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So I have read a lot on here about the various dumping strategies and think I have a good grasp on them. I have something of a unique situation, however, and I'd like some advice from some people with more expertise since I'm pretty new to this whole thing.

I go to school a long way from home, such that I don't get back hardly ever. I bank with a small credit union in my home town, meaning that I'm basically unbanked at school. If I were home, I'd have no problem dumping pennies at a local CU branch and picking up boxes at another branch. But not having a bank account at school means I have nowhere to deposit all the zincs I've sorted. At this point I only have about $10 worth of zincs to turn in, but they add up quick and I want to have a dump plan in place before I ramp things up. Being a last semester senior with an uncertain employment future (no idea about the location) I'd rather not open a new bank account right now. Any thoughts on how or where I can dump pennies (or other coins) without incurring huge Coinstar fees/annoying the crap out of cashiers? Any ideas are appreciated, just trying to avoid opening a bank account I'm going to have to close in 3 months.

Thanks!
-outlaw

My CUs all have some sort of agreement with other CUs so that I can still have access to my banking needs when I am away from home, something worth checking on. Maybe you can find one to dump at and just have it deposited in your account (hard to turn down a deposit).

Check the banks near your school and see if any offer a credit card with no annual fee, use the card for everyday purchases, pay your balance every month with zinc.

do you ever buy anything at amazon? no fee at coinstar,with gift certificate. same with a lot of food or stores. I dump coinstar for no fee certificates where I usually shop. you can keep adding to amazon balance and it never goes away.

If the quantities are small and you have a local store like a 7-11 where you are on good
terms with them (in that they'll trust your counting ^_-) you can ask if they'll buy your
home rolled pennies from you. Based on my experience working in one, a 7-11 goes
through about $25 to $40 a week in pennies.

Annother option is to just try local banks, sometimes if you go in with change and ask if you
can get it in bills a lot of them won't even think to ask if you have an account with them.

3rd option, even if you aren't staying put more than annother half year most banks will not
charge an account closing fee as long as you stay with them for at least 3 months (check
for details at each specific local bank) so it's really no big deal if you open a small savings
account but only end up keeping it 4 to 6 months before closing it out. Or if it's a bank with
branches both where you are and at "home" you may not need to close it out anyways since
the school account would be accessable at any of their branches.

Most banks allow you to open accounts with a minimum balance of 25-50 bucks. Might be a good investment to solve your problem.

Being a senior, you should be "of age" (21), right? Are there any casinos in the area. Go in with your bag if zincs and ask them to give you bills. Walk around for a few minutes and admire all the folks giving their money away to the casino industry and then walk out. Wash, rinse, repeat.

After you open that second account, you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. Then the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th account will just fall into place without a second thought.

Maybe you have a nearby coinstar that gives out gift cards for a store that sells beer. That would have solved my problem in college.

Thanks for all the ideas. Several of these are really easy for me to employ. I appreciate it

Most credit unions belong to a shared network. You can go to any other credit union and deposit them as if it was you own branch. Check with your local credit union to see. My credit union is part of a 12,000 shared branching network across the USA.

Outlaw I know it's not like this in all areas but in my area the local grocery store will let you use coinstar for free if you take gift cards to the grocery store. I know sometimes it's only for amazon or places that aren't as practical but figuring I spend a few hundred bucks on groceries every week or two that's a way to dump that amount on something I'd be buying anyways and take the load off the banks.

You spend a few hundred on groceries every week? What kind of college do you go to, a school for kings and oil tycoons?

Also, I did not know that coinstar has no-fee gift certs available. Are they all this way? How do I tell before I put my coins in?

SilverEye wrote:You spend a few hundred on groceries every week? What kind of college do you go to, a school for kings and oil tycoons?

Also, I did not know that coinstar has no-fee gift certs available. Are they all this way? How do I tell before I put my coins in?

Haha, no I don't. That was a suggestion for if I did buy groceries. As it turns out the Coinstar option is a good one for me but I would get gift cards for Amazon.

As far as I know all the Coinstars I've seen have this option. It's listed on their website so I assume it's pretty universal.

Not universal. Just click start or whatever on your local coinstar. It will give you your options before you put any coins in it. You don't even have to lug your coins inside to check it. There is one at our local grocery store and every time I go in, I stop by to check to see if the options have changed.

You can also go to http://www.coinstar.com and put in your zipcode. It will show the nearest locations and what fee-free options are available at each. The ones near me at Wal-Mart stores have less fee-free options than the Gerbes and Hy-Vee grocery chains. I use the Lowe's gift code fee-free some.

mutiger

I've read that you can get kroger or other grocery gift cards at coinstar, but I am yet to find a coinstar that actually has these giftcards. I would like to use coinstars as a secondary means to dump zinc. It would be perfect if they offered grocery gift cards because then I could use them for gas. In my research I did find out that you can get a lowes gift card and then go to lowes and buy a shell gift card with the lowes gift card. Although, this helps me very little because the nearest shell is about 50 miles away. Although this may be benifitial to some. Im still trying to figure out a way to covert these available giftcards to gas.. but i've yet to find an answer. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Thanks for the shell idea. Now only if coinstars weren't slow as molasses.

yeah they are terribly slow... usually takes me ~10 minutes to dump a $50 bag of zinc. But thats a downfall im willing to accept if i could covert zinc to fuel.

Coinstar for fuel = great idea. I may have to give that a try.

I see Starbucks is on the Coinstar site too. "Zincs for Drinks".

I had a Unique Dumping Situation the other day after four White Castle sliders. Sorry, couldn't resist.

I dumped 4 boxes of nickel, 1 box of dimes and one box of quarters today through a coin sorter at a bank I found today. It took less than 2 minutes to do everything and only 2 rejected coins. I was using the other sorter at a td bank which took much longer and needed to be hand fed continuously, but no more lol. All the pennies I have waiting for the Ryedale I was dreading the dumps, but now lol. It's on.

I'd just walk into local big bank and say "can I trade these for bills or quarters or dollar coins". They assume you are from a local business and no problems. I only deal with HSBC and BoA in the USA but have never had a problem buying or dumping coins at any US bank in small quantities.

You can also often get stores to accept coin - ask nicely.
you might also try applying the coin to your University Student account. They might look at you funny but just ask if they want the bill paid or not.

mishra142 wrote:I've read that you can get kroger or other grocery gift cards at coinstar, but I am yet to find a coinstar that actually has these giftcards. I would like to use coinstars as a secondary means to dump zinc. It would be perfect if they offered grocery gift cards because then I could use them for gas. In my research I did find out that you can get a lowes gift card and then go to lowes and buy a shell gift card with the lowes gift card. Although, this helps me very little because the nearest shell is about 50 miles away. Although this may be benifitial to some. Im still trying to figure out a way to covert these available giftcards to gas.. but i've yet to find an answer. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Bad news This sounded like such a great idea to me since i have a Coinstar that gives Lowe's cards, a Shell and a Lowe's all within a few minutes drive. i just called Lowe's, they won't allow you to purchase a gas card with a Lowe's gift card.

hmmm... I went to walmart last week and had a $25 walmart gift card. And I bought a $25 dollar red lobster gift card with the walmart gift card. I assumed lowes would do the same thing.From everything I've read gift cards are treated "like cash". Im going to experiment with this next week at my local lowes. I'll most likley get told no and get into an argument with the head cashier.... I'll report my findings.