For quite a while, I've wondered about the big machine in the entrance of my local Sainsburys. It looks pretty impressive, and is called Coinstar with a big slogan on it "Turn your coins into cash". This is the thing that puzzles me - my coins are cash; I regularly use them to buy things, and no one complains. I also regularly get coins given to me as 'change', and I don't have an issue with it. Should I be worried?
Coinstar want me to take the £10 (or whatever) of spare change that sits on my sidetable and put it in their machine. They'll count it for me, confirm that "yes, it's £10" and then give me a voucher for £9.21 - the other 79p was their charge for counting it for me - which I then have to take to the customer service desk to cash for ... coins!
So here are my options:
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Count the change myself and then spend it
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Put the change in a machine, which will then count it at a cost of 7.9%, then receive a voucher which I take to a desk to receive cash.
I know what I would do.