On the Accuracy of CoinStar
Tip It!According to an article that a reader pointed out in the comments to my earlier post on using CoinStar for free, CoinStar coin-counting machines aren’t necessarily accurate, but at least they’re not biased… Based on a survey of five different machines at five different locations, the machines were spot on three times, overcounted by a dime once, and undercounted by a nickel in the final test (out of $17.50 in actual change fed into the machine). All in all, I’d have to say that these results would be close enough for me… My main quibble with CoinStar is that I’m not interested in giving them close to 10% of what I feed into the machine (although, as I’ve noted before, you can get around the fees by opting for a gift card from a participating merchant).
Published on February 16th, 2006 - 11 Comments
Filed under: Miscellany
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
Related articles...
» Use Coinstar for Free» The Best of FCN – Selections from 02/06
» One Year Ago This Week (February 11th – February 17th)
» Real-World Gas Mileage for a Honda CR-V
» On the (In)accuracy of Fuel Efficiency Estimates
» From the Archives (February 10th – March 15th)
» One Year Ago This Week (September 24th – September 30th)
» Don’t Believe Everything that You Read
Was this article useful? Please sign up to receive our content via e-mail:
11 Responses to “On the Accuracy of CoinStar”
Leave a Reply
Top Cards by Category
Earn $200 Bonus Cash Back after you make $500 in purchases in your first 3 months. 5% Cash Back on up to $1,500 spent in bonus categories each quarter.
Receive 10,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $1,000 in 3 months of Card membership.
Earn 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
No Balance Transfer Fee!* 0% Intro APR for up to 15 months on purchases and balance transfers. This card offers Blueprint, free and customizable account features that help you avoid unnecessary interest and pay your balances down faster.
Enjoy no balance transfer fee for a limited time. 0% introductory rate on Balance Transfers and Purchases. Earn up to 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
Enjoy no balance transfer fee for a limited time. 0% introductory rate on Balance Transfers and Purchases. Earn up to 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
Enjoy amenities for you and your business, like: complimentary airport club access, including American Airlines Admirals Club(R) lounges.
5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*. Up to 1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on everything else. No annual fee
Earn 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
Reports to 3 major credit bureaus monthly and acceptance at millions of locations worldwide, including website purchases and reservations.
- How to Become a Millionaire
- How to Get Out of Debt
- The Best Dollars I've Ever Spent
- How Our Estate Plan is Structured
- How We Paid Our Mortgage In Less than 10 Years
- Money Making Ideas
- How to Manage Your Asset Allocation with Multiple Accounts
- Consumption Smoothing - Save While the Saving's Good
- How to Save on Groceries
- How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
- Eleven Great Books About Money
- Dave Ramsey is Bad at Math
- Dish Network Customer Service SUCKS
- $8,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest?
- How to Claim the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience
- $15,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Ethanol Blended Gas = Lower Mileage?
- Termite Control: Sentricon vs. Termidor
- How Much Should You Pay a Babysitter?
- Federal Income Tax Rates Went Down but Your Federal Tax Withholding Increased. Here's Why...
- Would the "Fair Tax" Gut the Economy?
How to save money on insurance
- The Best Values in Colleges - 2012 Edition
- Five Myths About Renter's Insurance
- Own Your Investments, Rent Your Fun
- Citibank to Issue Credit Cards in China
- Heartstrings and Pursestrings
- Saving Money at the Grocery Store: Store Brand Pricing on the Rise
- Missing Tax Paperwork?
- Is Your Investment Allocation Right?
- Chase Freedom Experimenting With Quarterly Rewards Auto-Enrollment
- Income-Based Repayment Plans for Student Loans
February 16th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Good machines.
I still handle it the old fashioned way: I try to spend my coins even if I have to pay $5 in quarters. Most clerks need coins anyway.
And I roll up any remaining coins myself and bring them to the bank. I guess I just love counting money.
February 16th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
I generally don’t pay in cash so I have fewer coins than most. And if I do, I try to give the cashier exact change. Since I still have to hoard quarters for the laundry machines in my building and the parking meters when I go out, I don’t find Coinstar to be appealing.
I just looked at their website. The only thing that would make sense for me to get from their gift cards is Starbucks. And I’m not sure I’ve got enough in change to buy one latte there!
February 21st, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Hey, honestly you dont have to get a gift card or pay the coinstar fee. Local banks let you use these machines for free, notably Commerce Bank, which has had locations popping up all around me in the northeast. You just use it for free, absolutely no strings attached. You don’t even need to be an account holder.
Cas is a much better option than gift cards.
October 28th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Personally, I want to buy songs from iTunes. If I were to use coinstar, I would be able to get the certificate right away and be able to cash it in iTunes immediately. Coinstar is a good idea for anyone who hates loose change. Coinstar is a bad idea for anyone who is a real penny pitcher. The Amazon card is the best deals in my oppinion. You do not get the 10% discount, and you can get almost anything from Amazon.com
October 29th, 2006 at 11:43 am
I usually use paper when I buy something. I pocket the change and will use paper on my next purchase, even if I have some change in my pocket. I empty my pockets each night into 4 plastic containers.
When they get full, that’s my “mad” money. I once used frequent flier miles, loyalty hotel points and spare change to take my kids to California.
I know that doing so is losing interest, dividends and whatever gain investing could get me. But, I’m much more likely to spend this “mad” money and enjoy myself (I also invest heavily on my 401, brokerage and 529)
I used to roll my own and carry the rolls to my Citibank branch They didn’t and still don’t, have coin counters available for customers (one of the many minor reasons for me looking elsewhere – after 12 years).
Chevy Chase has a free, no obligation, coin counter. I’ve yet to use it, but I’ll be heading there soon.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I just had a coinstar machine undercount me by at least $6! It failed to count most of the dollar coins that I KNOW I put in.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:51 am
I don’t if there are any near you, but some Chevy Chase bank branches have coin counting machines that you can use without charge. You take the receipt from the machine up to the counter, and they give you cash.
July 3rd, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I counted out all of my change and was going to take it to the bank and my husband threw a fit, because they wanted us to roll the coins. So we went to a Coin Star machine. I know that I had an even $38.00 dollars and all that I was given was $33.80 and after they took their cut from that I received $30.79. That is a $4.20 difference, which makes their profit $7.21 and that is not 8.9 cents on the dollar! I guess most people don’t count or know what the amount they are putting in these machines and there for they do not know that they are getting screwed!!! Of course the address that they give is, http://www.coinstar.com and it doesn’t work so you can not complain. As for me I will let everyone that I know that these machines are a rip off!!!!!
January 1st, 2010 at 9:22 pm
have you ever thought that maybe you miscounted!! how good is your math?? I have been to 3 of them and they are very accurate!!!! I will let everyone know that they are very very accurate!!!!!!!!!! ba-bye
January 1st, 2010 at 9:27 pm
oh and yes there is a contact us in the tabs above in the website!! So I am wondering how good your reading is also…You were a little harsh about them so I have to be harsh with you even though I dont know you, just like you dont know them!!!
May 21st, 2010 at 6:23 am
These machines are notoriously inaccurate, meaning they fail to accurately count more than half the time. However, that failure is typically just a coin or two from a drop of 100. Over time, that’s huge, but for the occasional use it’s slight. You’re already paying close to 10-percent in fees, what’s another dime or two?
A friend had bought several thousand dollars worth of $1 coins from the US Mint using a credit card to get air miles (google it). He tried to use the coins to get no-fee gift cards and ended up losing a few bucks on each transaction. Needless to say, he now uses the bank.