In the great purge of 2011, I found a bunch of loose change. I decided to turn it into stocking stuffers. I took the ziplock baggies, the child painted flower pot and my buddy Mater and headed to CoinStar. I normally avoid the green machines like the plague. The almost 10% service fee irks me. I recognize they are providing a service, but still almost 10% seems steep. The downside of my righteous moral indignation over service fees is that the change collection gets bigger and bigger.
I recently learned that if you take your change to CoinStar and exchange it for giftcards to popular retailers, you transfer the full value of your collected coins (buh bye service fee!). Both kids have asked for iTunes Gift Cards for Christmas and I am a frequent shopper at Amazon. So 10 minutes and a few key taps later, I had 3 redemption certificates! Sweet!
Mater enjoyed the adventure too.
I have no connection to CoinStar. I figured others might want to know how to eliminate the service fee too.
Live Fearless Lee 
I noticed, at one of my bank branches (TD Bank), that they have a coin machine and I saw that it said that they did not charge a fee. Because I do not always trust what I read, I asked a teller and he assured me that in fact I would not loose any of my money to fees.
I would rather roll coins than give some of my money away for fees. If you knew me you wouldn’t be surprised. My grandfather use to collect his coins all year long and every Christmas vacation we would count and roll them. All the family members would guess how much money was there before we counted, but the grandkids (my sister and I) would always get the money 😉
What a fun memory – thanks for igniting that memory in me. Oh, and the piggy bank was a granpa on a rocking chair holding a baby. Ugly!
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