we cashed in more than $70 (and that was without the quarters!).
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MatthewF said 5:00PM on 8-17-2009
I'd guess they allow you to put bills in so you can round the gift card up to an even number, which is likely more pleasing if you're going to later give it as a gift.
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