Our investigation exposes how difficult it is to turn coppers into notes — and it can even COST you
Sun reader Dre Smith, 26, scopes out the high street to find out the best way to convert her cash for a rainy day
PLANS to scrap 1p and 2p coins may have got you thinking about the coppers in your rainy day jar.
It got reader Dre Smith thinking – and she found it is not easy to turn the shrapnel into notes, or pay it into an account, as she first thought.
It can even COST money to do.The musician, from East London, started collecting coins three years ago but, with the possibility her coppers could soon be worthless, the 26-year-old tried to get them changed into notes.
Here, Sun Money finds out how she got on.
1. Metro Bank
NEW bank Metro is the only one to have free-to-use machines in every branch – and you don’t need to be a customer.
The Magic Money machines are aimed at kids but grown-ups can use them too.
They got top marks from Dre, who used one to turn £16.22 worth of coins into notes in 30 seconds.
If you are under 15 and guess your amount of coins correctly before popping them in, you get a prize.
Even though Dre was over 15, they let her guess – and she got a pencil case for getting close. The friendly member of staff guessed almost to the penny.
To use the machines, just pour in all your unsorted coins, wait for your printed receipt then take it to the counter to exchange for cash. It is similar to Coinstar – but without the fee.
DRE’S PROS: Best option by far – free, no need to pre-sort coins, takes large amounts, no need to be a customer.
DRE’S CONS: Just 55 branches, which are mostly in the south of England.
2. HSBC
BE warned – avoid the HSBC coin-counting machines if you are easily annoyed.
Dre dragged a big bag of her coppers to the Canary Wharf branch.
But after feeding in just £12.37 worth, it jammed, with another batch of coins fed in not accounted for.
She ended up having to carry most of the bag all the way home again.
Then she faced the ordeal of getting the bank to credit her with the coins that had been fed into the machine but not counted.
After a few days and many calls to the call centre, a deposit of £4.68 suddenly appeared in her account – which she assumes is the money from the machine.
DRE’S PROS: No need to sort your coins first – just call to find which branches have machines.
DRE’S CONS: The machines jam easily with large amounts of coins, and you need to be an HSBC customer as money goes direct to your account.
3. Other banks
MOST banks do not offer automatic counting machines like the type available at branches of Metro.
And even those that do, such as HSBC, might not have one available at your local branch.
But you can still take your coins into banks if you sort them out for yourself first.
It is best to ask for money bags at the bank counter first, then you can take them home and sort the change into the correct bags.
In each bag you can collect £1 in coppers, £5 in 5p or 10p coins and £10 in 20p or 50p coins.
The bank then weighs the bags to check the amount before paying it into your account.
Bank cashiers will not accept bags of unsorted change.
And many banks will only accept correctly sorted bags if you are one of their customers.
DRE’S PROS: No commission or fees.
DRE’S CONS: Need to sort, count and bag at home, need to be a bank customer.
4. Coinstar
THESE self-service machines are convenient because they do the counting for you and there are 1,900 dotted around the UK.
But – and it is a BIG but – they charge nearly 10p for every £1 you feed in.
The global firm’s machines are mostly found in supermarkets or shopping centres.
They convert your money into either a voucher for cash that you can exchange at the customer service counter, or a voucher for money off shopping.
Dre says that in America you can opt for a gift card from a big retailer like Amazon too – to avoid a fee.
But that isn’t offered in the UK. And be warned, while bank machines will return foreign coins mixed in, Coinstar won’t.
The Coinstar fee is 9.9 per cent.
DRE’S PROS: No need to sort out coins, and the machines can take large amounts – website says for amounts over £2,000 they can make special arrangements to help.
DRE’S CONS: They take a big cut.
5. Gadget
IF you cannot face sorting the jarful of coppers manually, are put off by Coinstar commission or live nowhere near a Metro, then consider a counting gadget to do it for you.
You can get a machine to help you sort and count at home but you’ll need to invest £60-plus for a decent one.
Some are as cheap as £20 but only take ten coins at a time and do not count them, so you will have to do it by hand.
If you regularly have a lot of coins to sort, the initial £60 outlay is probably worth it.
The ZZap CS10 Coin Sorter on Amazon is £59.99. It can do 144 coins a minute and works with both new and old pound coins – which you can still pay into your account.
It has markings on the tubes so you can see when you hit the required amount before you empty them into bank bags.
DRE’S PROS: No commission or fee, quicker than counting by hand.
DRE’S CONS: £60 investment, still need to bag and take to bank.
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6. Spend it
DON’T mind annoying shoppers by holding them up at the self-service tills?
Then stuff your coins into the machines to pay for your weekly groceries in a supermarket – or for your cosmetics at Boots.
Some machines have slots which would take forever, but others have conveyor belts or funnels that are faster.
You don’t get cash, but you need to buy food every week anyway, right?
You may get dirty looks from the people lined up behind you – as Dre did in Sainsbury’s in Whitechapel, East London. And the slots can get blocked.
Buying shopping costing £17.05 in mostly 1p and 2p pieces took almost six minutes just to slot the coins in.
You could try to pay for stuff at staffed tills but that may take even longer. And under the law, shops don’t have to take change above certain limits.
It might work best if you are just buying a banana, which costs about 15p.
DRE’S PROS: No need to sort coins first and no commission or fees.
DRE’S CONS: No cash. Must be spent on goods. Time-consuming and can be embarrassing.
Law of change
THERE is £50 in change, whether in pockets, penny jars, or down the back of the sofa, in the average home.
But you cannot necessarily just walk into a shop and spend it. Under the law, shops can refuse to accept payments with coins below £1 if you try to use too many.
For example, you cannot necessarily pay for goods worth more than 20p if you use just pennies or tuppences. It is £5 for 5p and 10p pieces and £10 for 20p and 50p coins. You can use more coins if the person you are paying is willing to accept them, but many shops do not want the hassle. And swapping metal for notes or a deposit into your bank account may not be as easy as it once was.
Cashiers at banks will not sort your spare change for you because it takes them too long.
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