plastic coin bags

[Scion]

Adrian put finger to keyboard:

Or possibly thinking that 8% is quite a small number. And it is, compared to the Wonga loan APR.

[polygonum]

The thing that got me about Coinstar was that they offer to send the money to a charity. And still charge almost exactly the same amount. Plus they make it non-viable for any but a few charities to actually get signed up with them at all.

[Julian Pegley]

Where can you get those plastic bags that the banks use for the various coins (1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p & 50p) ? Will the banks give non-commercial customers a supply of them ?

Jim Hawkins

[Andy Burns]

Actually on the odd ocasion when I've tasked my nephews to count a chunk of change for me, I gave them 10%

I always wondered about that, presumably the donation is made in their name, not yours, so is gives them corporation tax relief?

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Mike Barnes writes

They are.

HSBC branches are also happy to take bagged coins, weigh them, and pay them into my First Direct account.

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Scion writes

8.9%. It's worth paying to not to have to count coppers and 5p coins, but anything bigger I bag and take into a branch.

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , polygonum writes

How do you think they pay for the machines, the staff to service and empty them, and the rent payable to the store?

If you don't like them, don't use them.

[Tim+]

Since I found out the the supermarket self checkouts can accept large quantities of coins (and allow you to top up by notes/credit card if necessary), I've not found any need for those machines.

Tim

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 29 October 2013 09:27 Mike Tomlinson wrote in uk.d-i-y:

The store could cover those costs (and own the machine) to increase footfall which is an accepted marketing technique.

[Huge]

They *could*, but why should they?

[Martin Brown]

Erm. This is UK DIY! Why not make yourself a simple coin sorter?

It isn't exactly rocket science - a few holes or slots in a piece of wood and a simple track to roll the coins down. You can buy coin sorters that are Heath Robinson battery powered but it isn't worth it. I can do it almost as quickly with a heap of change on a table. YMMV

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 29 October 2013 09:56 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Which bit of "increase footfall" passed you by?

[Huge]

Supermarkets are not stupid. If they thought they would make more money by offering free coin counting, they would.

[Tim Watts]

On Tuesday 29 October 2013 10:03 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Or it just hasn't occurred to them yet.

These are the people who will have special offers selling below cost[1] on the basis that once in the door, the customer is likely to do a load of other shopping at the same time, leading to a net profit increase.

[1] I knew someone who worked for ASDA once. Apparantly, they make as much profit investing their cash float[2] as they do in "honest profit". [2] The float that occurs due to the customer paying on the spot, but the suppliers being on 3 mont, 6 month or longer settlement terms.

[Huge]

So? That's what corporate treasury departments are for.

[Scion]

polygonum put finger to keyboard:

The ones I've seen charge no commission at all if you opt to donate to charity.

[dennis]

Are you sure? Last time I looked you could donate to charity but coinstar still took their percentage.

[polygonum]

Which ones are those?

I found out about Coinstar because I noticed the charity option. Thought a small charity I like to help might be able to get its supporters to donate that way. The commission and the fact that the company was not exactly helpful about setting it up made it non-viable. So one that doesn't charge and might be willing to help in setting things up would be of interest.

[polygonum]

That is what I said. Coinstar charge almost exactly the same amount even if the recipient is a charity.

[Mathew Newton]

They are, although there are some oddities in the required process sometime s e.g. when buying foreign currency I (as a FirstDirect account holder) had to let them perform what appeared to be a rather convoluted process to do so as compared to a 'native' HSBC account holder.

Mathew